Last October, we invited frozen yogurt shop owners across the United States to take the Third National Frozen Yogurt Shop Owner Survey. The anonymous online survey asked about operational practices, shop and owner characteristics, supplier satisfaction, concerns, and shop performance.
The goals of the shop owner survey were to:
- Give shop owners a chance to learn how they compare to other frozen yogurt shops
- Help suppliers learn more about how shops felt about their suppliers
- Provide an overall sense of where the frozen yogurt industry is headed by looking at trends over time
- Learn how our association can better serve its shop owner members
Shop Owner Survey Findings
The shop owner survey included three questions to capture shop performance. One concerned the current performance of the shop. The second asked the owner to predict the shop’s performance over the next 12 months. Finally, we asked shop owners how satisfied they were with their decision to open their business.
While more respondents reported that their business was doing better than doing worse over the past year, we did see an increase in the number of respondents who reported their shop was doing slightly worse. Fewer respondents expected business to be better in the next year compared to 2018 respondents. Rising costs are their main concern. Respondents were also fairly satisfied with their suppliers, especially their soft serve mix suppliers.
The survey asked how the IFYA could better serve its members. Respondents suggested discounts on supplies, FB group for owners, research and marketing to promote the industry, social media and marketing tips, metrics for independent shops, success stories of independent frozen yogurt shops. Thank you for these suggestions. We will definitely think about how to implement changes to be more helpful to our members.
About the Respondents
We received 39 responses from frozen yogurt shop owners. Responses were received from shops located in 20 states, with the most responses from California (24.3%), Oregon (10.8%) and New Jersey (8.1%) . Most of our respondents shop owned one shop and were not part of a franchise.
- 90% are self-serve shops
- 77% are not part of a franchise
- 82% had no previous experience managing a foodservice establishment
Accessing the Survey Results
We shared our findings with those who took the survey, shared our survey posts, and the members of IFYA’s advisory board. Thank you, respondents!!!
The full results are also available for $150. To order the report or for more information, please contact us at info@internationalfrozenyogurt.com
A limited set of results is available for IFYA members in the members only Resources section of our website.
