“Meal Kits” a new way for restaurants to generate income

If restaurant operators are looking for ways to increase sales, especially during a time when storefront sales have not returned to generating good income as before, “Home Delivery Meal Kits” It is another interesting market segment that can create opportunities to increase sales for businesses.

“Home Delivery Meal Kits” Another option for foodies In an era where people’s lifestyles seem to have changed and become unfamiliar, eating is still a necessity in life. And when going out to eat may still be a concern, ordering ready-to-eat food for delivery is easy, but buying ingredients to cook yourself is even more complicated.

This creates a new option for people who want to cook their own food easily and still get the same taste as the menu of their favorite restaurant. That is “Meal Kits”, a set of ingredients for making your own meals at home.

“ Meal Kits” Another opportunity to increase sales for restaurants in the New Normal era

 With the city lifestyle that is full of rush, there is rarely an opportunity to go to the fresh market to buy ingredients to cook and eat at home. But many people may be familiar with “ Meal Kits”. It's good to be safe because nowadays in the Fresh Mart section of supermarkets, you can see various types of food ingredients being prepared in sets ready for you to take home and cook, including ingredients, sauces, and seasonings. Even if you have no cooking skills, you can still make fresh and delicious dishes yourself. Or even in some markets there are “ Meal Kits”. For example, a papaya salad set with papaya strips and all the ingredients ready to be pounded in a mortar is delicious.

But for restaurants, you will almost always see “ Meal Kits”. Very few, even though if you look at it from the sales opportunity perspective, restaurants can easily create this product. Because they are ready in terms of both recipes and customer base, they just need to change from preparing food to be cooked and served in the restaurant to preparing a set of ingredients for the restaurant's menu for customers to buy or order to cook at home, increasing the opportunity to create sales and expand the customer base. From the customer's perspective, it is considered a fun thing to be able to cook a menu from their favorite restaurant by themselves to eat with their family.

Which customer groups are suitable for? “ Meal Kits”

In America, there is a start-up business that is specifically marketing “Meal Kits” called Blue Apron After its launch in 2012, in just three years, in 2015, Blue Apron sold over 2 million “Meal Kits” to customers nationwide, generating over $20 million in revenue per month. As a result, in 2017, Blue Apron went public and has continued to operate its “Meal Kit” business. Blue Apron's target customers are modern urban people who are starting to pay more attention to what they eat and are interested in cooking simple, just-right meals at home, without having to buy a lot of ingredients at a time to cook just one serving. Blue Apron has therefore created “Meal Kits” that contain the right amount of ingredients for each serving, leaving no leftover ingredients to rot. In our country, restaurants can follow Blue Apron’s lead and create sets based on the number of people, such as sets for 1-2 people per serving. The customer base is no different: urbanites, people living in condos, dormitories, or the restaurant’s customer base who are unable to come and eat at the restaurant often can offer “Meal Kits” for people to order and cook at home.

Take the case of Blue Apron's marketing as an example. Blue Apron charges a membership fee, and customers can choose the size of the meal they want to serve and how many sets per week. The menu changes every week. In Thailand, we can do the same with Blue Apron. It's like tying the food to customers, and they can choose which menus they want each week and how many people they want. Or if this method is too complicated, just do the basics, which is sell through the restaurant's online channels and various delivery platforms. You can choose the restaurant's best-selling menus to make "Meal Kits."

The important thing is to not forget to tell how to do it.

Even though it is a ready-to-cook ingredient set that has everything prepared in the right amount, if the cooking method is not provided, the taste and appearance may not be as expected. Therefore, the cooking method should be provided step by step to ensure that the menu is as close to eating at the restaurant as possible. Although “Meal Kits” may not be a large market segment that generates the main income, there are quite a few customers who like to cook for themselves, which can generate additional income for the restaurant through “Meal Kits” products. Just imagine how awesome it would be if we, as customers, could cook the signature menu of our favorite restaurant and eat it at home. It also makes customers feel involved with the brand. Photo credit: : The Local by Oam Thong Thai Cuisine, Thung Kaen Isan Food, and Blue Apron website Click to read other articles. You can get it here.