Falafel Yoni is a falafel shop in Montreal’s Mile End, serving an office lunch crowd by day and families at night. Its challenge was that business depended on local foot traffic. DoorDash says the partnership extended the shop’s reach into neighbourhoods well past its own, raised its visibility and gave the owners data to plan their next location; the source does not publish sales figures.
The playbook
- Keep the menu narrow. Co-owners Daniel Maislin and Yoni Amir built a short menu around one specialty, with falafel fried to order and everything, including the pickled mango amba, made in-house. A focused menu is easier to execute consistently, in the dining room or in a delivery bag.
- Use delivery to reach past foot traffic. Joining DoorDash let the shop serve customers in adjacent and more distant neighbourhoods who would not otherwise walk in, while couriers handled the logistics and the kitchen stayed focused on cooking.
- Join the local marketing program. DoorDash’s local marketing initiatives promoted the shop in the app and through out-of-home placements such as community signage and social media ads.
- Read the heatmaps before expanding. Beyond everyday performance analytics, the owners used DoorDash’s analytics and heatmaps to help work out where they might open next.
- Keep a rep on call. The team says a DoorDash representative is a phone call away when issues come up, which made folding delivery into daily operations easier.
Results
- Reach extended beyond Mile End into neighbourhoods further out, according to DoorDash.
- Greater visibility from in-app, signage and social campaigns under the local marketing program.
- Location data now informs where the owners might open next.
How to apply it
- Ask your delivery partner what local or co-marketing programs exist in your market; some run beyond the app itself.
- Look at where delivery orders cluster before choosing a second site, since it shows where demand already exists.
- Keep the delivery menu to the items you execute best rather than listing everything you make.
Source: DoorDash for Merchants success story. This Operator Story is partner content from DoorDash, a Whatnow Partner.