DoorDash CEO: New Initiative Goal Is To Help Restaurants 'Drive Sales To Fuel Growth'

DoorDash has announced a new initiative that will help local restaurants continue to be competitive. E-commerce, digital ordering and promotions will all play a role in "Main Street Strong." Operators might anticipate competition here. 

DoorDash Launches "Main Street Strong" to Continue Supporting Local Restaurant

The initiative will provide products and services for restaurants to help build out their digital presence and grow their business as they look to safely reopen 

SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DoorDash, the nation's leading on-demand local logistics platform, today announced Main Street Strong, an initiative to help restaurants navigate the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this initiative, DoorDash is launching a suite of products, programs, and policies to help restaurants grow their business and take control of the customer experience by building their own digital ordering solutions. 

As part of the "Main Street Strong" initiative, DoorDash is announcing new products and programs aimed at helping restaurants build their own brands online according to their unique needs.

• Launching DoorDash Storefront, a service that enables restaurants to create their own online stores, providing them with a turnkey solution to offer their customers on-demand access to their restaurant without investing in in-house logistics. By our estimate, 40% of our restaurant partners today do not have their own ecommerce platform. With this tool, customers can order takeout or delivery directly from the restaurant's website or app, which plugs into DoorDash's fulfillment network to complete the delivery. Because this is the restaurant's website, they control the customer experience. DoorDash Storefront will be widely available in July and DoorDash will waive set-up, software, and merchant delivery fees for local restaurants incurred in 2020.

• Expanding DoorDash Weblinks program, a service for restaurants that would prefer to have DoorDash manage their digital ordering experience by redirecting their customers to DoorDash. DoorDash is offering 0% commission to restaurants with five of fewer locations on all weblink orders, both delivery and pick up, through the end of 2020.

• By popular demand from our local restaurants, bringing back "Local Restaurant" promotions, which helped drive over 1 million incremental deliveries. We will launch Local Restaurant Saturday in the month of June, which offers customers $0 delivery fees on all orders from local restaurants to help them drive additional sales. We'll continue to invest in growing our Local Favorites carousels which feature a rotating selection of local restaurants to drive additional demand and discovery to independent restaurants. We're also offering all DashPass subscribers 10% off their pickup orders in the month of June, helping restaurants serve customers at their physical storefronts in more convenient and affordable ways.

"Our mission from Day One has been to empower local businesses. The future of e-commerce for these merchants has been pulled forward during this pandemic, and Main Street Strong embodies our commitment to offer local restaurants the tools and services they need to serve their customers in this accelerated transition," said Tony Xu, DoorDash co-founder and CEO. "DoorDash Storefront takes products that we've built and extends them to create unique online storefronts for our restaurant partners, empowering local businesses to operate their own channels in this new digital future. With Main Street Strong, our goal is to help merchants to navigate a changing restaurant industry, drive sales to fuel growth, and eventually, welcome customers back to their stores how they choose."

"Prior to Covid-19 we did not have online ordering as an option. It was something we always wanted to set up but the process is time consuming and costly. As Covid-19 caused restaurants to stop dine-in seating in mid-March, we saw our in-house sales fall by 90%," said Ryan Camp, owner of Pie Hole in Utah. "Within two days we were accepting online orders through our website thanks to DoorDash. Looking back on the last few months, we've realized DoorDash was our lifeline. Throughout the uncertainty of the pandemic, DoorDash has been a constant. While other delivery services have maintained or raised their commissions during the pandemic, DoorDash has aggressively lowered theirs, allowing us to pay employees extra to make up for lost in-house tips. Since going live with DoorDash Storefront, we have marketed to our customers to order through our company website (powered by Doordash Storefront). The sales generated through online ordering have significantly increased sales."

"At a time when restaurants have been asking for ways to participate in the online convenience economy at less of a cost and with more control over their online presence, DoorDash has committed to putting the restaurant in the driver seat with DoorDash Storefront," said Jon Maurer, Vice President of Marketing at Big Boy in Detroit. "DoorDash has been a long time partner and I appreciate how the company continues to adapt in order to benefit local restaurants' growth and efforts during this challenging time.  With Storefront, it's clear DoorDash is not just a delivery partner, but a business partner, committed to helping Big Boy navigate the road ahead."

The series of relief and support initiatives DoorDash rolled out to support the restaurant industry during the height of the pandemic will end May 31. Altogether, DoorDash's relief programs have helped restaurants save an estimated $120 million in aggregate. We will continue to build out these products and programs, and as the country transitions to reopening physical stores, we will make more announcements in the coming months in support of the communities we serve.

About DoorDash

DoorDash is a technology company that connects customers with their favorite local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the United States, Canada, and Australia. Founded in 2013, DoorDash empowers merchants to grow their businesses by offering on-demand delivery, data-driven insights, and better in-store efficiency, providing delightful experiences from door to door. By building the last-mile delivery infrastructure for local cities, DoorDash is bringing communities closer, one doorstep at a time. Read more on the DoorDash blog or at www.doordash.com.