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Aldelo Express is a point-of-sale (POS) software designed specifically for restaurants. It provides restaurant owners with an array of features to manage their business, such as menu management, table service, order management, and inventory management. One of the features offered by Aldelo Express is a complete gift card program available through the Masa+ Digital Payments solution. In addition to being available to Aldelo merchants at zero additional cost, in this blog post we will discuss what a Masa+ Gift Card program offers a restaurant.

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​There are many reasons why restaurants should purchase a point of sale system (POS). One is that a reliable point of sale solution will actually help a restaurant increase their sales and bottom line profits by effectively controlling the three “P’s” of a business: People, Payments, and Products. Systems like Aldelo Express POS help restaurant owners increase sales by stopping theft, enforcing proper pricing for each menu item, and encouraging customers to return to the business with integrated Masa+ Gift Card and Loyalty programs.

​Here are the top 5 ways Aldelo Express POS can increase sales for your restaurant:

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Restaurants have a lot of competition in the market. Increasing gift card sales can be an excellent way to serve existing customers and attract new customers. Gift cards can help restaurants generate revenue in advance, interest-free, and create loyal customers who keep coming back. Here are some key ways that gift cards will increase revenue for your restaurant.
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1. Promote Gift Cards In-Store and Online

One of the easiest ways to increase gift card sales is to promote them in-store and online:

• Have gift card signage prominently displayed at the point-of-sale
• Make sure that physical gift cards are visible and easily accessible to customers
• Promote gift cards on your website and social media channels

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Restaurants that enable physical and/or digital Masa+ Gift Card programs instantly offer flexible, easy-to-purchase, and easy-to-use gift card solutions that can be used at multiple store locations, increasing customer satisfaction and guaranteeing additional revenue for the business. As a native integration to the Aldelo Express POS platform, restaurants that use Masa+ enjoy a seamlessly integrated gift card solution available at ZERO additional cost with Aldelo Pay or approved third-party merchant services.

​Here are 3 reasons to immediately implement Masa+ Multi-Store Gift Cards:

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​The end of the year brings increased business and excitement as restaurant owners and staff work hard to serve an influx of customers and prepare for the coming year. For business owners, reflecting on the past year and writing down specific and measurable goals for their business makes them more likely to succeed in the coming year.

Aldelo is committed to helping merchants succeed. Unlike some point-of-sale software vendors whose direct contact ends after the system is installed, Aldelo supports restaurant owners throughout their initial year of use and beyond. Aldelo does this to ensure that merchants utilize the Aldelo Express native POS solutions, modules, and features that help their business thrive and grow. Plus, Aldelo merchants receive unlimited software updates and feature releases year-round, ensuring they are always operating with the latest-version POS software.

​Here are 5 considerations for restaurant owners as they prepare for the coming year:

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By implementing Masa+ multi-store Gift Cards, restaurant owners enable customers to conveniently purchase, redeem, and recharge physical and digital gift cards, keeping the business top of mind during the holidays and throughout the year. With no swipe fees, processing fees, or costs for the Masa+ eGift Card solution, restaurants using Masa+ eGift Cards instantly increase sales revenue for single and multi-store operations.

The holidays are all about giving and gift card purchases allow customers to share their favorite restaurants and bars with loved ones and friends. When received as a gift, customers that place orders with gift cards almost always spend more than the card’s value. When used alongside Aldelo Express Self-Service Kiosks and Masa+ Online Ordering, restaurant owners enable faster and easier gift card-based payments in any dining environment.

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Thanksgiving Day is one of the most popular U.S. holidays. Each year on the fourth Thursday of November, millions of Americans travel to share a meal with their family and friends. In the days surrounding Thanksgiving Day, many customers turn to their favorite local restaurants for convenient and complimentary food and drink items that save them time – and spare them additional kitchen clean-up. As a result, restaurants can gain additional customers by promoting their restaurant’s online ordering, takeout, and delivery services this November.

Aldelo Express POS is a E2E cloud-based restaurant technology platform that supports both in-store and off-premises restaurant services. Using iPad and Android-based point-of-sale hardware, merchants choose from a variety of merchant-facing and customer-facing ordering and digital payment solutions that work together to run a complete restaurant operation. This includes several native cloud POS modules and features such as:

• Delivery Module, including Order Dispatching, Driver Tracking, and Digital Mapping
• QR Code-Based Masa+ Online Ordering and Digital Payments
• Native Inventory and Recipe Module
• “Matrix” Menu Module for Creating Hundreds if Menu Items in Minutes
• Advanced Pricing Module for Easy Digital Menu Management
• Third-Party Integration Solutions
• And More

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November is most commonly associated with Thanksgiving. More Americans travel to be with friends and family on Thanksgiving Day than they do for Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or any other popular holiday. As a result, many restaurants promote their business through Thanksgiving-themed dinner specials, food and drink bundles, desserts, and gift card campaigns.

