DoorDash adds a loyalty program

…and many more updates from the 10-year-old market leader

photo courtesy of DoorDash

DoorDash has some big changes to share today, including a new way to encourage repeat ordering through its marketplace.

When I asked Rajat Shroff, DoorDash’s head of product and design, about DoorDash’s just-announced loyalty program for restaurants, he told me it’s about replicating an in-store experience for DoorDash app users. Customers are loyal to restaurants on the platform, he said, “and those loyal customers are asking for the same level of hospitality and perks that they get inside the store.” 

Fair enough; everyone loves special treatment. In this case, DoorDash partner restaurants opt into the free program, offering customized deals to repeat diners. But there’s a limitation: These offers are only for customers who order on DoorDash’s marketplace, and restaurants won’t know the identity of those diners.

“[The restaurants] get access to understanding the number of loyal customers, what type of sales, what type of incrementality and things like that,” Shroff said. 

The customer is loyal is to the restaurant, but really they’re loyal to DoorDash. This distinction has always been at the core of third-party delivery businesses that build the platforms on which restaurants operate. Its new loyalty play is just one update from the U.S. market leader, which continues to work hard to keep customers — and restaurants — inside its ecosystem.

DoorDash just introduced its “biggest app update ever.”