During the thick of the pandemic last year, online food delivery company DoorDash expanded its offerings to include convenience store delivery. Now, DoorDash customers in the U.S. and Canada can shop across multiple stores and categories in a single order.
With DoubleDash, as the program is called, customers can now tack onto your order of a pad Thai dinner, some tampons and ice cream from the local 7-Eleven. In most cases, it’ll all be brought to them by the same delivery person in one bundle, allowing customers to forgo any additional service or delivery fees.
The goal for customers is to increase convenience while preserving price expectations. For local businesses, there’s a possibility that some light prodding of the customer while they’re hungry and uninterested in leaving their homes will lead to more business. And for DoorDash, this move is another step towards making the app the ever-coveted “one-stop-shop” for all things delivery.
Image Credits: DoorDash
“Ever since we began offering convenience as a category on DoorDash over a year ago, we’ve observed that many customers organically order their restaurant meal and then place another order for convenience items within a 30 minute window,” Fuad Hannon, DoorDash’s head of new verticals, told TechCrunch. “We are always thinking about ways to improve our platform to serve our customers’ needs and after observing this consumer behavior, we wanted to make this process easier and more affordable for consumers.”
With DoubleDash, after a customer place their original order, a pop up on the app will entice them with additional items from nearby stores. Customers can also look for the DoubleDash option on the in-app map to search for nearby stores. Depending on the customer’s location and proximity to the merchant, anywhere from one to five merchants will show up on the map. Customers can add on as much or as little as they want for the second order, as there’s no minimum order size.
Delivery workers, or “Dashers,” will be able to collect tip on both the first restaurant order and the second merchant order, according to the company. Dashers can use DoorDash’s logistics platform to accept both orders at once and deliver them together without deviating from the primary route, thus potentially increasing earnings without going too far out of their way.
This new feature is available with 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Wawa, QuickCheck, the Ice Cream Shop and DashMart, a DoorDash-owned convenience and grocery store. DoorDash is also piloting the ability to partner local restaurants with DoubleDash in several markets like Los Angeles, Denver and Portland, so if you want to start with sushi and end with a chocolate torte, it’ll be just a little bit cheaper and easier to do so.
“We are excited to be a part of DoorDash’s newest endeavor, DoubleDash, and for the opportunity to reach new customers and drive additional sales for our business,” said Benjamin D. Arreola, owner of Señor G’s Fresh & Healthy Mexican Food in Playa Del Rey, California, in a statement.
