How to Use POS Reporting to Identify Best-Selling Items in Your QSR?

‍You've put thought into designing your Quick Service Restaurant menu, and customers keep returning for more. But as your business grows, you start noticing some items fly off the shelves, while others hardly get ordered. This results in wasted ingredients and lost revenue – and you want to change that.

You may think you know your best sellers, but do you?

This is where OneHubPOS can make all the difference. More than just a tool to process transactions, our modern POS system provides detailed insights that help you optimize your menu. With just a few clicks, you can get automated reports that enable you to pinpoint top-performing and underperforming items to make critical decisions about menu changes and reduce waste, improve food cost percentages, and possibly make profits on menu items. 

This blog explores how OneHubPOS data helps you identify your best sellers, streamline offerings, reduce waste, and focus on customer favorites.

Identifying Best-Selling Items Using POS Reports

Your POS system collects many sorts of data. Let’s dive into the specifics of how you can make sense of that data to identify your best selling items.

1. Sales Reports

Reviewing your sales analytics reports is the most direct way to identify your top performers. These reports show you how each menu item is performing over different time frames, such as:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly

The goal here is to look for consistency. Are there items that sell steadily day after day, week after week? These are your bestsellers. 

The best part? OneHubPOS offers you auto-generated reports that can be accessed with one touch on the POS app and Cloud in real-time, so you don't have to manually sort and look at the best-selling and least-selling items of your restaurant.

Filters add extra value here, allowing for more precise analysis. Even if you operate QSRs at multiple locations, OneHubPOS can filter your sales by store to see if certain items perform better in one location than another. 

For instance, a particular dessert might be a bestseller at one location but less popular at another. Similarly, some items may perform better on weekends compared to weekdays. Getting these insights from a cloud POS system allows you to tailor your menu offerings or promotions to different customer bases.

Furthermore, OneHubPOS lets you look at sales data by time of day, which can tell you exactly when certain items are most popular. If you notice that iced drinks in your coffee shop are most popular between 2 PM and 5 PM, you might consider increasing inventory and staffing during those hours. Alternatively, you could introduce a ‘Happy Hour' promotion to further boost sales.

This kind of adjustment may seem small. But it can significantly improve customer satisfaction and reduce wait times.

2. Upselling & Cross-selling

In QSRs, some items tend to be purchased as a combo. For instance, a cheeseburger is often accompanied by fries and a soda. 

Identifying these trends through POS data allows you to understand your customers' favorite combinations. With OneHubPOS’s product setup section, you can create attractive bundles that directly match their tastes, leading to increased sales and a better customer experience.

Let’s say you create a bundle with a popular burger, fries, and a drink at a 10% discount. This not only entices customers to spend more but also makes their ordering experience easier since you’ve already put together a meal for them.

3. Seasonal and Trend Analysis

Customer preferences tend to shift throughout the year. They might crave holiday-themed treats, refreshing summer specials, or comforting winter dishes. For example, fresh fruit smoothies might sell exceptionally well during Miami's hot summer months, while soups and stews could dominate sales in Denver's colder seasons.

OneHubPOS offers a variety of sales reports that help you track how specific items perform during different times of the year. Additionally, trend analysis can be a powerful tool to predict future sales. If a particular item thrived during a limited-time promotion last year, reintroducing it could yield similar success.

Furthermore, suppose you notice a growing trend. For example, plant-based options become more popular. Then, you can add similar items to your menu.

4. POS Inventory Reports

While your POS system’s inventory tracking helps you monitor stock levels, OneHubPOS goes a step further by providing detailed restaurant analytics on how quickly ingredients are being used up.

This gives you valuable insight into which dishes are being ordered the most. Frequent reordering of specific ingredients signals that the dishes using them are popular with your customers.

For example, if you notice you're running low on oregano for your pizzas, it’s a clear indication that pizzas with oregano are among your bestsellers. This data gives you an edge, allowing you to plan ahead, ensure your stock is well-managed, and avoid disappointing customers with sold-out favorites.

Additionally, you can leverage this insight to create special promotions or combo deals around these popular dishes, further boosting sales.

Make the Most of Your POS Data to Identify Best-Selling Items

In a fast-paced QSR, your POS system should be more than just a tool for processing transactions. It's a valuable source of data that helps you identify best-sellers, understand customer preferences, and optimize operations.

With OneHubPOS, you’re not just seeing what's happening in the moment — you're gaining insights that can shape your QSR’s future. The more you dive into your data, the better you can grow your business, enhance customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition.

Ready to level up? To identify your best-selling items and optimize your menu, start optimizing your QSR today with OneHubPOS—available now for just $1!