Lightspeed Commerce Inc. (NYSE | TSX: LSPD) released new
hospitality industry data showing that both menu prices and
employee turnover are on the rise. The data, which is based on a
sample of thousands of restaurants powered by Lightspeed across
North America, echoes recent CPI findings that the cost of food
away from home is still rising, though the rate of inflation has
slowed.
Powering the world’s best businesses, Lightspeed is the unified
POS and payments platform for ambitious entrepreneurs to accelerate
growth, elevate their customer experience and become a go-to
destination in their space. Key findings from the Lightspeed
Restaurant data include:
- Employee turnover is on the rise: With a staggering 75.78% jump
when comparing this data from April-June 2022 to April-June 2023,
indicating the staffing shortage at restaurants isn’t easing.
While staffing in some industries is starting to improve,
restaurants still struggle to retain workers for a variety of
reasons, including wages and job satisfaction.
- Restaurant prices are still rising, but the rate has slowed:
Consistent with past quarters and industry trends, restaurants
continue to raise prices for menu items—but the rate of increase
has slowed since the first calendar quarter (Jan-March 2023).
Overall, we saw a 4.73% year-over-year increase in median item
price and a 6.96% year-over-year increase in median burger
price.
- Diners are going out more often: People are dining out more
frequently at both fine dining and fast casual restaurants, with
total transactions rising 3.60% year-over-year for fine dining and
3.53% for fast casual.
- Tipping is on the rise: Tips are up when consumers dine out,
with the highest tips occurring at bars and fine dining
restaurants. On the other hand, average takeout and delivery tips
dropped to around 8%, suggesting consumers might be pulling back on
tips outside of traditional service venues. Read more in
Lightspeed’s deep dive on tipping trends.
Jarred Drown of Terrace Bay Restaurant in Gladstone, MI,
acknowledges the need to raise pricing to keep up with both
inflation and staff shortages. “Both food prices and labor costs
have gone up substantially,” he explains. “The food costs you don't
control, that cost goes up. And then you have to adjust labor
costs, which you do control. Because when you can't find employees,
you have to make a decision: Am I going to run short staffed? Or am
I going to raise wages and make sure that we retain the best people
in the industry in our area? Being a more upscale place, we found
that you just have to be willing to raise your prices and your
customers will pay it.”
“We know the challenges bars and restaurants are facing,” notes
Peter Dougherty, General Manager of Hospitality at Lightspeed
Commerce. “Our mission at Lightspeed is to give them the tools,
insights and expert guidance they need to streamline operations and
work more efficiently. Technology like Lightspeed Restaurant helps
hospitality businesses increase speed of service and table turnover
while reducing time spent on manual tasks, so they have more time
to spend with guests—even when they’re short-staffed.”
Tools like Lightspeed’s Advanced Insights can also help bars and
restaurants navigate inflation and staffing shortages by
identifying their most profitable hours, servers and menu items so
they can optimize scheduling and menu planning. Beyond tracking
peak sales periods and staff performance, as Grant Macdonald of
Kotsu Ramen & Gyoza explains, “Lightspeed Restaurant gives us a
great analytics tool that on one axis tells us how many sales we've
had of a given item, and on the other axis says, how much of that
is driving repeat business… Those pieces of information are
incredibly valuable for us. Advanced Insights gives us all these
tools that allow us to dig down into our operation and get ideas,
get thoughts and insights that we might not have had
intuitively—but the data shows it to us.”
Lightspeed Restaurant is on average 40% faster than other
leading POS systems in North America.* Lightspeed powers the
world’s best restaurants, including: Daniel Boulud Group (NYC),
Atomic Hospitality Group (Chicago), Alinea Group (Chicago), Canlis
(Seattle), Big Mamma (Europe), Kei (Paris) and Maybe Sammy
(Sydney), and is now available in the United States, Canada, the
United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Germany, and Australia.
Dive into the transformative features of Lightspeed Restaurant
on our website, or to witness its powerful capabilities, see
www.lightspeedhq.com/pos/restaurant.
Methodology
Lightspeed analyzed internal data from thousands of restaurants
powered by Lightspeed across North America, comparing the period
from April-June 2023 against April-June 2022. The analysis reviewed
tipping data, check size and more across cohorts of bars, casual,
fine dining, upscale and fast casual hospitality businesses.
* Based on internal testing in August 2022 of industry peer
check management and other workflows. Lightspeed Restaurant POS
requires on average 40% fewer clicks for completing check
splitting, discounting and other basic POS workflows than certain
industry-leading POS systems in North America. Results outside such
internal testing could vary depending on location and other
factors.
About Lightspeed
Powering the businesses that are the backbone of the global
economy, Lightspeed’s one-stop commerce platform helps merchants
innovate to simplify, scale and provide exceptional customer
experiences. Our cloud commerce solution transforms and unifies
online and physical operations, multichannel sales, expansion to
new locations, global payments, financial solutions and connection
to supplier networks.
Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed
on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange (NYSE:
LSPD) (TSX: LSPD). With teams across North America, Europe and Asia
Pacific, the company serves retail, hospitality and golf businesses
in over 100 countries.
For more information, see www.lightspeedhq.com.Follow us on
social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and
Twitter.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release may
include forward-looking information and forward-looking statements
within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking
statements"). Forward-looking statements are statements that are
predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or
conditions and are identified by words such as "will", "expects",
"anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates" or
similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical
facts. Such statements are based on current expectations of
Lightspeed's management and inherently involve numerous risks and
uncertainties, known and unknown, including economic factors. A
number of risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual
results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements
contained in this news release, including, among other factors,
those risk factors identified in our most recent Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations, under "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual
Information Form, and in our other filings with the Canadian
securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, all of which are available under our profiles
on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Readers
are cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully when
making decisions with respect to Lightspeed's subordinate voting
shares and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this news
release are not guarantees of future performance and, while
forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that
Lightspeed considers reasonable, actual events and results could
differ materially from those expressed or implied by
forward-looking statements made by Lightspeed. Except as may be
expressly required by applicable law, Lightspeed does not undertake
any obligation to update publicly or revise any such
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
For further information: Media Contacts: Canada: Victoria Baker,
NKPR - victoriab@nkpr.net; USA: Jennifer Fugel, Newsmaker Group-
jfugel@newsmakergroup.com; Lightspeed Media Relations -
media@lightspeedhq.com; Investor Relations: Gus Papageorgiou,
Lightspeed Investor Relations -
investorrelations@lightspeedhq.com
- Revolutionized Dining Experience
Sara Basdeo
Lightspeed Commerce Inc.
6475376271
sara.basdeo@lightspeedhq.com
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