How to grow café business sales

It’s no secret that running a profitable café can be a difficult business. But by focusing on the right things and making some small tweaks, you can set your café up for success and have customers coming back; day in, day out.

Growing sales for a cafe business isn't always an easy undertaking but there are areas to investigate and leavers to pull that can help in driving your success.

1. What’s your café famous for?

Bagels, chilli scramble, house-made pastries? Make sure that item is exceptional, priced correctly and presented beautifully. Your number one menu item needs to generate the most profit for you.

Review your product sales quarterly. For the lower-selling items, consider removing them or replacing them with faster sellers – this is better for controlling costs and labour efficiency.

2. Bring in new revenue streams

Allpress partners have seen retail coffee sales grow by 34% since 2022, so tap into those coffee-for-home occasions. Set up a well-designed retail section with different blends, single origins and useful brewing tools to enhance the home brewing experience. You can even add in merch or homewares.

Make sure items have a clearly displayed price tag, and where possible, ensure your retail offering is visible at the counter or before the customer gets to the POS.

3. Education and training is key

Are your staff confident in encouraging a sale? Asking questions like “How do you drink your coffee at home?” or “Do you have coffee for the weekend?” all help to start a conversation about retail purchases. Tune into special or gifting occasions like upcoming holidays or long weekends.

With well-trained staff who know your offering and understand purchase behaviour, you can quickly make the most of purchasing moments at the counter to increase sales.

Check out our retail-for-home range to see what you could offer too.

4. Ensure your coffee quality is bang on

94% of customers choose their café based on the skill of the barista*, so investing in coffee training for your team and setting high standards with recipes and latte art, are all crucial to attracting customers and keeping them coming back.

We can work to get your staff up-skilled with our training programmes. Learn more about our Allpress training offering and book your staff in for an introductory or refresher class.

*LEK Orion Report 2021

5. Embrace emerging coffee trends

Coffee is a staple in cafés but the way we drink it is always evolving. Single origins prepared as filter, cold brew and signature drinks attract a new, younger audience and can increase efficiency when prepared properly.

Allpress partners who offer single origin options are growing at three times the rate of those with a single espresso blend offering. These rotating coffees help to create news, excitement and indulgence from your customers, which means you can demand a higher price point.

6. Serve more people, faster

Efficiency means getting through those lines quicker, increasing your volume per hour and keeping customers coming back. Make sure you have the right amount of staff in peak times and consider optimising your workflow with automation. Electronic grinders, auto-tamps and automated milk machines are all great ways to speed up your service.

Allpress wholesale partners have experienced up to 20% growth after introducing an automatic milk dispenser and speeding up their service.

7. Increase your average spend

“Do you want fries with that?” Having additional extras on your menu like halloumi or avocado can increase your dollars per dish while giving customers the ability to add something different to a signature dish. Creating promotions on coffee and pastries or other on-the-go items can tempt customers into purchasing more out of convenience. Mondays and Fridays may be quieter with working from home, so find ways to attract customers on those days – for example, bottomless batch brew.

In Allpress cafés, Tues-Thurs spending is greater than the other three days of the week, so we ensure we have delicious specials at premium price points and run a Filter Friday to attract customers on our slower days.

8. Effective marketing

A good marketing plan can help you reach new customers, advertise your business, and create a unique community. Social media is a simple and powerful tool to connect with your customers, keeping them up to date with what's happening at your business, and allowing you and your business' personality to shine.

These are just a few areas for consideration when looking to grow sales for your cafe business. For more information, or if your interested in how a partnership with Allpress can help push your profitability further, reach out to our team today.