"We're leaders, doers, learners, and one team."
- DoorDash Mission & Value
Introduction:
The core of the analysis revolves around DoorDash's new vertical business, spanning grocery, convenience, alcohol, and DashMart. The dataset provides a granular view of delivery specifics, including substitution data. The primary mission is to distill actionable insights, grounded in a deep understanding of the three-sided marketplace concept. Formulating robust recommendations aligning seamlessly with the new vertical business, considering the intricacies of the three-sided marketplace model, is the key objective. I aim to craft innovative ideas for immediate and long-term impact, providing a tailored plan that aligns with DoorDash's dynamic business environment. The analysis will scrutinize Dashers, Vendors, and Consumers, posing key questions for each segment, interpreting findings through rigorous data analysis, and concluding with comprehensive recommendations and an execution plan.
Key Insights:
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The dataset encompasses deliveries from September 2022 to October 2022, focusing on Cincinnati, OH, with a sample size of 60K rows.
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The analysis centers on the three-sided market, examining Dashers, Vendors, and Consumers.
About the data:
Limitations:
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Each row signifies an item.
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1009 dasher IDs/ 1287 lack DELIV_D2R data/ 2393 DELIV_CLAT data are missing.
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Location data is confined to Cincinnati, OH and the dataset dates only include Sep - Oct 2022.
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No reasons provided for order cancellations.
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Order delivery times are unavailable.
Assumptions:
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The missing dasher IDs, DELIV_D2R, DELIV_CLAT, relatively below 5% of the total dataset, are deemed negligible.
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Despite the column name discrepancy ("item_price_cents" in the glossary vs. "item_price" in the
dataset), I assume item prices are presented in dollars after inspecting item names. -
For D2R times below 1 minute, it's presumed that dashers are either conveniently located near the store or are already in close proximity, considering the downtown Cincinnati setting.
The Analysis: (Dashers/ Vendors / Consumers)
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Dashers Analysis
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In this section, I delve into dashers' order acceptance latency, exploring how delivery size and value impact these times.
Key Metrics:
• CLAT (Order Acceptance Latency of the Orders)
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Overarching Questions:
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Do the size and value of deliveries significantly impact dashers' CLAT times? How is this correlation reflected in the context of DashMart's performance?
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Analyze:
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1. Acceptance Latency of the orders by Store and DashMart Performance
It's observed that DashMart's performance on Acceptance Latency isn't optimal. Let's delve deeper into this by examining the impact of delivery size and value (price), as outlined below.
2. Acceptance Latency of the orders by Store and Delivery Size/Delivery Value
It's worth noting that DashMart tends to have smaller delivery sizes/prices compared to other grocery stores. This could be a contributing factor to why dashers might be less inclined to accept delivery requests.
The Dasher Order Acceptance Latency and Delivery Size Chart
• Note: for a better visual view, I hided the axis for the delivery size (shape chart) and focused on the relationship between the bars (AVG Acceptance minutes) and shapes (AVG delivery size).
The Dasher Order Acceptance Latency (Bar Chart) and Delivery value (Shape Chart, Total item price of items within the orders)
Result: The time it takes for dashers to accept orders is influenced by the size and value of the delivery, and this effect is particularly pronounced for DashMart.
Core Recommendations: Incentive Plan for Dashers.
Vendors Analysis - DashMart
This section examines DashMart's performance, specifically in terms of travel durations and instances of missing items. For total sales, DashMart led in total sales among all stores in the analysis.
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Key Metrics:
• D2R (Travel Duration to the Stores)
• Item missing
Overarching Questions:
How does DashMart's performance correlate with travel durations (D2R) and instances of missing items?
Analyze:
1. Dashers Travel Durations by Store and DashMart Performance
DashMart emerges as the top performer in Travel Durations, showcasing efficient dasher transit times, likely owing to strategic store locations or streamlined routes in Cincinnati.
