Increasing Profit Margins With Minimal Investment Using A Virtual Restaurant Model

In this article, you’ll learn how adopting a virtual restaurant model can be a smart solution for restaurateurs looking to increase profit margins with minimal upfront investing.

You’ll learn:

Let’s dive in.

What Is The Virtual Restaurant Model

The virtual restaurant model (VR) is a forward-thinking, technology-driven approach to the restaurant industry, focusing on omnichannel dining experiences without a physical storefront.

This model leverages existing kitchen facilities to create and serve a diverse range of culinary offerings, primarily through online ordering platforms.

It’s designed to maximize kitchen efficiency, reduce operational costs, and tap into the growing market of digital-first customers, offering restaurant operators a modern way to expand their business and reach a broader audience with minimal additional investment.

Starting a virtual restaurant model from scratch would be time-consuming, expensive, and nearly impossible while operating a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Before launching, you’d need to complete:

This is why operators choosing to invest in a virtual restaurant nearly always partner with experienced platforms like Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC)—leveraging our expertise and resources to maximize success.

VDC does all the heavy lifting for you by:

If the concept of a virtual restaurant is new to you, it can sound unconventional—essentially two restaurants running out of one kitchen, but once you look at the nuts and bolts of it, you’ll see it’s actually quite easy and a brilliant way to increase your overall profit margins.

Let’s take a closer look.

How A Virtual Restaurant Can Integrate With Your Restaurant

Step one to improving your profit margins is to leverage what you already have.

Working with the VDC team, you’ll find a turnkey VR brand that utilizes your current kitchen infrastructure.

Adopting a VR brand similar to your restaurant’s current offerings allows for minimal upfront investment and streamlined operations—it also ensures you keep the same suppliers, minimizing costs and headaches.

Once you’ve locked in a VR brand that’s a great fit, this is how it’ll unfold:

  1. Set up online orders and delivery: We set you up with Olo to take online orders and delivery. VDC helps you coordinate with Olo if you don’t have an existing relationship.

  2. Set up suppliers: The VR you pick should use your existing supplier, but in case they don’t have everything you need, VDC will help find difficult-to-source products.

  3. Train staff: While delivery and supplies are arranged, VDC will provide you with an interactive, multilingual training platform to take management and staff step-by-step through menu prep, execution, and packaging. You’ll also get quick guides to be placed on the line for kitchen workers.

  4. Marketing and branding: VDC provides marketing options tailored to your wants and needs. Utilizing the tools on the delivery platform as well as social media and organic marketing.

  5. Receive tools: All orders will pass through Olo and come to your kitchen via a tablet or POS.

  6. Support: VDC has critically acclaimed customer support to help you every step of the way. We provide tablet troubleshooting, and all phone calls that would normally go to the restaurant are diverted to the VDC Guest Services Team, which manages all customer/driver concerns so you can focus on making orders for your VR and existing restaurant.

Now that we fully grasp how a VR will work in a restaurant, let’s look at how it can increase your restaurant’s profit margins.

5 Ways A Virtual Restaurant Can Increase Your Restaurant Profit Margins

What makes a VR so profitable is its simplicity—you sign up, train your staff, and sell the food—a one-stop shop to add a new lucrative concept to your store.

Every step of the way is thought out and handled, meaning any issues you run into, you can reach out to VDC support, and they’ll guide you through the situation.

Here are 5 ways the virtual restaurant model can lead to increased profitability:

  1. Low Initial Investment

    • Zero Upfront Fees: Only the cost of packaging and your normal food and operational costs.
    • Minimal Overhead Costs: Virtual restaurants eliminate the need for a physical storefront, significantly reducing overhead costs like rent, decor, and dining staff salaries.
    • Utilization of Existing Infrastructure: By operating out of an existing kitchen, you can leverage your current resources without requiring substantial additional investments.

  2. Expanded Market Reach

    • Tap Into Existing Audience: VDC virtual restaurants have a built-in audience to reach thousands of customers without starting from the ground up.
    • Increased Order Volume: With a focus on delivery and takeout, virtual models can handle a higher volume of orders, especially during peak dining hours when dine-in spaces are limited.

  3. Easily Add More Than One Concept

    • Mitigate Risk: If one concept faces challenges, it’s less likely to impact the overall business significantly, as other concepts can continue to generate revenue.
    • Multiply revenue streams: If one concept is underperforming, others can take the lead, ensuring a steady revenue stream.
    • Diversification of Offerings: By adding more than one concept, a restaurant can cater to a wider range of customer preferences and dietary needs.

  4. Dynamic Pricing Opportunities

    • Flexible Pricing Strategy: Virtual restaurants offer the flexibility to adjust menu prices based on demand, delivery costs, and competitive analysis, optimizing for profitability.

  5. Scalability

    • Rapid Expansion Potential: The virtual model allows for quick scaling, either by adding new cuisines under different virtual brands or expanding to new locations with minimal additional investment.
    • Adaptability to Market Trends: The agility of the virtual model enables quick adaptation to evolving market trends and customer preferences, keeping your offerings fresh and in demand.

Challenges And Considerations

There are no unique challenges to operating a VR that you don’t already experience running your own brink-and-mortar restaurant—in fact, a VR is significantly easier.

Challenges like:

Each of these traditional challenges are thought out and managed by Virtual Dining Concepts, so you can plug and play a VR concept with minimum upfront investment.

We wanted to include a challenges section to highlight one major contributing factor to how much money you can make using the VR model.

Quality control.

Stores with a higher quality product consistently see higher sales—it creates repeat customers, builds a strong reputation, and helps the VR and your profit margins grow.

Conclusion

If you’re contemplating your next step to combat shrinking profit margins, a virtual restaurant could be a game changer.

With minimal upfront costs and the entire business strategy laid out before you commit, this isn’t about survival but a real chance to see your business grow beyond the limits of what you previously thought possible.

Reach out right now to learn how you can add $500-$4,000 a week to your current sales.

The VDC team will work with you to find the perfect virtual restaurant concept to fit your current kitchen infrastructure.

Don’t wait.

Get started today.