If you’re an Australian restaurant, café, QSR, bakery, or multi-venue operator getting ready to launch last-minute Christmas marketing, simple moves can boost your holiday season revenue.

These practical tactics use tools many of you already have through Liven to transform holiday demand into profitable, streamlined operations and repeat visits. 

#1 Theme your app and website for the season

Digital ordering is especially important during the Christmas period for restaurants in Australia. A themed ordering experience can increase seasonal engagement and conversion. A generic app or plain ordering site during peak holiday trading instantly signals “no effort, no reason to stay.” A themed experience does the opposite - it engages customs.

How to do it in your Magic App fast:

Liven’s white-labeled Magic App, lets you theme your entire digital presence in minutes. Without writing a single line of code or needing to update the app store, you can:

• Swap in seasonal banners

• Add limited-time menu categories

• Feature Brandollar packs front and centre

• Update hero colours to seasonal tones (doesn’t need to be red/green, even a single accent change signals seasonality)

• And while you are at it - check your Google listings to ensure your direct delivery experience is at the top of the list when customers click Order Online.

# 2 Use restaurant Gift Cards and Brandollar Packs for Christmas to drive engagement

Your venue Rewards,Brandollars andGifting can help you turn December into your biggest acquisition month, and January into your most predictable repeat-visit month. These tools drive return visits, higher average order values, and controlled off-peak traffic outcomes traditional gift cards and generic loyalty programs simply cannot deliver.

What they are:

• Your Venue Brandollars: your prepaid, brand‑exclusive digital dollars (e.g., Pay $100, get $120). They bank future dining intent and can be programmed by day, time, venue, or menu to shape demand, and they’re giftable.

• Your Venue Rewards: instant, dollar‑based rewards issued automatically after payment (no points). Fully brandable and integrated across POS, online ordering, kiosks and the Magic App.

• Your Venue Gifting: diners can send prepaid digital value instantly. No physical cards, no friction. And you engage the customer in your App, Wallet and digital experience - something that won’t happen with a gift card in their wallet.

Make the most of them during the holiday rush:

• Sell reusable physical or e-gift cards via your POS or Online Ordering: Coach your staff to suggest gift cards, and issue them right at the POS. You can also sell e-gift cards through your online gift card store. 

• Create holiday-specific Brandollar Packs: Promote them front and centre in Magic App as flexible, easy gifts. Highlight the benefit they offer to the gifter, where they get more value for their money.

• Drive off-peak traffic with Brandollars: Create lucrative Brandollar Packs that can be redeemed only at specific times or dates (Mon–Wed, January lull, post-NYE recovery week). This gives you demand control after the Christmas spike

• Increase walk-ins during the season with higher rewards: Offer a slightly higher reward percentage during the festive period. Promote it across Magic App, online ordering, kiosks, and signage.

# 3 Drive Digital Ordering

The holiday season could also be a peak season for revenue leakage if you aren't driving your customers to use direct digital ordering and delivery - or reducing queue times using in-venue digital ordering.

Fast improvements:

• Put QR or kiosks before the counter queue

• Highlight “Skip the Line, Order Ahead” at the entrance and inside

• Add a dedicated pickup line for digital orders and keep it moving fast with custom workflows on on KDS

• Move simple orders (drinks, desserts, add-ons) with a handheld POS like Abacus GO

December shoppers are already overwhelmed and actively looking for faster ways to order. Convert them into repeat pickup customers, loyal delivery customers or order-ahead regulars by moving them to order directly from you by:

• Offering Christmas special rates or offers on your app

• Setting up and promoting pick-up or delivery only promos

• Giving out rewards for orders placed through your app

#4 Prioritise customer data collection

The crowds that December brings in makes it a great time to start gathering and organising customer data so automation can work better for you from January onward. Here are some ways you can do this easily with Liven:

• Turn on Brandollar Connect everywhere people pay:  Automatically issue a small Brandollar reward at checkout enabling a quick scan of a QR code on a receipt to collect it, capturing name, mobile and email as part of the claim.

• Add micro‑quizzes & forms to your Magic App: Use Magic Studio to drop in “profile builders” (dietary, occasion, suburb) and a one‑tap birthday capture. Incentivise completion with a small Brandollar bonus.

• Incentivise it for the customer:  Use Magic Notifications and in‑flow banners (“Add your birthday, get $5 Brandollars”) to drive enrolment..

With Liven Engage, all of this data can flow in together into the platform to power smart set-and-forget automations like welcome messages, 30-60-90 day reactivations and other campaigns.

#5 Christmas Catering Ideas for Restaurants: Group Boxes & Bundles

Offices are organising end-of-year lunches, families and friends are getting together to relax, and everyone wants something convenient that feels premium without needing weeks of planning. The fastest way to respond is with simple, pre-packaged group boxes built from items you already produce at scale.

What to offer:

• Office Lunch Boxes

• Christmas Family Meal Bundles & Holiday Brunch Kits

• Festive Dessert Boxes

• “Treat the Team” workplace platters

• Take‑home Christmas Eve packs

• Limited‑time specials (pastries, premium roasts, festive drinks)

How to run it smoothly with Liven:

• Create a catering specific menu with box/bundles or use timed menu categories to feature boxes and bundles, so festive SKUs are visible only when available. One combined category or separate menu helps customers self-select instantly.

• Set order windows & cut‑offs, lead times, and pickup/delivery slots to spread prep and reduce congestion

• Orders flow straight to POS/KDS and into delivery/pickup

• Take online payment at booking to lock orders and curb no‑shows/fraud

Promote & convert:

• Feature catering menus and bundles prominently in your Magic App and OrderUp flows

• Add “Limited early-December availability” banners to your web ordering, Magic App, and kiosk attract screens

• Use loyalty data to find frequent group buyers and nudge them with notifications: “We’ve got boxes ready. Want one reserved for you?”

#6 Christmas Restaurant Promotions: Lock in Group Bookings Fast

Think about how you can lock in every high-value booking and group order before competitors get to them. Focus on diners, friend groups, families, corporates, regulars or anyone who books for more than two people. Keep it visible, keep it simple, and make it easy for guests to lock in a table or a group pickup window without back-and-forth.

Do today

• Pull last year’s >6-person orders or reservations and call them directly

• Build a shortlist of local businesses and call the office managers/EAs

• Send a simple “December bookings now open” email/SMS to your entire base

If bookings don’t sync with your POS, the team can’t see who’s coming in, or how to prepare. That leads to missed upsells and unnecessary friction, exactly what you can’t afford in December. You can avoid all that with a POS-Integrated Reservation System for Restaurants like Liven Abacus. 

#7 Tighten Your Ops Before You Layer on Promotions

There’s no more important time of the year to ensure the back-office is fully prepped and aligned. Start with a detailed COGs analysis - getting your menu pricing optimised. Use Liven Zeemart to ensure your alerts are set for out of stock items and reordering. Ensure your payments are set for holiday surcharging.

Start with the customer

All these steps get you closer to giving your customers what they want:

• Convenience: fast pickup, clear windows, pre-ordering, and reliable digital ordering.

• Tiered choices: individual meals, bundles, festive boxes, catering packs.

• Seasonal exclusives: limited items, premium upsells, Christmas desserts, higher Rewards.

• Festive cues: show your events, decor, or packaging across your website, socials, and Magic App.

Keep the experience simple, visible, and easy to act on. Tighten operations, surface the right offers, and use Rewards, Brandollars, and Gifting and marketing automation to turn December demand into January repeat business.

Talk to our experts if you need support with a last minute holiday brainwave or to make the most of the upcoming season!