Reducing restaurant forecasting error rates can save millions each year

Consumers have an affinity for fast food. In fact, the global fast food market was valued at $648 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $930 billion by 2027. This projected growth excites any restaurateur, but capturing that demand in a competitive space isn’t always simple.  While having the best burger or friendliest staff might build initial hype, it takes strategic planning to compete in the food space and capitalize on the industry’s value.

Restaurant forecasting is a strategic operation for businesses and is essential to stay ahead in the market. Continuous operational improvements will define leaders and losers in the competitive fast food space in the upcoming years. To improve restaurant forecasting, many rely on their data teams to reduce error rates, but data scientists need more than historical data and seasonality trends to build robust demand forecasting models.

How accurate is your restaurant forecast?

The key to profitability in a fast food operation comes down to forecasting accuracy. Under forecasting might mean a restaurant isn’t ready for a surge of orders while over forecasting yields waste challenges and inefficiencies. Prediction precision allows stores to ensure sufficient materials and staff so customers are happy and operations are efficient. 

A key challenge to overcome is volatility. Most restaurants rely on historical data and simple moving averages to predict demand for stores, yet the restaurant industry is highly exposed to a variety of external factors that impact demand. Understanding the external factors that impact foot traffic and customer orders can mitigate the risk of volatility and allow management to create operational efficiencies and save costs.

Save millions each year by improving forecasts

PredictHQ released a QSR insight report that defines the volatility factors essential for businesses to understand and offers the steps to reducing forecasting errors.

This report provides the essential details you need to get started. After reading, you’ll be able to: 

• Identify the highest volatility drivers in the restaurant industry. 

• Understand how to forecast demand with greater accuracy.

• Uncover the four steps to take to reduce restaurant forecasting errors. 

One of PredictHQ’s QSR customers found that these four steps can reduce forecasting error rates by 20% and save millions. An increased flexible and dynamic approach to restaurant forecasting enables quick service businesses to optimize operations and ensure consistent, high quality customer experiences.....