Inflation, Labor & Supply Chain Issues, and Talk of Recession Prompt Aben to Help Restaurants Weather the Storm

Sample of the Aben Dashboard

The Woodlands, TX, Sept. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Woodlands, TX (September 14, 2022) - Aben, the first Intelligent MarketingOS^TM, is making a portion of its solution available at no-cost to U.S. restaurant operators. The complimentary benchmarking solution uses unparalleled access to credit card network and POS data, giving Aben an unfair advantage in providing comparative benchmarks to any restaurant - from independents to large chains. Traditional industry benchmarking solutions rely on self-reported data from chain restaurants only, which can lead to dangerous conclusions given the lack of statistical coverage in most geographies. Aben changes that.

“Considering what’s happening in the macro economic environment, we believe that democratizing this data will help the industry – and not just the large chains – better understand what’s happening outside their four walls and truly answer the question of, ‘Is it me or the market?’” boasted Tammy K. Billings, Aben Co-Founder and Head of Restaurants. “Our hope is that restaurants will use Aben’s data before making hurried decisions around price increases, media spending, or even store closures.”

Aben is leveraging trillions of dollars in spend data from credit card network and POS partnerships to provide a free benchmarking tool that maps year over year industry sales to state and DMA levels, with weekly updates on a 9-day lag. The data includes independent restaurants - which comprises at least half of industry spend - and projections for cash spending that are based on sales data from POS partnerships. Deeper benchmarking insights are available on a subscription basis and include the breakdown of restaurant segments (e.g. full service, fast casual, and quick service) as well as county and store-level metrics that provide actionable recommendations from changes in sales, traffic, average check, recency, frequency, and share of wallet.

A benchmark is defined as a point of reference from which a measurement can be made. The value of an industry benchmark comes in understanding if your sales are up or down – are my competitors’ up or down also? Stated simply, ‘Is this a problem with my Operations / Marketing or is it the Market’  Bob Nygren, Lou Malnati’s CFO, elaborated, “Traditional benchmarking tools do not have enough saturation in some markets, forcing them to roll-up data to regions composed of multiple states - rendering the insights ineffective. Aben’s ability to drill down to a county or store level with high fidelity data across multiple verticals gives them the single best source of data for the restaurant industry – and likely other industries in the future.”

Aben is giving access to this data to any restaurant that wants it. Large chains and especially any restaurant where saturation is lower will particularly appreciate what’s been made available at the state and DMA level. “Most restaurants have taken price recently due to inflation, labor and supply issues which is obfuscating true performance. Understanding how locations are performing against their DMA can help marketers know where to allocate capital for media spending.” Billings further explained, “if your sales are down 2% but the industry is down 4% - you may be faring better than others and allocating media spend will not solve the problem.”

To claim your complimentary industry benchmarking, visit www.JoinAben.com and click “Sign Up” to claim your free account; a company email is all that’s required. To learn more about Aben’s capabilities, or to schedule a demo, visit JoinAben.com.

About Aben

Aben is the first Intelligent MarketingOS^TM. Leveraging proprietary data from credit card network and POS partnerships, Aben uses data science to guide capital allocation decisions. Our machine learning algorithms measure key external attributes (frequency, share of wallet, average check, etc.) to provide context, recommend actions, and quantify results.

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• Sample of the Aben Dashboard

CONTACT: Brian Rosman DOG AND A DUCK 615.656.7171 brian@dogandaduck.com