Another food delivery service, DoorDash, has entered the market.
Brent Seals, Head of Launch, explains how DoorDash started, the company’s vision, and its plans for expansion.
What’s the company’s origin story?
Tony Xu and his co-founders started DoorDash to help small business owners like his mom scale their business and reach new customers.
To learn the logistics business, the DoorDash founding team sought out positions at delivery companies and pizza restaurants to experience firsthand the pain points of logistics for both businesses and consumers. What they learned was:
● It’s very hard for a single store to flex their workforce to meet changes in demand (e.g., if it rained or there was a football game, wait times for delivery at pizzerias would spike, other nights were filled with folding boxes).
● While consumption had become more instant, delivery hadn’t changed in the past four decades — it hadn’t entered the digital age.
Today, five years later, DoorDash operates in 850 cities, has more than 200,000 dashers, over 700 employees, and is still passionate about transforming local businesses and helping them thrive in the digital and convenience economy.
How does it work?
As a logistics company, DoorDash matches supply and demand across three different audiences — restaurants, customers, and Dashers. By downloading the DoorDash app or heading to DoorDash.com, consumers can choose from hundreds of local restaurants and with the click of a button, hungry consumers are connected with available Dashers.
DoorDash provides the logistics layer these restaurants need for easier on-demand order fulfillment. By utilizing data and machine learning, DoorDash has perfected the science of selecting the right Dasher to pick up the order and deliver it to the customer efficiently to ensure the food arrives fast and fresh.
DoorDash also provides additional data analytics offerings for merchants looking to streamline their delivery operations. Restaurant partners have also seen increased sales, new customers, and improved operational efficiencies thanks to these services.
Is it subscription?
DoorDash doesn’t offer a subscription service. Fees vary by region and restaurant, while a delivery fee and an optional Dasher tip is always included.
What areas does it cover?
DoorDash operates in over 850 cities across the US and Canada. For the Memphis area specifically, DoorDash is available in Memphis, Bartlett, Arlington, and Lakeland. Neighborhoods include: Uptown, Midtown, Downtown, Central Gardens, South Memphis, Nonconnah, Oakville, Orange Mound, Parkway Village, East Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, Raleigh, Wolfchase, and Berclair.
Is it just restaurants or other things?
For Memphis, we are only offering delivery from restaurants, however, DoorDash recently expanded into grocery delivery, with our DoorDash Drive platform powering Walmart’s grocery delivery. DoorDash Drive is a fulfillment and catering platform that allows merchants to deliver orders that originated outside theDoorDash marketplace. DoorDash Drive was the first step to opening up the DoorDash platform to everyone.
What makes it different from other delivery services?
DoorDash offers the best selection of restaurants at the highest quality of service.
In just five years, DoorDash has partnered with 90 percent of the top 100 restaurants who offer delivery including brands like The Cheesecake Factory, Wendy’s, and P.F. Chang’s. Across our 850+ cities, we deliver from more than 100,000 stores.
We’ve also built a suite of merchant products and integrations to ensure the highest quality and fastest delivery, every single time. Our in-house support system offers best-in-class service that solves customer problems in real-time.
When does it launch (has it already)? Is there a special deal?
Yes, we launched on June 26th. In celebration of the Memphis market, customers can use promo DASHMEMPHIS for $5 off an order over $15, valid through July 26th.