Of over 8,000 consumer respondents in a recent LSA survey, more than half had made a restaurant-related purchasing decision within the past 12 months. Extrapolating further, that equates to over 129 million U.S. purchasers in 2015 who made about 25 purchase decisions each.
When making a decision on a restaurant, 74% said they used a search engine to find a local restaurant in the past seven days, which was by far the most utilized source. 50% said they looked on company websites, 37% said they heard about it from a friend of family member and 34% said they read online ratings and reviews.
Once a consumer goes through the research phase, action follows quickly for the restaurant category. Within a week of searching for a restaurant, 71% said that they contacted or visited a restaurant and 94% made a purchase or said they were “likely to do so.”
The data comes from LSA’s latest “Local Media Tracking Study” which surveyed over 8,000 U.S. consumers. To learn more about the study, click here. To view the graphic above, click here.