Meal combos: 9 ideas to boost your profits

Offering meal combos is a great way to increase your restaurant's sales and profitability.

From the classic “burger + fries + soda” to the “family combo”, there are plenty of options you can adapt to your business model and add to your menu.

In this article, understand the benefits of using this strategy, check out meal combo ideas, and learn what to do to achieve excellent sales results. Read on!

Why create meal combos?

Meal combos are a classic sales strategy that can be used in different types of restaurants to increase sales and profitability. The idea is simple: put together a bundle of items and sell it at a promotional price.

With that, beyond having attractive offers and helping customers choose, the restaurant can also increase profitability and optimize inventory management, among other benefits. Learn more below!

Increase in average ticket

By grouping items into a combo, you encourage your customers to spend a little more than they would if they bought the items separately, increasing your ticket médio. O segredo é criar ofertas atrativas, que sejam ao mesmo tempo vantajosas e convenientes. 

Easier decision-making

Customers are often in a hurry or undecided, unsure how to put their meal together.

Meal combos simplify decision-making, making the purchase process faster. That's very important for keeping service flowing, especially during peak hours.

Inventory control and waste reduction

Well-planned combos also help balance demand across different menu items, preventing supplies from sitting in inventory too long and passing their expiration date. This optimizes your controle de estoque e reduces losses. 

Greater profitability

Meal combos also make it possible to increase your restaurant's profitability. Menu engineering can help design combos that pair popular and profitable items, raising the profit on each sale.

Marketing and promotion

Combos are also an excellent opportunity for marketing campaigns. They can be used to promote new products, test seasonal or themed items, and even encourage customer loyalty through rewards programs and special offers.

Leia também: Restaurant Promotions: The Complete Guide to Boosting Profits

Now that you know the main benefits of offering combos at your restaurant, check out a complete step-by-step guide and ideas to add to your menu!

Step by step: How to build attractive, profitable combos

To get good sales results with your meal combos, you need to think strategically. The offers must be attractive to customers and profitable for the business. Below is a step-by-step guide to building the ideal combos for your business.

1 – Know your target audience

Knowing your audience is essential to building attractive combos. To do that, we recommend that you

• Conduct market research to understand your customers' consumption preferences.
• Analyze your sales results to identify patterns.
• Collect feedback regularly to learn how your customers rate your menu and what could be improved.

2 – Select strategic items

Identify your menu's best-selling items and use them as the basis for your combos. From there, create strategic combinations — you can add, for example:

• Items with high profitability to maximize your profits
• Low-performing items to optimize inventory
• new items you'd like to test on your menu

3 – Create convenient combinations

Beyond being strategic for your business, combos need to be attractive to customers.

So analyze the information from your market research and your customers' consumption behavior to design your combos. A few tips:

• Always think about convenience, creating complete meals with a main dish + side + drink;
• Consider creating combos for different diets: vegetarian, gluten-free, low carb, and others;
• Assess whether it makes sense to create larger combos for couples, groups, and families;
• Take different occasions into account: combos for lunch, dinner, happy hour.

4 – Set competitive prices

To price meal combos, the basic principle is: the combo price must be cheaper than buying all the items separately. But to protect your Profit margin, you need to calculate the cost of supplies and production.

And finally, look at the prices your competitors charge and settle on an amount that matches your product's perceived value.

5 – Build a clear, attractive offer

The way you present combos to your customers makes all the difference in sales.

Above all, you need to make sure they know they're saving money. If the offer is confusing, they may hesitate and end up choosing other options that aren't as profitable for your business.

So make the prices of individual items clear so they can compare, and highlight the combo's benefit on your menu. For example: “Two for the price of one” is a clear, eye-catching offer that leaves no doubt the combo is a good deal.

9 meal combo ideas to increase your profits

Below, check out some meal combo ideas to inspire you and create your own!

Complete meal

This is the traditional single-serve combo, with a main dish, side, and drink. For example:

• Burger, fries, and soda
• Burrito, nachos, and soda
• Chicken sandwich, salad, and fresh juice

Couple

The couple's combo is ideal for two people. Include two portions of each item or larger portions to share, for example:

• Two burgers, two fries, two cans of soda
• Two burgers, large fries, 600ml soda

You can also allow combo customization, with different burger flavors and sizes, for example.

Family

The family combo serves 3-4 people, with large portions to share and options suitable for kids.

So you can think in terms of a variety of flavors and sizes. For example: 2 large burgers, 1 small burger, an order of onion rings, and an order of fries, with a 2L soda.

Kids

Kids' combos should include options suited to children's tastes and smaller portions. For example: 1 mini burger, smiley fries, and a juice box. Adding a free toy can be an extra draw that helps build customer loyalty.

Grupos

Group combos are perfect for gatherings and events. You can bet on variety (including different sandwich options) or on quantity (the same item for 5-10 people).

You can also include platters of giant sides to make the combo even more attractive.

Buy one, get two

This can be a very attractive combo promotion, highly effective if your goal is to clear inventory of an item that's close to expiring, for example.

The offer can be two combos for the price of one, or just one free extra item, for example: “buy a burger with fries and get another burger free.”

Free drink or dessert

When customers buy a sandwich + side combo, the drink or dessert is free. This is a type of combo with a clear benefit that can encourage customers to consume more and raise your average ticket.

Happy Hour

If you run happy hours, it can make sense to create a special combo for the occasion. A few ideas:

• 2 draft beers + appetizer + 2 sandwiches
• Bucket of long necks + large order of fries + 4 mini burgers

Tasting

The tasting combo is a good idea if you want to attract new customers. In it, you include smaller portions of different items from your menu so the customer can try each one.

Customizable

Build a customizable combo so your customer can choose the items they prefer. Break the options into categories to make it easier. For example:

• Burger: beef, chicken, or chickpea
• Side: fries, onion rings, or nuggets
• Drink: Soda, juice, or water

Increase your sales with EPOC

Now that you know how to build attractive and profitable combos, it's time to get ready to welcome customers and sell a lot!

To do that, having an efficient restaurant management system is essential. EPOC is a complete platform with POS, Multi-store ERP, Analytics, Self-Service, Digital Menu, KDS, payments and much more!

With our solutions you can deliver fast service, run an efficient operation and simplify the management of your business.

talk to our specialists and find out how we can help your restaurant grow.