Restaurants focus on average order value as traffic declines

More than 60 percent of restaurant operators reported traffic declines in 2025, according to the National Restaurant Association's 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry report. Forty percent of consumers said they are cutting back on how often they dine out, and 69 percent of those reducing visits cited price increases as the main reason, per YouGov's 2025 US Dining Out Report.

Forty-two percent of operators were not profitable in 2025, and food costs have risen 35 percent since the pandemic. Running discounts to drive traffic has become harder under these conditions. A 2026 McKinsey analysis found that higher-income diners were the least likely to reduce restaurant spending, while lower- and middle-income consumers pulled back sharply.

Younger generations showed greater willingness to spend on dining out.

DoorDash research shows that 60 percent of consumers are likely to add impulse buys when ordering online. Research from Revenue Management Solutions and the University of South Florida indicates that the online menu browsing phase offers the best window to influence order size.

DoorDash launched Average Ticket Size Targeting, which lets restaurant advertisers reach customers based on their historical spending behavior. In early tests, campaigns aimed at high average ticket size customers produced more than a 35 percent increase in average ticket size and nearly 4x incremental return on ad spend compared to untargeted campaigns.