Cafés and bars: 6 ways to raise your average spend from breakfast to aperitivo

In a café each customer spends little, but there are many customers. That's why even a small increase in the average spend, a few dozen cents, makes a visible difference at the end of the month.

It isn't about raising prices, but about letting customers find the right thing at the right moment. Here are six practical ways.

1. Show the right menu at the right time

At 8:00 in the morning nobody needs to see the cocktail list, and at 19:00 the list of pastries is just in the way. A menu that changes by itself through the day puts what the customer is looking for front and centre, and makes them notice things they wouldn't have asked for.

With a digital menu the same QR code on the table shows breakfast, lunch or aperitivo according to the time, without reprinting anything.

2. Create fixed-price combinations

"Cappuccino and croissant £2.80" sells more than a cappuccino at 1.60 and a croissant at 1.40 written on two different lines. The combination makes choosing simpler and nudges someone who would only have had a coffee to add something.

• Breakfast: coffee plus pastry, fresh juice plus toastie.
• Lunch: dish of the day, water and coffee.
• Aperitivo: two spritzes and a small sharing board.

3. Put the product of the day at the top

The croissant fresh from the oven, the home-made cake, the seasonal juice: if they're at the bottom of the list nobody sees them. Highlight them at the top of the menu, with a line of description. Changing them every day from your phone takes a few seconds.

4. Use photos only where they count

A menu with fifty photos is hard to read. Three or four photos of the products you most want to sell are enough: the aperitivo board, the cake of the day, the house cocktail. They must be real photos, in good light, even taken on a phone next to a window.

5. Speak the tourists' language

If your café is in the town centre, near a station or in a tourist area, some of your customers don't read Italian. A tourist who doesn't understand the menu orders the simplest thing, often a coffee. If the menu opens in their language, they see the rest too.

Leave the names of traditional products in Italian, such as spritz, cornetto or tramezzino, and add a short explanation: they're part of the experience.

6. Look at what customers look at

A digital menu tells you which products are opened most. If a cocktail is looked at a lot but ordered little, perhaps the price or the description isn't convincing. If nobody opens a product, perhaps it should go. This is information a paper menu can't give you.

7. Fill the dead hours of the afternoon

Between 15:00 and 17:00 many cafés are almost empty, but staff and lights cost the same. A few ideas to give those hours a reason to come in:

• Afternoon tea break: coffee or tea with a slice of the cake of the day at a fixed price, from 15:00 to 17:00 only.
• People working on laptops: a table, a socket and a connection, with a "second coffee half price" offer.
• Students and parents after school: juice and a pastry, or a wrapped ice cream, at a single price.

With a timed menu, the afternoon offer appears only in that slot: it doesn't confuse people who come in the morning.

8. The aperitivo that sells itself

Aperitivo is the moment with the highest spend of the day. A few touches make the difference:

• A short list: five or six well-made cocktails sell more than a list of twenty.
• The board on show: a photo of the real board, at the top of the aperitivo section, and a version for two at a clear price.
• The 17:30 announcement: in your WhatsApp status and stories, with a photo of the counter and the cocktail of the week.

🍹 From tonight the cocktail of the week is the Garibaldi with Sicilian oranges. Aperitivo from 18:00, sharing board for two at £12. Shall we keep you a table?

Examples of combinations

Moment	Combination	Guide price
Breakfast	Cappuccino and croissant	£2.80
Breakfast	Fresh juice and toastie	£7.50
Lunch	Dish of the day, water and coffee	£11.00
Afternoon	Coffee and a slice of cake	£4.00
Aperitivo	Two spritzes and a small board	£16.00

The prices are only a guide: work them out on your own costs, but always keep the combination slightly better value than the products bought separately.

Mistakes to avoid

• One long menu for the whole day: customers struggle to find what they're looking for.
• Prices not updated: a coffee that costs more than what's written creates mistrust.
• Too many photos: they slow the menu down and confuse.
• A damaged QR code: check every week that the stickers on the tables are readable.

In practice, from tomorrow

1. Divide the menu into three moments of the day.
2. Create two combinations for breakfast and one for aperitivo.
3. Every morning, choose a product of the day to highlight.
4. After a month, compare the average spend with the month before.

How to do it with NovaMenu

With NovaMenu the menu changes by itself according to the time, is translated into four languages and shows you which products are looked at most. Find out more on the page for cafés and bars.