QR code menus are all the rage these days. Both restaurants and their customers have embraced these nifty black and white barcodes. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, half of all full-service restaurant owners in the US have implemented digital menus that are accessible via QR codes. Mainstream media channels reported in August of last year that there had been a startling 750% increase in QR code downloads over the preceding 18 months.
The QR code menu, formerly an integral part of restaurants' COVID-19 safety protocol, is now a standard dining feature. QR code scanning increased by 25% and 15% in 2020 and 2021 respectively. According to Nation’s Restaurant News, Insider Intelligence forecasts that QR code scanning is expected to continue to rise year-on-year by 10% in 2022.
What is it about these box-shaped digital patterns that make them so popular? The QR code menu's contactless order and payment capabilities benefited restaurants. It made it possible to reopen their dining rooms after lockdowns and other limitations were relaxed. This contactless function of QR code ordering has also helped restaurants navigate the labor shortage. Thereby, providing them with the possibility of serving customers even with reduced staff. Therefore, in many ways, the QR code menu has been a lifeline for restaurants hit by the consequences of the pandemic.
However, if the purpose of the QR code ordering method was only to get around pandemic-related challenges, its use ought to have decreased by now. But as noticed, it's continuing to gain popularity, showing that there are many long-term advantages that digital restaurant menus have to offer.