Does Food Photography Actually Drive Orders?
Absolutely, professional food photos drive orders!
From printed menus to delivery platforms to social media feeds, clear data shows that great looking photos of your food lift item sales, increase order volume, and add to customer trust.
In my area of Southeast Michigan, a lot of local restaurants serve really great food, but rely on flat photos taken in dim dining areas with harsh flashes. How are your customers ever going to know that your sirloin steak is top notch if it doesn't look great on their phones?
That's a bit anecdotal, so let's look at what the data says.
A photo on your physical menu can improve sales.
Gregg Rapp - a menu engineering pioneer - did some research on the topic and he found that using a photograph of an item on your menu can increase sales by up to 30% when it is the only photograph on the page.
Toast referenced this and adds that you really shouldn't use everyday cell phone shots, on menus or social media. "Better to use no photos than bad photos" they say and I 100% agree.
So take that best seller or great dish with your best margins and get a professional photo to add to your menu. Then, track your sales for that item and see how it moves from there.
Online delivery platforms get a boost too.
Inside your restaurant, you likely have a nice atmosphere going; nice music, friendly hosts, and the smell of fantastic food wafting from the kitchen.
The data agrees, photos are extremely important to the sales on these apps:
DoorDash found that listings featuring photos generate up to 44% more monthly sales than without!
Making the switch from fully text menus to photos have given restaurants increases in their conversion rates by about 25% on average, says Grubhub.
Uber Eats says that adding photos and descriptions to at least 70% of menu items earned an average of $330 more in sales every week, compared to restaurants that don't.
And remember, these platforms WANT you to succeed because they make money when you make money. They're not just sharing statistics to get restaurants to participate. They know that if restaurants don't see results, they'll abandon the platform. Their bottom line depends on your menu being successful. That makes their data hard to ignore.
The social media experience is also important!
For the longest time, word of mouth, physical print (phone books, billboards, and newspapers, remember them?), and the odd television commercial were the standard for finding new places to eat out. As we all know, diners are seeing new places on Instagram, TikTok, and Google Maps, among other online platforms.
Even if they don't find you there, potential customers are checking out your feed to see if you fit the vibe they're looking for. In fact, 30% of millennial diners actively avoid restaurants that have a weak, unappealing, or neglected Instagram presence, according to a no-longer-published infographic from Fundera (see it on the Wayback Machine).
Further, MGH research found that 58% of TikTok users have visited a restaurant after seeing it on TikTok. While TikTok is obviously a video-first platform, it only further highlights the role that social media has on our dining decisions.
Snapping a photo of a real order going onto the floor with your cell phone isn't making the statement you think it is. There is a time for the casual "real-life moment" photo, but when you're trying to convey how life-changing your chicken and waffles are, it really pays to go the extra mile.
Let's do some math.
If those stats aren't convincing enough, let's look a little further on how a photography session for your food is a revenue generator and not a luxury expense.
Let's say your Tavern-style eatery is generating an average of $1,500 a week through digital ordering. About $6,000 monthly.
If you update your top-selling menu items with professional hero shots and see a (conservative) increase of 20% (which is below DoorDash's reported 44%) in delivery, that small lift generates an extra $1,200 every month!
That's $14,400 a year in additional sales.
A full collection of outstanding food photography doesn't stop there. It serves you across all your marketing channels.
Embedded in your digital ordering system.
Uploaded in your DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub portals.
Printed on table tents, seasonal inserts, and cocktail menus.
Published to Google Business Profile updates and search listings.
Shared across weekly social posts, stories, and local ads.
A single day-shoot creates an entire library of images that works continuously for you, wherever customers browse your menu. The data is really clear: you need delicious-looking photos of your food.
Ready to do something about it?
I would love to help you craft a collection of irresistible food images that you can use to get more attention to your spot and start generating more sales.
Explore a sample of my food photography work, or reach out today to get your session scheduled.
