How To Use Ordering Data To Make Smarter Business Decisions
Understanding what customers order, when they order, and how often is an untapped goldmine of information for restaurant operators.
Using that data can help you answer questions like:
- Are we pricing our bestsellers too low or overpricing items customers aren’t buying?
- Which customers are coming back again and again, and what keeps them loyal?
- What do repeat orders say about our customer preferences?
Use Takeout to Drive Customer Loyalty
Takeout isn’t just a convenience—it’s a powerful tool for building lasting relationships with your diners. But keeping diners engaged and coming back can be a challenge. In this guide, you’ll learn how to optimize your takeout strategy to encourage repeat business, increase direct orders, and strengthen customer loyalty.
Without collecting data, finding the answers would come from gut instinct, firsthand observation, and a whole lot of guesswork. That’s not a solid foundation for making smart, scalable business decisions.
Restaurant data analysis eliminates the guesswork and helps you turn ordering information into actionable steps that will improve your restaurant’s performance. Businesses that use restaurant analytics can boost their profits by as much as 8%-10%, proving that data analysis explains what’s happening and also what’s possible.
In this article, you will learn:
- How to identify top-selling and underperforming menu items
- Ways to adjust pricing using real sales data
- How timing and frequency trends improve planning and customer experience
Let’s dig into what your restaurant data might already be trying to tell you.
What Restaurant Data Analysis Reveals About Ordering Behavior
Every time someone places an order, whether it’s online or in person, they’re generating a trail of information that tells a story about their preferences, habits, and expectations.
Ordering data includes more than just what gets sold.
It captures:
- Menu items ordered most often
- What time of day those orders come in
- How frequently people customize their dishes
- How trends shift by day, week, or season
Since your POS and online ordering system track every order, you can instantly access this information to help you make informed decisions.
For example, let’s say you serve two chicken sandwiches: one grilled, one fried.
Both use similar ingredients and cost roughly the same to make, but one consistently outsells the other by 3 to 1.
Digging into your restaurant data analytics could reveal that the fried version is often ordered as part of a combo, while the grilled one rarely gets sold with a drink or side menu item.
That difference in ordering behavior could influence not just your menu layout, but your pricing and promotion strategy as well.
You might decide to bundle the grilled chicken sandwich with a drink and side to boost its appeal or promote the fried one as a high-margin favorite.
The more you pay attention to all the data, the easier it is to spot trends, stop the guesswork, and start making data-driven decisions that have a real impact on your business.
Identifying Bestsellers and Underperformers
When looking at your sales data, the best place to start is with your top-performing menu items.
Which dishes are getting ordered the most?
Which ones are consistently driving revenue?
After identifying your bestsellers, don’t assume you have a clear picture of the situation. Just because something sells well doesn’t mean it’s profitable.
You need to weigh its popularity against things like food costs and prep time. Even if it’s flying off the line, it might not be worth having it on the menu, or you may need to adjust the recipe to make it more affordable.
Dishes with good numbers that sell well form the backbone of your restaurant business because they contribute heavily to repeat business, reduce food waste, and give you a core to build promotions or bundles around.
On the flip side, underperformers can quietly eat into your bottom line. If a dish rarely gets ordered and takes extra prep or special ingredients, it might be time to cut it, or rethink how it’s positioned on the menu.
The only way to know the difference is to closely evaluate your restaurant analytics to know how often something is ordered and what it actually earns.
Adjusting Menu Pricing Based on Ordering Patterns
Pricing isn’t just about covering food costs; it’s about understanding what customers are willing to pay. And the best clues for that come straight from your restaurant data.
For example, let’s say you notice one dish continues to sell steadily, even after a small price increase. That’s a sign of low price sensitivity, meaning customers see the value and will likely keep ordering, even if the price goes up again.
Meanwhile, if another menu item gets a small price bump but the number of orders drops dramatically, you’ll know you’ve hit a pricing ceiling.
This data analysis gives you valuable insight that protects both your margins and your customer satisfaction.
Restaurant data can also uncover opportunities for menu bundling.
If you consistently see the same two or three menu items ordered together, that’s a natural combo you can price as a package deal, creating perceived value for customers and increasing your average check size.
But there’s always a risk with price adjustments, which is why you start small and experiment, like A/B testing prices for a few weeks at a time, then collecting data from your point of sale system to see if there were any meaningful changes for future sales.
