Of over 8,000 consumer respondents in a recent LSA survey, more than half had made a restaurant-related purchasing decision within the past 12 months. Extrapolating further, that equates to over 129 million U.S. purchasers in 2015 who made about 25 purchase decisions each.

When making a decision on a restaurant, 74% said they used a search engine to find a local restaurant in the past seven days, which was by far the most utilized source. 50% said they looked on company websites, 37% said they heard about it from a friend of family member and 34% said they read online ratings and reviews.

Once a consumer goes through the research phase, action follows quickly for the restaurant category. Within a week of searching for a restaurant, 71% said that they contacted or visited a restaurant and 94% made a purchase or said they were “likely to do so.”

DATA SOURCE