May 5 2022
Article

Smart Tech Solutions for Food and Beverage Businesses

Written by Orderly Marketing

Food and beverage businesses have a lot on their plate. Not only do you need to worry about the quality of products, but also about reducing food waste, boosting morale, and improving profits. Luckily, there are several smart tech solutions that can help with all of these things! In this blog post, we will discuss some of the best tech solutions for food and beverage businesses.

What data do you have?

Typically, food and beverage businesses have many disparate sources of information. This can include information on customers, suppliers, logistics, and more. This data is often spread across different departments within the organisation, making it difficult to get a holistic view of the business.

A data management platform can help to collect and centralise all this data, giving you a single source of truth for your business.

The Orderly scorecard produces data based on whatever you can feed into it, and we are always extending the options for businesses. Here are some of the best-loved integrations we have.

Smarter use of CCTV and in-store cameras

What do you use your CCTV for? If you are only using it retrospectively after an incident or as a safety precaution – make more of it. Did you know you can maximise the use of your CCTV and camera data with Orderly to see live presence, queue length, drive-thru analytics, facilities usage as well as a way to track loss/theft? In a study, it was revealed that the top two reasons for shrinkage were employee theft and shoplifting. A live view of your store can help to deter both things from happening.

A great use for well-placed CCTV is to use it to automate stock counts in your inventory system.

In practice, this means that managers previously tied to stores or relying on verbal feedback or outdated spreadsheets to track performance are now free. Check-in anytime, from any location and see how things really are.

Use live POS data to improve profits and reduce waste

One of the most important things for any business is to improve profits. Smart tech can help you to do this in several ways. Live point of sale data can help you to see what items are selling well and which ones are not. This information can then be used to make decisions on things like pricing, promotions, and product placement. Additionally, data can be used to track food waste. By understanding what items are being wasted the most, you can make changes to your menu or operations to reduce waste and improve profits.

A Toast study into POS data use showed that restaurants who used data saw a 19% increase in profits. That’s a significant amount of money that can be made simply by tracking and understanding your data!

Temperature sensors

Did you know that temperature sensors can be used to track food waste? Sensors can be placed in fridges, freezers, and storage areas to track the temperature of food. This data can then be used to identify patterns in food waste. For example, if you notice that certain items are being wasted more when they are stored at a certain temperature, you can make changes to your operations to prevent this from happening.

Sensors can also be used to monitor the temperature of food during transportation. This data can be used to ensure that food is being kept at the proper temperature, preventing spoilage and waste.

One study on temperature sensors showed that they were able to reduce food waste by 40%. In addition to reducing food waste, sensors can also be used to improve safety. By monitoring the temperature of food, you can ensure that it is being cooked and stored at the proper temperature, preventing foodborne illness.

Boost morale with recognition

Employee morale is an important part of any business. Happy employees are more productive and more likely to stick around. One way to boost morale is with recognition. But recognition has to be based on behaviour that’s been seen. Technology can help!

Orderly’s live feed means that you can see what’s happening in your store in real-time. This means that you can quickly identify and recognize employees who are going above and beyond. A simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way to boosting morale.

Track and understand the complex with presence sensors

Presence sensors can be used to track employee productivity, customer traffic, and more. By understanding how employees and customers are using your space, you can make changes to improve efficiency and profitability.

For example, if you can tell that customer traffic is low in certain areas of the store, you can make changes to the layout or product placement to encourage customers to visit those areas. A recent study using presence sensors showed that the average person spends less than 60 seconds in the dairy aisle. (Source:  PWC) If you have a presence sensor and you see that customers are only spending a few seconds in a certain area, you can make changes to improve the customer experience or move products to a more visible location.

Additionally, presence sensors can be used to monitor employee productivity. By understanding how employees are using their time, you can make any changes you need.

So, there you have it! These are just a few of the ways that smart tech can be used to improve food and beverage businesses. Orderly can be configured to integrate with many of these technologies. Speak to us today about how to get started.