Here are 3 additional ways to market your restaurant this November:

Día de Los Muertos (or Day of the Dead) - November 1-2

From ofrenda (offering) altars and sugar skulls to bright marigolds and colorful papel picado (perforated paper), Dí​a de Los Muertos is a great way for local restaurant owners to engage their communities this November with festive promotions. Restaurants can add some limited-time menu items and even put their own twist on easy-to-make items, such as tostadas, margaritas, and quesadillas, to commemorate this widely-celebrated holiday.

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When first introduced, gift cards were distributed and owned by major credit card companies. Eventually, developers in the point-of-sale industry began offering gift cards as an integrated POS solution to enable business owners greater control maintaining gift card programs, campaigns, and protecting gift card cash infusions exclusively for their store(s). Today, gift cards are a billion-dollar industry that generate a massive amount of revenue for restaurant owners each year.

Aldelo was one of the first point-of-sale developers in the industry to introduce an integrated digital gift card solution into its cloud-based Aldelo Express POS platform. For restaurant owners, this meant eliminating costly per-swipe and related fees owed to their credit card processor.

​There are many third-party open-loop (open market) gift card solutions available in the market with varying business models and associated consumer rewards. Participating in these gift card programs provide restaurants with some additional exposure but carry added costs and offer limited control. Restaurant owners have learned that by having a native POS closed-loop (specific to a restaurant or restaurant group) gift card solution they gain complete control over an important revenue stream for the business.

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Restaurants not utilizing gift card programs are missing out on additional revenue. Gift cards have the ability to generate hundreds if not thousands of dollars of additional sales each year that acts as another revenue stream that helps restaurants sustain the business during slower periods.

Masa+ is a full-featured online ordering and digital payments platform that includes:

• Multi-Store QR Code-Based eGift Cards
• Text-Based eGift Card Sharing
• QR Code-Based Digital Menus
• Secure Personal Digital Wallets
• Loyalty, Rewards, and Coupon Programs
• And more

Here are the top 5 benefits of the Masa+ eGift Card Program:

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The month of October is famous for Fall Harvest Festivals, pumpkin patch trips, the Major League Baseball Post-Season Playoffs, and Halloween. Each one of these October activities provides restaurant owners an opportunity to encourage new and existing customers to visit their restaurant by incentivizing menu purchases via gift card, loyalty, and rewards-based promotions.

Here are a few ways restaurants can engage their customers this October:

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​Largely ignored in the US for years, QR codes are proving daily how much of a productive and trusted asset they are to business owners in today’s unpredictable market climate. As restaurant owners continually adjust to the contactless and digital market, utilizing QR code-based access to native and third-party online ordering and digital payment integrations help staff and customers increase operational efficiency, reduce order errors, and improve overall customer service levels and satisfaction.
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With eight out of ten people carrying a smartphone camera in their pockets, unique QR codes enable restaurants to put ordering and payment capabilities into the hands of their customers, including:

• Paperless menus
• Place online orders
• Scan-and-pay at the POS
• Web-based digital payments
• Leave cashless tips
• Receive paperless receipts
• Gain loyalty points
• Trigger curbside pick-up
• Digital restaurant storefronts
• And more!

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Aldelo has always been, first and foremost, a restaurant point-of-sale software developer. Whether it’s responding to merchant feedback to enhance existing POS applications, or introducing new native solutions such as the Aldelo Express Inventory Module, Aldelo’s full-time team of software developers is committed to providing restaurant owners and referral partners with “complete access to leading restaurant technologies.”

To best serve new and existing restaurant owners looking for affordable full-featured point-of-sale solutions, Aldelo Express POS supports “freedom of choice” processing. This includes a monthly POS SaaS option that enables merchants to purchase the Aldelo Express restaurant technology platform separately from their restaurant’s merchant payment processing services. The result is allowing more restaurant owners to benefit from Aldelo Express’s full-featured cloud POS solutions while using credit card processing services that best suit the needs of their business.

​Selecting the ​Aldelo Express POS technology platform means implementing a complete merchant- and customer-facing POS ecosystem using non-proprietary hardware and a single cloud back-office environment. Aldelo Express POS hardware options are seamlessly interoperable and synchronize data so that information is readily available on any device, allowing merchants the freedom to select hardware they feel is best for their operation. Whether utilizing iPads, Android Tablets, or Android-based Mobile Handheld devices, every Aldelo Express terminal is capable of supporting a complete restaurant operation. 

