Is the best-selling item always the most profitable?
No. A high-volume item may have high ingredient cost or low contribution, while a lower-volume item may generate more contribution per order.
Menu engineering evaluates both popularity and contribution margin. Products can be grouped into high-popularity/high-contribution, high-popularity/low-contribution, low-popularity/high-contribution and low-popularity/low-contribution segments.
Restaurants can then review pricing, recipes, menu placement and product visibility using actual sales and cost data.