“Our main objective was to better understand our demographic, so Moneris provided us with customizable data and reporting options that showed us who our customers are and where they are coming from in proximity to our restaurant locations.”
Derek Smith, Head of Business Intelligence at the Warehouse Group
The Warehouse Group: https://www.warehousegroup.ca/
Line of business :
• Restaurant
Products used :
• Moneris data services – Consumer Location Data enhanced with
demographic insights
• The Warehouse Group is a collection of eclectic dive bars known for offering wallet-friendly, quality food and drink options
• Through efficient execution and data-driven purchasing behaviour, The Warehouse Group has managed to keep their food menu prices far below the industry average – most items are available for under $10
• The Warehouse Group opened its first location in Vancouver’s entertainment district in 2001, with 20 locations now spread out between British Columbia to Quebec, and one location in Seattle, WA.
• The company is using Moneris Consumer Location Data
Why Moneris?
The Warehouse Group® turned to Moneris® as their data services provider in early 2022. Derek Smith, Head of business Intelligence at the Warehouse Group, attributed this decision to Moneris’ long-standing reputation as an industry leader in the restaurant business for processing transactions. “I’ve heard of Moneris for forever. I don’t really know too many payment processing companies in the restaurant space at the multi-unit level. They’ve done really well for so long, so there’s not a better partner for us to be able to work with on this side,” said Smith. Before using Moneris’ data solutions, the restaurant was flush with data on the transaction side, such as the type of sales made and the kind of food a customer ordered. But the team identified significant gaps: Who were their customers? Where were they coming from? Is there a significant connection between transaction and demographic data that could help drive business?
“When we first engaged Moneris, the biggest item for us was being able to put a face to the transaction and understand basic location and demographic information of our customers,” said Smith.
Smith also noted that over the last three years due to the pandemic, many restaurants, including their own, faced some of the most difficult financial and labour setbacks. Working with Moneris was incredibly valuable to the Warehouse team. They gained a lot of insights on how to develop their business which, in comparison to other data service providers, would have been far more costly.
“Restaurants are unique in the way that there are so many transactions from so many people, and restaurants are made and operated in many different ways. You really need to have data experts, like Moneris, to be able to extract valuable information from each transaction that will help make plans go forward. So that was our initial objective to engage Moneris’ data services team,” said Smith
What did the data reveal?
Smith and his team utilized external data processing and visualization platforms to break down Moneris’ data further and compared the data across their various restaurant locations. They set up filters, looking at the month the data came in, and studied correlations between factors like average check amounts, cardholder location, and customer proximity to restaurant locations. These findings could help confirm theories and inform decisions, such as how each restaurant could build out their own individual marketing strategies, or how their business might stand out against their competitors in a certain category.
For example, Smith and his team used Moneris data to confirm a hypothesis that some store’s sales shifted during the pandemic to a much more localized group of customers. This data will help Smith, the marketing team and the operations team create more effective promotional campaigns as they will have a much better idea of their customer’s demographic profiles.
Looking Forward
“The Warehouse Group is starting to become more mature in our business approach in so far as using data to help us make some fundamental decisions – from menu design to marketing tactics. With this new and valuable source of information available to us, we look forward to continue working with Moneris’ data services team as we look to grow and develop our business,” said Smith.
With so many projects on the go, Smith is excited about the prospect of utilizing data from Moneris to help inform the development of future strategies from a sales, marketing and labour standpoint. They hope to expand in more markets across Canada and, potentially, the United States. The team also hopes to leverage insights from their data to continue studying sales, demographic, and consumer spending trends in specific restaurant locations across the country.
