Raising Cane’s ‘secret sauce’ to successful expansion

In the competitive world of fast-food, Raising Cane’s has made a name for itself with its craveable, made to order chicken tenders. With over 825 locations worldwide and ambitious plans to open 75-100 new restaurants annually, the company’s expansion strategy demands careful planning and substantial investment. To ensure success, Raising Cane’s employs a data-driven approach to analyzing potential locations, leveraging advanced tools and insights to make informed decisions that align with their growth goals.

Data-driven decisions: The backbone of growth

At the core of Raising Cane’s expansion strategy lies a demand-based accuracy methodology, which leverages predictive models to forecast demand in existing and new markets. These forecasts play a critical role in identifying and prioritizing high-potential trade areas for new restaurant locations. Once promising trade areas are identified, Raising Cane’s internal team of real estate experts scouts the best available sites within those regions. This approach has been instrumental in driving Raising Cane’s national expansion, but as the company faced the challenge of optimizing and developing existing markets, it required a deeper understanding of sales transfer dynamics.

The A.I. advantage: Transforming site selection

When looking to amplify their expansion process, Raising Cane’s sought a solution that could bring advanced precision to their infill growth strategy. They chose SiteZeus for its robust A.I. capabilities, which leverage machine learning to deliver highly accurate demand forecasts and trade area insights. By integrating their store-level performance data with third-party datasets —including mobile location data, demographics, and competitive landscape insights—SiteZeus enabled Raising Cane’s to refine its predictability with a 90% accurate model. This precision allows the company to assess market potential with confidence, minimizing risks associated with site selection and ensuring optimal placement of new locations.

A key component of this strategy is SiteZeus’ sales transfer solution. By integrating this into their decision-making process, Raising Cane’s gained a better understanding of their trade area size and how to effectively plan out market development. The sales transfer solution uses mobile data and geofencing technology to map your customers’ paths to purchase and calculate how opening a new site would affect sales at your nearby locations. For Raising Cane’s, this means not only smarter investments but also maintaining the consistency and quality that their customers expect as the brand continues to expand. Additionally, the ability to adjust models in real time helps the company respond swiftly to market shifts, mitigate cannibalization, and optimize profitability as it continues its rapid expansion.

We were intrigued by the A.I. ability and how real time data can adapt and adjust our model within minutes. When our sales started growing exponentially, our models were having trouble keeping up with current sales expectations, so the ability to make quick adjustments was essential.”

Brandon Colby, Senior Director of Real Estate, Raising Cane’s

Future-forward expansion strategy

Raising Cane’s continues to set the standard for strategic growth in the fast-food industry, blending a data-driven approach with advanced A.I. solutions to guide their expansion efforts. By leveraging predictive modeling and the enhanced accuracy provided by SiteZeus, the company has sharpened its ability to prioritize trade areas, optimize existing markets, and strategically plan new market entries. As they look to the future, Raising Cane’s is well-positioned to uncover new opportunities for growth, strengthen their market presence, and deliver on their promise of craveable chicken tender meals to customers around the globe.