How to Price Your Menu with your Restaurant POS

If you own a restaurant or bar, than you know how challenging it can sometimes be to realistically price your food and beverages to guarantee a profit. No need to overwork yourself, let your your point-of-sale (POS) system help you make decisions about pricing.

Your Bepoz POS software can tell you how much you are selling of any menu item over a certain day/week/month. It also allows you to change your pricing with ease. Here are some ways you can use your POS data to help price your menu.

Find the Sweet Spot

Don’t just ask your chef what item sells the best, check your data stored conveniently in your POS. Consider raising the price by 3-5% for a few weeks to generate more profit. Keep track of your sales with your POS to see how the price change affects sales. If sales are unchanged, you can raise the price a bit higher. If sales have fallen, but not by enough that you are losing profit, you might have found the sweet spot. If sales decreased, you can always go back to the original pricing. Try this process on other items on your menu. The perfect price is the intersection of supply and demand. Bepoz’s software will give you the ability to find that intersection.

Figure Out Margins

Many restaurants shoot for the rule of thumb, 30-35 percent overall food costs. So if it costs you $2.50 for a chicken breast, bun, and condiments for a chicken sandwich, you will shoot for $7.50 or maybe $7.99 on the menu to give yourself some wiggle room. Use your POS to check your data: supplier costs, number of items sold in a certain period, labor, packaging, and other costs. What is your real profit?

What to Cook

Have you ever created a dish that you liked, but nobody else did? For example, you wanted to cook Cajun red beans and rice. You purchased all the ingredients, and then had to practically give it away or worse, throw it away. Use your POS system to help determine what your customers will most likely eat. Only buy what you know you can sell or “most likely” sell to your customers.

Determine Promotions

When you run promotions, keep track of your menu items sold. You may find out your customers like your desserts more than appetizers or vice versa. Run with what works and test your sale price points. Your POS software can give real-time feedback on the performance of your promotional campaigns.

In summary, the keys are to make sure you consider your data by utilizing your POS when setting your prices. You may have to do some testing to see what works, but you won’t be doing all the work, and in the end you’ll be maximizing profits.