Offering promotions in Britain’s out-of-home market (OOH) amounts to an extra three billion visits a year, according to NPD Group data. 

In the year to December 2017, more than one in four (28%) foodservice visits involved some form of promotion or deal, accounting for £14.5bn of spend.

However, visits involving a deal or promotion grew more slowly than non-deal visits throughout 2016 and most of 2017, with shoppers feeling uninspired by promotions and finding good value for money without using a deal.

The NPD Group found that, although the majority of foodservice outlets offered a basic meal deal, price reduction or voucher, nothing really stood out in the market.

Despite this recent discount fatigue, recent NPD data shows that deals and promotions remain a key part of the foodservice industry and will increase in importance as economic factors continue to put pressure on consumers’ wallets.

In the year to December 2017, deal and promotion visits began to recover, growing by +2.8% while non-deal visits declined by -0.4%.

Cyril Lavenant, NPD Group’s head of foodservice UK, said: “Consumers love saving money and a deal or promotion is perfect for this. To really stand out from the crowd, deals and promotions need to be really impactful. Offering a free product (with nothing expected in return from the customer) will be a welcome surprise.

”Equally, offering a substantial and worthwhile reduced price for a limited time only is a great way to drive footfall. It’s also a great tactic for creating a buzz with a good chance that news of the promotion will spread via word of mouth.”