Each and every restaurant has unique needs, which is why DoorDash offers a range of partnership options to help them meet their business goals. As part of this commitment, we introduced Self-Delivery last year, a product which enables restaurants to use their own in-house delivery staff to fulfill DoorDash orders. Upon launch, thousands of restaurants – from popular national chains like Jimmy John’s, regional favorites like Lou Malnati’s, and local gems like Cocky Teriyaki – have used the DoorDash platform to reach new customers, all while supporting and retaining their in-house staff.
As the restaurant industry faces new and prolonged challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to listen to our restaurant partners. Two of the biggest takeaways we heard are wanting more flexibility and requesting additional assistance to remedy staffing concerns. To better meet restaurants’ evolving needs, we are proud to today announce that Self-Delivery now incorporates flexible fulfillment – the ability to switch between tapping into a robust network of Dashers or leveraging in-house delivery staff to fulfill DoorDash orders.
Flexible fulfillment on Self-Delivery allows restaurants to supplement their own delivery drivers with Dashers, which we’ve heard is incredibly important as restaurants continue to adjust their businesses and grow their delivery fleets amid challenging economic and labor conditions. As a result of today’s update, restaurants can increase their operational capacity to meet demand, better balance staffing, expand their customer base, and grow order volume.
This update does not only benefit restaurants with fully established fleets, but it also encourages smaller shops to find cost-efficient operations. With flexible fulfillment, restaurants have both flexibility and control to determine which orders make the most financial and operational sense for staff to deliver and which orders could be fulfilled by Dashers for an additional flat fulfillment fee per order.
Restaurants can now identify unique criteria that automatically assigns orders as either self-fulfillment or Dasher-fulfillment based on the store’s needs. For example, restaurants can identify “delivery distance” or “time of day” criteria in order to either expand their delivery zones – and reach customers within a new radius – or better adjust staffing and operations during busy or slow periods.
While the criteria offer predictability and control, running a restaurant requires the ability to adapt to unexpected needs. For restauranteurs using a tablet, they can use the in-tablet button to toggle to full Dasher fulfillment immediately, in real-time. When a restaurant wishes to revert to normal operations, simply turn the toggle off and a restaurant will be ready to utilize their in-house delivery staff again.
Self-Delivery with flexible fulfillment is now available to all interested restaurants in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Flexible fulfillment will be automatically available for all new restaurant partners utilizing Self-Delivery, and existing partners will have the ability to enable this feature. To learn more, we encourage restaurateurs to visit our product page here.