Improving Operations With Timing and Volume Restaurant Data
Timing and volume restaurant data dramatically improve how you schedule staff, prep for the day, and manage your flow of service.
For example, if your restaurant data analytics shows that Tuesdays have a steady lunch rush but Saturdays tend to get hit with early dinner orders, that’s incredibly useful for staffing.
You can stagger shifts, reduce unnecessary downtime, and eliminate overstaffing when it’s slow, all of which help manage labor costs more efficiently.
Timing data also highlights bottlenecks. If wait times consistently grow around 6:45 PM on Fridays, there’s likely a kitchen or capacity issue.
Is your kitchen batch-cooking enough of your most popular dishes to sell them more quickly?
Is the restaurant getting sat all at once, slamming the kitchen?
These are the kinds of operational tweaks that restaurant analytics help uncover and can even play a role in inventory management.
For example, if you run a popular brunch program, you’re going to sell a lot of eggs, but knowing the exact average number you sell every weekend protects you from both over- and under-ordering.
Running out halfway through brunch would be a disaster, but by monitoring your restaurant analytics, you always know how much food to prep without overdoing it.
Use your POS data or reporting tools to drill into these patterns. Look at metrics like hourly order counts, day-of-week sales, and seasonal trends. Then put that information to work in how you staff, stock, and prep.
Using Ordering Data to Give Customers a Better Experience
When customers feel like your restaurant just gets them, they’re more likely to become repeat customers.
If you’re trying to understand what’s resonating, you can dig into your restaurant data to discover what it is that’s connecting with your customers.
Patterns in guest data can tell you who’s coming back, what they’re ordering, and when.
If the same customer always places an online lunch order on Wednesdays, or if certain menu combinations show up again and again, that’s not random; it’s insight.
You can use it to personalize offers, refine your rewards program, or even restructure your digital menu.
This level of detail doesn’t just improve customer experience; it helps build customer retention.
Recognizing repeat behavior lets you reward loyal guests in a way that feels thoughtful, not generic. You might offer a targeted promotion on a customer’s go-to dish or send a reminder if they haven’t ordered in a while.
Even subtle adjustments can make a difference.
If your restaurant analytics show a predictable surge in orders between 11:30 and 1:00, make sure your team is set up for speed.
That might mean prepping popular lunch items earlier or simplifying your digital checkout flow during that window.
Personalization doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be informed by the right restaurant data. When you understand what your guests consistently respond to, you can meet their needs without them ever having to ask.
By connecting ordering data to customer preferences, you’re not just reacting; you’re anticipating. And in the restaurant industry, that’s a serious advantage.
Don’t Just Look Once—Make Data Review a Habit
One of the biggest mistakes operators make with restaurant data analytics is treating it like it’s a one-time project instead of a regular part of operations.
The most successful restaurant owners make reviewing data part of their regular routine because trends shift, customer habits change, and yesterday’s top performer might not hold up next month.
You don’t need to spend hours buried in spreadsheets. Most POS systems or reporting tools make understanding your restaurant data easy.
For example, this is ChowNow’s Advanced Reporting dashboard, which consolidates your online ordering data so it’s simple to view and comprehend—no spreadsheets.
A simple rhythm of weekly, biweekly, or even monthly reviews can be enough to stay sharp.
Don’t try to look at all the data at once. Focus on just a few key metrics at a time, like:
- Menu item performance
- Order time
- Average order volume
When you try to look at all that data at once, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The goal isn’t to obsess over every data point; it’s to track what’s changing so you can act on it.
That could mean adjusting your staffing schedule, promoting a rising dish, or reevaluating your marketing efforts if engagement dips.
The more consistent you are, the easier it gets.
Patterns emerge.
Decisions get easier.
And your team starts thinking in terms of evidence, not gut instincts.
Better Insights Lead to Better Business
After collecting and understanding what you’re restaurant data is telling you, the only way to make it useful is to take action.
It could mean making adjustments to your business that might feel uncomfortable at first, but trust the data and you’ll see a difference in your bottom line.
Contact ChowNow to learn how Advanced Reporting can help you track online ordering trends, spot top-performing dishes, and make smarter decisions based on real customer behavior.
Use Takeout to Drive Customer Loyalty
Takeout isn’t just a convenience—it’s a powerful tool for building lasting relationships with your diners. But keeping diners engaged and coming back can be a challenge. In this guide, you’ll learn how to optimize your takeout strategy to encourage repeat business, increase direct orders, and strengthen customer loyalty.
