Restaurants on DoorDash will now have the option to reward frequent guests within the app.
It’s one of a number of new features DoorDash announced Tuesday, including a revamped mobile app and new tools for restaurants and delivery drivers.
The loyalty program is likely to be of particular interest to restaurants as such programs become common across the industry. They can use DoorDash Store Rewards to offer customers spending-based discounts such as $5 off for every $50 spent. Restaurants can configure the program themselves within their DoorDash account at no additional cost.
During a press event Tuesday, DoorDash VP and Head of Product Design Rajat Shroff said the rewards program was designed for consumers who want to get the same perks when they order on DoorDash as they would in a restaurant.
“The rewards feature is to help marketplace consumers become more loyal with their shopping on DoorDash’s marketplace,” he said.
Restaurants can set up their loyalty program within their DoorDash account. | All images courtesy of DoorDash
The rewards are part of a brand-new DoorDash app that showcases the wide variety of products the company now delivers. The new experience is meant to more closely mirror the act of shopping in a physical store, said DoorDash Head of Design Helena Seo.
That includes:
A universal search bar: This bar remains at the top of the app at all times. Customers can use it to search for specific products in their area, from flowers to napkins to pizza.
New grocery, retail and browse tabs: Customers can tap into the first two to see nearby grocers and retailers. The browse tab acts like a digital mall directory, showing all of the business categories available on DoorDash. These include restaurants, convenience, grocery, pets, retail, catering, flowers, beauty and more.
Multiple carts: The new app allows customers to create multiple separate carts for groceries, food and other items and save their progress.
The result is an app that feels more like a local version of Amazon than a restaurant delivery app. Restaurants are still heavily featured, but they now sit alongside the tens of thousands of other businesses DoorDash has added in recent years.
“The mission of the consumer app is that we want to bring the entire city to consumers’ fingertips,” Shroff said.
The redesigned app showcases all that DoorDash has to offer.
Behind the scenes, there are other new tools for restaurants and Dashers, or delivery people.
For restaurants:
DoorDash now gives operatorsrecommendations for growing their business. These include how a restaurant can improve its accuracy or its menu. It can also suggest new DoorDash products to sign up for. The insights are powered by machine learning.
Recommendations could include adding a logo to your DoorDash listing.
There are also new features for DoorDash’s online ordering system, Storefront. Operators will be able to personalize fonts and colors, and menus will now include customer ratings of menu items.
Also, restaurants that use Storefront will now be able to log in with their existing DoorDash credentials.
DoorDash Storefront now shows customer ratings for each item.
Some of the most significant changes announced Tuesday will affect DoorDash delivery drivers. These include:
The ability to earn based on time: Drivers can now choose to be paid a flat hourly rate that covers the time they accept an order to the time it’s delivered. The rate will differ by market.
The idea is to give drivers the option to get more consistent earnings while they’re working. However, they can still choose to get paid the old way, with per-trip earnings changing based on the distance, duration and desirability of each order.
Drivers can toggle between these two earning modes as often as they want.
Dashers can choose to earn by time or per offer.
More flexible tipping options: Currently, customers are asked to tip at checkout when they place their order. Now, they’ll be able to tip at checkout, after their order is delivered, or both. DoorDash said this should help drivers to earn more.
But customers can’t use the expanded tipping option to lower their original tip after their order arrives—a practice known as tip baiting.
Less downtime: Many DoorDash Drivers like to deliver in a different area than where they live. In an effort to help them make the most of the time spent traveling to and fro, DoorDash developed Dash Along the Way, which allows drivers to select where they want to start working and then receive offers that will take them to that destination.
Location sharing: DoorDash added location-sharing to SafeDash, its in-app safety toolkit. This allows drivers to share their location with up to five contacts who will be able to track where they are in real time.
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