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Top 5 Restaurant Business Predictions for 2023

One of the most interesting things at the beginning of the year is to find out what to expect in the world of food in 2023. With the rapidly changing landscape in most of the industries – the food industry is not an exception for this as well! 
Restaurant owners and managers are constantly swirling around in this business for various burning matters and sometimes, it may be overwhelming to keep the pace of these changing trends. That is why The Cloud team has prepared a short summary of what is about to happen. So take out your popcorn, sit back and relax – we got this! 

Alternative Search

With the increased inflation rate and the energy crisis, more and more people are starting to search and explore for alternative products and services. That means that customers feel the need to explore boutique and new restaurant possibilities and not necessarily search for a cheaper alternative – but simply people tend to feel safer when they have more choices. So 2023 could be a rise of small and unknown restaurants and for the bigger food businesses – a possibility to invest in a new brand! 

Digitalization & Online Ordering

The whole world is going digital – restaurants are not an exception. After the pandemic basically everything went to the virtual world – even some festivals! Less and less restaurants have a physical menu – instead customers are scanning QR codes from the tables. And we’re not even going to talk about the food delivery platforms, like Uber Eats or Deliveroo – they probably became the most popular apps after Messenger or Instagram on the app stores. This means that now the restaurant growth managers not only have to think about expanding geographically but also – keep up with the virtual essence as well, starting from social media platforms and ending with food delivery platforms.  

Moreover, the restaurant and hostility industry introduced various self-service possibilities, which would alternate consumer’s dining experience to be even more effective. As an example, industry giant McDonalds is even planning in the near future to introduce a no-contact drive through, where only the plate number of a customer’s car is needed. Furthermore, virtual and ghost kitchens is becoming the next big thing in the digital restaurant era. 

Personalized Choices

With the ongoing globalization consumers start to expect more personalized choices from restaurants and the demand of tailored experiences is increasing. Customers are expecting more cuisines to emerge within the market the interest in different global kitchens is rising. Moreover understandable and clear menus is a must, where all the products are listed and meals marked whether they have gluten, meat or milk. With that some of the customers are asking to add or remove particular ingredients from their food. This is quite because of the changing lifestyle and food choices in between the population, which is an increasing numbers of vegetarians, vegans or people who are simply allergic to milk or gluten and so on.  

Communication

If we talk about restaurants, it seems that guests will be less and less willing to visit those places with an overly formal environment and service. Obviously, people feel better where they can relax, where the rule “less is more” works best. Even high-end restaurants are trending towards freer communication between guests, chefs and waiters. The Gen Z era is driving the culture into a more transparent communication style, where people tend to feel more free to express their emotions and opinions. That is why experts predict that the majority of user-generated content about food will move to the TikTok platform in 2023. TikTok’s video content will capture users’ attention and shape their likeability even more than Instagram and Facebook are doing now, whereas Instagram and Facebook will be left for lead generation campaigns. 

Sustainability

Sustainability these days is quite often associated not as a “good to have” business form, but more of a necessity and a social responsibility that each business has to have. Consumers are certainly aware of the problems of food waste or packaging, so people will increasingly prefer to choose those that respect sustainability and adhere to high ethical standards. Sustainability in businesses have been for some time a factor which determines the success of an establishment. As a fact the necessity of sustainable development can be shown in numbers and as early as 2010 the “Sustainable Restaurant Association” was founded in the United Kingdom, with only 50 members at the time. Today there are more than 7,000 of them.  

 
All in all, the landscape of the restaurant industry is shifting, along with marketing, customer expectations and new digitalization possibilities. Some time ago to operate a restaurant it was enough to have a manager and a couple of kitchen staff, however in these days, if wishing to stay competitive in this market, a single restaurant or hostility establishment may need more departments, starting from marketing and ending with point of sale people.