2. Missing Items by Stores and DashMart Performance
DashMart achieves the lowest incidence of missing items despite boasting the highest sales revenue (see Appendix 1). This underscores DashMart's exceptional performance in ensuring order completeness.
Result: DashMart demonstrates outstanding performance in both Dasher Travel Durations and the occurrence of missing items, indicative of highly efficient operations within this DashMart establishment.
Core Recommendations: Potential Expansion/ Applied the strategies to the other DashMart Locations.
Consumers Analysis
This section will center on the most popular item categories and brands, exploring potential marketing and advertising strategies within the DoorDash app.
1. Top 5 Item Categories
2. Analysis of popular brands within the popular categories:
After identifying the top 5 popular item categories mentioned above, I conducted a detailed analysis of individual item names within each category. This led to the discovery of the most popular brands, outlined below: (Notably, specific items are not listed here; however, these products can be deemed as potential candidates for advertisement within the DoorDash app.)
1. Reese’s – Candy
2. Meijer – Dairy & Eggs
3. Aquafina – Drinks
4. Dean’s – Pantry
5. Cheryl’s - Snacks
Core Recommendations: Marketing Strategy – Popular Product Advertisement
Recommendations:
Short-term Plans:
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Dashers - Dasher Incentive Plan Proposal: (Collaborate with Finance/HR/Operations Department)
To enhance dashers' willingness to accept smaller-sized and lower-value delivery requests, I propose implementing an incentive mechanism. Dashers who accept a specific number of orders below a certain threshold (e.g., 5 orders with smaller amounts) will earn points. Accumulated points can then be redeemed as a reward. Two potential reward options are:
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• Tip Boost: Dashers can choose to have a percentage increase in tips for a designated week (e.g., a 1.5% boost).
• Gas Coupon Exchange: Alternatively, dashers can opt to exchange their points for gas coupons, providing a tangible compensation benefit.
This incentive plan aims to strike a balance between acknowledging and rewarding dashers for accepting less lucrative orders while offering them flexibility in choosing rewards that align with their preferences and needs. The execution path can include discussion with the Finance department for budgets, HR and engineering department for creating the systems, also the Dasher operations department for consulting.
Consumers - Consumer Marketing Advertisement Plan:
To leverage the popularity of specific brands and products identified through our analysis, I recommend implementing a targeted marketing plan. DoorDash can negotiate partnerships with these popular brands for in-app advertisements. When users of the DoorDash app engage with these advertisements, DoorDash can charge the respective brands a designated amount. Here are some key components:
• Popular Brands: Utilize insights from our analysis to pinpoint popular brands and products among users.
• Negotiate Partnerships: Initiate negotiations with the identified brands for in-app advertising opportunities.
• Cost-Per-Click Model: Implement a cost-per-click model where brands are charged based on the number of clicks their advertisements receive.
This marketing plan aims to capitalize on consumer preferences by showcasing popular brands, providing an additional revenue stream for DoorDash through strategic partnerships and targeted advertising.
Long-term Plans:
Vendors - Applied the Strategies to other DashMarts, including but not limited to:
• Expansion with Similar Models: Conduct thorough market research to identify locations with similar demographics and consumer behavior as dataset’s DashMart location.
• Inventory Strategy: Analyze top-performing products and categories in existing DashMart locations. Find put the common part with the DashMart in the dataset.
• Management Strategy: Refer to the DashMart with high performance and migrate their management structures. Maybe including some training programs.
Next Steps:
1. Validated the analysis by incorporating additional data, specifically focusing on delivery times. Here, delivery time is defined as the duration from the initiation of delivery by the customer to the point of delivery completion.
2. Ensured the reliability of the analysis by cross-referencing the findings with data from other months.
3. Explored seasonal variations in the top products and conducted an in-depth analysis of products from different vendors using the acquired data for multiple months.
4. Investigate DashMart's (Cincinnati) operational strategies to gain insights into its success.
Thanks for reading!
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