Restaurants

DoorDash announces reduced commission fees for new and existing partner restaurants

The company will also provide financial assistance to employees diagnosed with COVID-19.

A DoorDash Inc. delivery person in Redwood City, Calif., on Nov. 29, 2019. Bloomberg photo by David Paul Morris

March 17, 2020

As the coronavirus crisis causes dine-in bans and an overall strain on many restaurants, third-party delivery services such as Grubhub and Uber Eats have stepped in to provide some relief. Now, DoorDash has announced a plan to support its partner restaurants.

According to a Tuesday press release, DoorDash plans to help restaurants — both existing and new to its platform — generate up to $200 million in additional sales this year. All restaurants previously partnered with DoorDash will not pay commission fees for pickup orders, while independent restaurants that are not currently partnered with DoorDash or Caviar can do so for free and won’t pay commission fees for 30 days if they sign up between now and the end of April.

The platform also announced the addition of more than 100,000 independent restaurants to its DashPass subscription program to help boost sales. Restaurants that were already on DashPass will see reduced commissions, and those partnered with Caviar will have the option to participate in a no-delivery-fee program.

Up to $20 million will also be designated by the company for marketing efforts to boost restaurants that have a pre-existing relationship with DoorDash.

In addition to restaurant support, DoorDash rolled out plans to help ensure the safety of its employees and serve communities. Starting this week, the drop-off option “leave it at my door” will become the default method for all orders, although customers will have the option to ask that a delivery be handed to them. The company is shipping more than one million sets of free hand sanitizer and gloves to its delivery people, and will provide financial assistance to those eligible who are either diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in quarantine.

And through a partnership with United Way Worldwide, DoorDash plans to team up with community organizations to deliver an estimated one million pounds of groceries and prepared food to food-insecure households.