Family Flowers is a family-run group of local florist brands with a little over 20 locations in nine states. It already had its own delivery drivers, but they ran on set routes, and it wanted to reach customers who had never ordered from its shops. As of summer 2022, the stores had completed about 3,500 DoorDash deliveries in the preceding few months, up from zero at launch in early 2021, according to DoorDash.

The playbook

  1. Start as a test. President and COO Kevin McCarthy put the brands on DoorDash in early 2021 as an experiment after a DoorDash rep reached out about launching flower delivery, keeping the existing delivery operation in place.
  2. Onboard every location at once. Rather than managing each store separately, he sent the rep a list of stores, addresses, service areas and store details, and all locations were set up under a single login.
  3. Let shops curate, centralize the admin. Each location chooses the bouquets and items it lists, while one internal staffer handles all menu changes and promotions, so designers spend their time on arrangements instead of software.
  4. Use on-call couriers to fill route gaps. Instead of waiting for a van to come back, a shop prepares the order and a Dasher takes it, which lets stores get deliveries out in under an hour.
  5. Check the data, then test ads. The team reviews the Merchant Portal’s Insights Hub for where customers come from, new versus repeat buyers and order size. After testing Sponsored Listings, McCarthy found the ROI better than traditional Google Ads or search engine marketing.

Results

Figures are from 2022, according to DoorDash:

  • About 3,500 DoorDash deliveries over a few months in summer 2022, from zero at the early-2021 launch.
  • Delivery available in under an hour without waiting on company vans.
  • Many DoorDash buyers were new to the group’s shops.

How to apply it

  • If you run several locations, ask for consolidated account setup before onboarding store by store.
  • Assign one person to own listings and promotions across stores so frontline staff stay focused on the product.
  • Treat on-demand couriers as overflow for your own fleet when fixed routes create delays.
  • Compare in-app ad returns against your other paid search channels before reallocating budget.

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