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One of the best strategies a restaurant can make at the end of a busy summer season is leveraging customer contact information gathered over the previous several months and establishing new loyalty campaigns. Promoting reward incentives that cater to busy schedules keep customers engaged despite a transition into school-year routines. When successful, these restaurants not only retain summer customers, but can present their restaurant as a “grab and go” option or as an ideal “hotspot” for parent meetings, local fundraisers, or a fun time out.

​Here are 3 creative ways to target customers this September with themed campaigns:

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For millions of Americans, September marks the end of summer. By the end of August, summer tourists, campers, and out-of-towners are going back to their school year routines, making September a challenging period for many restaurant owners who are at risk of losing new summer customers. As a result, one of the best things a restaurant can do is target their customers with integrated loyalty and rewards incentives so they will be reminded of their favorite “summer stop” throughout the school year. When successful, these restaurants not only maintain a growing customer base, but present their restaurant as an ideal vendor for fundraisers, sports team gatherings, homecoming catering, and more.

One of the best ways restaurants can strategically compete in the growing loyalty market is to reward customer purchases and influence return visits with unique customer promotions. These help restaurants increase customer traffic and earn additional revenue that is often essential for sustaining the business during slower periods.

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Red wine is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages among U.S. consumers. This means that National Red Wine Day (August 28) offers restaurants and bars a unique opportunity to promote new and existing partnerships with local wineries, tasting rooms, and restaurants through cross-pollination advertising and collaborative campaigns.
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For example, a restaurant and tasting room partnership can use National Red Wine Day to encourage customers to purchase their favorite food and drinks in a tasting room environment, or purchase locally-made wines with their meal on a restaurant’s premises. Partners can offer their menu items in promotional bundles or through limited-time discounts. In both scenarios, business owners and operators make customers aware of existing collaborations, influence guests to place orders for additional items, and can generate future visits with limited-time gift card, loyalty, and rewards offers.

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Masa+ digital online storefronts are an essential tool for restaurants using the Aldelo Express POS system. With a Masa+ online storefront, restaurants support enhanced self-driven experiences for their customers in-store and online, allowing access to digital food and drink menus, selecting and customizing orders, easily re-ordering their favorite food and drinks, and settling transactions with minimal engagement by restaurant staff.

The recent release of Masa+ V2 features an updated user-friendly interface with consistent color schemes, styles, and workflows that provides a smoother, more enjoyable experience for customers as they view digital menus and place orders from personal smartphones. With so many third-party online ordering integrations available on the market today, Masa+ offers restaurants a sleek yet full-featured solution that seamlessly operates with Aldelo Express and is available at ZERO additional cost.

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Gift cards are an invaluable restaurant solution. When customers purchase a gift card for family, friends, or coworkers, the restaurant immediately benefits from the purchase through increased revenue and assurance of future visits, especially because customers usually spend more when paying with a restaurant gift card. But as more customers begin to prefer paying for purchases using contactless digital solutions, digital e-gift cards offer a convenient method to pay for in-store and remote purchases.

Masa+ is a digital menu, ordering, and payments solution that is natively available to all Aldelo Express restaurant owners of all types and sizes, and includes solutions for legacy and e-gift card programs. Here are 3 additional ways Masa+ e-gift cards can directly benefit restaurant owners.

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​This year, Father’s Day is on June 19th. Each year, businesses compete to be the go-to restaurant for a Father’s Day meal or dessert. For new or independent businesses, this often makes it difficult for their promotions to stand out from the crowd. But with extended or week-long Father’s Day campaigns, local restaurants improve customer traffic and earn additional revenue while increasing brand exposure to the community.

By promoting Father’s Day reservations, buffets, and specials one to two weeks in advance, restaurants provide a convenient way for customers to plan ahead or find them for last-minute gift decisions.

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​An essential to any modern restaurant, gift cards are responsible for thousands of dollars of the average restaurant’s annual revenue and generate new customers every year when bought and shared with family and friends.

To help restaurants retain loyal customers and share their brand with more members of their community, Aldelo Express Cloud POS supports physical and digital gift cards seamlessly integrated into its cloud-based point of sale terminals and back-office solutions.

But through Masa+ online ordering and digital payments, Aldelo enables restaurant owners to provide enhanced gift card services through their restaurant’s online webstore. As a natively developed Aldelo Express integration, Masa+ empowers customers to purchase and reload their gift card values online and share gift cards with family and friends via SMS text message.