Increase café sales from inside your café or snack bar

Increase café sales: only two levers

A day's revenue is the number of receipts multiplied by the average ticket. The average ticket is easy to work out: the day's sales divided by the number of till receipts.

Example: 3,600 MAD of sales over 240 receipts gives an average ticket of 15 MAD. If the average ticket rises to 16.50 MAD with the same number of customers, the day makes 3,960 MAD, which is 360 MAD more without a single extra customer.

Write both numbers down every evening in a notebook or a spreadsheet. Without them you cannot tell whether an idea worked. Our page on getting customers from Google Maps, reviews and WhatsApp covers the first lever; this guide covers the second, plus the time lost at peak hours.

Breakfast deals and lunch menus

A set menu sells several items in one decision. The customer does not weigh three prices, they pick a number. It is the safest way to lift the average ticket in the morning and at lunch.

Breakfast example: black coffee 10 MAD, msemen 5 MAD, orange juice 12 MAD, so 27 MAD separately. Offered as a deal at 24 MAD, the customer feels they save 3 MAD, and you sell a juice to someone who would have bought a coffee alone.

Lunch example: sandwich 25 MAD, fries 7 MAD, drink 8 MAD, so 40 MAD separately, offered at 35 MAD. Before setting the price, compare the margin in dirhams, not in percent: if a coffee alone leaves you 8 MAD and the deal leaves 16 MAD after ingredient costs (example), the deal wins even with the discount.

• Two to four deals are enough: breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack
• A short name and a number: "Deal 1", "Chicken Menu"
• A visible but small discount, around 10% in these examples
• Items that are ready or quick, so the counter does not slow down

Suggest one extra at the counter, with one sentence

The person at the till sees every customer. One short question, always the same, earns more than a poster. The key is to suggest a specific item, not "anything else?".

Example: out of 240 receipts, if 1 customer in 10 accepts an 8 MAD extra, that is 24 extras, or 192 MAD a day and about 5,700 MAD over 30 days. The average ticket goes from 15 MAD to 15.80 MAD.

• Morning, with a coffee: "A msemen or a croissant with that?"
• Lunch, with a sandwich: "Shall I add a cold drink?"
• Afternoon, with mint tea: "A pastry with it?"
• Change the sentence if it has not worked after two weeks, and tell the team which one is being tested

Fill quiet hours without discounting busy ones

Look at your receipts hour by hour for one week. In many cafés, mornings and lunch are full and mid-afternoon is calm. That is the slot to target, not the hours when you already turn people away.

Example: 60 receipts an hour at 8 am, 15 receipts an hour between 3 pm and 6 pm. An afternoon deal, mint tea and two pastries for 15 MAD, valid only from 3 pm to 6 pm, gives people a reason to come then. A discount at every hour just cuts your morning margin without filling anything.

Other afternoon ideas: a drink of the season, a family-size takeaway for school pick-up time, a quiet corner for students who order more than one drink. Print the hours in large letters on the offer.

Serve faster at peak hours

At 8 am or 1 pm, revenue is capped by the speed of the counter. A customer who sees a long line walks away, and that receipt is lost. Example: 10 customers leaving one morning at 15 MAD each is 150 MAD lost, every day it happens.

Saving one minute per order at those hours is often worth more than a new promotion. Our guide to cutting the wait at the counter goes further; here are the basics.

• A shorter menu at peak hours: slow items wait for the afternoon
• Prep done before opening: bread sliced, juice squeezed in batches, fillings ready
• Separate paying from pick-up: pay at the till, collect further along, keep the line moving
• Call orders by number rather than by first name, to avoid mix-ups and shouting

A short, readable menu board

The board above the counter sells for you. If it is too long, the customer hesitates, the line slows, and they end up ordering what they always order.

A customer should be able to read it from the line in a few seconds.

• Deals at the top, in large type, with their price
• Five to seven lines per category, no more
• Clear prices, no "from"
• In French and Arabic, with the same prices
• One or two photos of the items you want to push, not the whole menu in pictures
• Drop items that sell less than once a day: they take space and stock

Measure what works

Change one thing at a time and keep it for at least two weeks. Compare with the same weekdays before the change: a Saturday with a Saturday, not with a Tuesday.

Each evening, write down sales, number of receipts, average ticket and, if your till shows it, the number of deals sold. After two weeks, keep what lifted the average ticket or the number of receipts, and drop the rest. Count waste too: a deal that makes you throw food away every night is not a winner.

Where Stampylo can help, and where it cannot

Stampylo does not calculate your revenue or your average ticket: it is not connected to your till. It does not do online menus or online ordering either. Your sales figures stay those of your till and your notebook.

It can help with two points in this guide. At peak hours: the customer pays, scans the counter QR code and gets an order number; when you tap "Ready", their phone rings (on iPhone only while the page stays open), and an optional TV shows the numbers. For repeat visits: a digital stamp loyalty card on the phone, and a dashboard that counts visits and returning customers. The price is MAD 149 per month, with a 14 free trial and no card needed.

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