DoorDash: Re-Inventing Last-Mile Logistics

DoorDash has an opportunity to power an evolved, local commerce economy where urbanization has taken a back seat to remote work, the homestead is more relevant than ever before, and the “arming of the rebels” has yet to capture the imagination of Main Street businesses. This is bigger than late night takeout: Food delivery is to DoorDash what book ... See more

We look at apps like DoorDash and see food delivery. Rather, view them as the last-mile enabler for businesses who are leaning into localized eCommerce. Food delivery, alone, will not justify the $50+ billion market cap but a city-by-city network of local retailers may.

How is a food-delivery platform like DoorDash building an alternative value proposition by partnering with old-school retailers?

Postmates and DoorDash pursued this growth-at-all cost mindset so aggressively that they listed restaurants and stores that weren’t even signed up for either service. Doing so let both scale supply faster than a sales team would have been able to, but it obliterated the unit economics early on. Because neither were integrated on the backend of the ... See more

DoorDash is building its own network of dark stores (under the DashMart brand). Moreover, DoorDash is collaborating with retailers to help them master this new logistics format. Retailers act as wholesalers providing the products (inc. their private labels) and the delivery to the dark stores while DoorDash operates the dark stores and takes care o

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