Use Case – When a Best-Selling Dessert Hides Missed Opportunities
- Claire Brunaud
- Sep 16, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 18, 2025
The Context
Sophie is a pastry chef in a high-end brasserie in Amsterdam. Her chocolate fondant is a true star: over 80 sales per week, praised by critics and often called “the best in town” by her customers.
A success that draws attention… but doesn’t translate into overall revenue growth.
The Problem
Despite her iconic dessert, Sophie notices that her average ticket is not increasing.
Digging deeper, she realizes that desserts account for only 12% of sales, far below the national average.
In other words: customers love HER fondant, but very few order anything else.
Sophie had never really analyzed her dessert uptake, convinced that her best-seller alone was enough to lift the whole category.
What Fyre Reveals
By visualizing her performance with Fyre, Sophie uncovers that:
The fondant makes up 80% of dessert sales, but…
It only represents 9% of total sales in the restaurant.
The dessert is appealing, but it’s still just an occasional treat, with little impact on the business overall.
The rest of the dessert menu shows decent margins, but ridiculously low volumes.
In short: her best-seller mostly hides a lack of complementary offer.
The Actions Taken
Sophie decides to rethink her dessert offering:
She introduces a fruit-based dessert with lower food cost, to diversify and attract lighter customers.
She also creates a “signature” house dessert, with a stronger margin and suggested proactively by the staff.
These decisions were guided by market benchmarks and margin ratios available through Fyre.
The Results
Just one month later, the numbers speak for themselves:
Dessert uptake jumps from 12% to 19%.
The average ticket increases by +7%.
The fondant remains a star, but it’s no longer the only dessert driving sales.
Key Takeaways
A best-seller is not enough: it can mask an overly narrow offer.
Optimizing a menu is not just about raising prices, it’s also about creating new consumption habits.
With the right analysis, every category (even desserts, often seen as secondary) can become a real growth lever.
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