Raising Reorder Frequency Among Existing DoorDash Customers

You are a product manager at DoorDash, the on-demand delivery marketplace that connects customers with restaurants and other local merchants, and with the couriers (Dashers) who carry out the deliveries. The goal is to get customers who have already ordered to come back and order again more often. How would you increase repeat orders? Walk through which customers you would focus on, why they are not reordering today, what you would build or change, and how you would know it worked. ```hint Find where the habit breaks Repeat ordering can fail at different moments for different customers, such as right after a disappointing first delivery, or simply because nothing prompts a second visit. Locate the moment that loses the most customers before choosing what to build. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should the focus be turning first-time customers into second-time customers, or getting customers who already order occasionally to order more often? - Do repeat orders from grocery, convenience and other non-restaurant categories count, or only restaurant meals? - How much room is there to use discounts, delivery-fee waivers or the DashPass subscription, given what each costs per order? - Over what window should success be judged: orders per customer in a month, or retention three months later? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A precise definition of a repeat order and a chosen customer segment, justified by where the largest drop-off is likely to sit - Reasons for not reordering that reflect all three sides of the marketplace: delivery reliability, price and fees, selection, and the absence of a trigger to order - Solutions that fix the experience before leaning on incentives, prioritized by impact, effort and cost to order economics - A success metric for order frequency or retention, with guardrails on margin, delivery times, courier earnings and notification fatigue - Risks such as promotion dependence and over-messaging, and how holdout tests would separate incremental orders from shifted ones ### Follow-up Questions - How would you tell whether a reorder discount created new orders or only subsidized orders customers would have placed anyway? - If the data showed that most customers who never return had a late or incorrect first order, what would you change on the merchant and courier side, not only in the customer app? - How would your plan differ for DashPass subscribers compared with customers who pay delivery fees on each order?