Sushi Menu Descriptions Boost Revenue

A story about how Shaan's sushi restaurant increased orders by enhancing menu descriptions and raising prices.

"We did this experiment when we were doing the sushi restaurant. Dan Ariely, who wrote Predictably Rational, was one of our advisors. He told us that wine charges a premium because they created a whole language around what they do. He suggested we needed to create a language around sushi so people would feel knowledgeable and want to pay more.

We ran an A/B test on our website for online ordering. The control version had normal descriptions, but in the test version, we enhanced the descriptions. For example, instead of just listing a Philadelphia Roll, we'd describe it as 'Atlantic fresh, never frozen salmon with authentic Philadelphia cream cheese and finely sliced cucumber.'

We raised the prices with these enhanced descriptions, and surprisingly, we got more orders despite the higher prices."

07:02 - 08:07
Full video: 11:49
SP

Shaan Puri

Host of MFM

Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.

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