Over the past month, several stories have been published about DoorDash’s stance on menu pricing. These stories are incorrect and misinformed.
Let’s set the record straight:
DoorDash does not require restaurants to match in-store prices on delivery orders. Restaurants should not surmise, based on previous incorrect reporting, that their delivery menus need to be at parity to be successful on DoorDash. Restaurants can continue to make their own delivery menu pricing decisions and assess the trade-offs between volume and unit margins.
DoorDash is constantly working to improve the customer experience to ensure repeat business. Our mission at DoorDash is to help businesses grow. As a marketplace, we aim to drive repeat business by helping customers discover stores that consistently provide a high quality experience on every order. Among other factors (ratings, popularity, operational quality, etc.), customers consider price a key indicator of quality.
Menu pricing is a factor among many. A restaurant ranks well today based on how well it meets customer preferences - popularity, speed, order accuracy, pricing, etc. Menu pricing is simply another variable to focus on and optimize based on the restaurant’s objectives. Read more on how visibility works on DoorDash here.
DoorDash encourages consistent prices to maximize long term growth. While DoorDash does not require delivery prices to match in-store, we recommend pricing as close to in-store as possible as data shows menu markups can negatively impact customer conversion and retention.
DoorDash is ever-evolving. We regularly look for new ways to improve products and operations to simultaneously bring the highest quality service to consumers, while increasing revenue for merchants, and create more earnings opportunities for Dashers. As we innovate, iterate, and implement new features, we will continue to solicit feedback directly from our audiences and won’t lose sight of our mission to grow and empower local economies.
One of the core principles at DoorDash is that our platform needs to work for everyone equally - consumers, merchants and Dashers. All parties win with a focus on quality.
