Moonrise Bagels makes stuffed bagels at three locations in Greenwich Village, Woodstock and Poughkeepsie, New York. Co-founder Ali Chetkof Rhodes, a fashion PR veteran, worried delivery would dilute the brand and cut into the line down the block at the New York City shop. According to DoorDash, the shop grew revenue 22% through the platform and now sells hundreds of extra bagels a week there.

The playbook

  1. Launch with a DashPass-exclusive item. The first offer on DoorDash was a flavor available only to DashPass members. Delivery customers got something of their own, building an audience on the app, while the in-store menu and its sense of scarcity stayed intact.
  2. Throttle at peak with Kitchen Manager. During the busiest in-store hours, the team slows incoming delivery orders so walk-in guests are not kept waiting, without switching delivery off entirely.
  3. Work with an account manager. Chetkof Rhodes leaned on a DoorDash account manager to decide which tools fit and what to test next, refining the approach over time.
  4. Extend into catering. Moonrise has since added catering on DoorDash to handle larger orders and group occasions through the same system.

Results

  • Revenue up 22% from DoorDash, according to DoorDash, without hurting the in-store experience.
  • Hundreds of additional bagels sold per week via DoorDash, driven by the exclusive flavor.
  • Catering now live on the platform as a new revenue stream.

How to apply it

  • If your brand runs on in-person scarcity, consider a delivery-only item instead of putting your full in-store menu online.
  • Decide in advance which channel gets priority at peak, and use order throttling to enforce it instead of pausing delivery outright.
  • Add delivery services in stages, starting simple and layering on extras like catering once operations are stable.

Source: DoorDash for Merchants success story. This Operator Story is partner content from DoorDash, a Whatnow Partner.