Restaurants: Are you ready for the Mother’s Day delivery rush?

Did you know that Mother’s Day is one of the most popular holidays for food delivery – more than the Super Bowl? In 2023, it was the third busiest day for DoorDash (after Christmas and New Year’s Day) and second busiest for GrubHub (following New Year’s Day.)

Whether it’s because many restaurants are booked up, or families prefer a quieter and more intimate setting, celebrating mom on Mother’s Day with a favorite restaurant meal is more likely to be an experience enjoyed at home. The National Restaurant Association says 43 percent of Americans plan to enjoy a restaurant meal with Mom this year, with 34 percent planning to dine out and 12 percent expecting to order takeout or delivery.

With Mother’s Day coming up soon, restaurants of all types and sizes should be ready for a surge in delivery orders. Here are some tips to prepare and things to watch out for:

• Ensure Adequate Staffing: Mother’s Day is already a bustling day for dining, and deliveries could add strain to kitchen staff. Ensure you have sufficient hands-on deck to manage the workload effectively.
• Encourage Advance Orders: Utilize outbound marketing in the week leading up to Mother’s Day to prompt loyal guests to place advance orders. This will help gauge volume and timing more accurately.
• Streamline Delivery Operations: Promptness is key in delivery services, but quality cannot be compromised. Establish a separate area for drivers, if not already in place, to expedite pickups without compromising food quality.
• Manage Increased Traffic: With delivery orders operating in a separate channel, tracking overall business volume becomes challenging. Anticipate additional administrative work to manage and process this influx of data efficiently.
• Address Losses and Refunds: Delivery orders often come with a higher cancellation rate and increased instances of missing items and refunds. Post-Mother’s Day, ensure thorough reconciliation with delivery partners to minimize losses and maximize revenue recapture.

Embracing Delivery

Delivery is transforming the restaurant business in profound ways. According to the Delaget Operational Index, third party delivery was up 29.8 percent in 2023 over 2022, and the trend continues to grow.

Restaurants are finally seeing delivery as a core part of their business, which requires both a shift in mindset – from seeing delivery as something that has to be tolerated to something that should be embraced – and an evolution of process. With higher dollar value per order but also higher losses, finding ways to reconcile data and reclaim losses is one of the biggest challenges facing operators today (and a great reason to check out Delaget Delivery.)

These challenges and opportunities will be on full display come Mother’s Day. It’s an honor to be chosen as the meal of choice when families celebrate their moms. We know you’ll be up to the job!