DoorDash: ‘Great Digital Experiences’ Drive More Orders of Retail Goods

DoorDash is seeing a growing share of consumers order from not only its initial offering — restaurants — but also its new verticals that include a growing variety of retailers.

“Consumers are continuing to utilize new verticals,” DoorDash Chief Financial Officer Ravi Inukonda said Tuesday (Feb. 11) during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “They’re ordering from all categories.”

The share of monthly active users ordering from at least one of DoorDash’s new verticals categories rose from 20% in December 2023 to 25% in December 2024, according to a Tuesday earnings release.

Since launching its new verticals offering in the U.S. in mid-2020 by adding grocery and convenience, the aggregator has expanded to include alcohol, pets, flowers, health and beauty, sporting goods and — newly added in 2024 — home improvement, according to a shareholder letter released Tuesday.

“The utility that comes from great digital experiences and a high-quality last-mile logistics network that can deliver goods from every merchant in your community — as perishable as ice cream or french fries, as delicate as orchids or crickets, as bulky as mulch or lawnmowers, as valuable as iPads or big screen TVs — has increasing usefulness and enduring value,” DoorDash CEO and Co-Founder Tony Xu wrote in the letter.

During the fourth quarter, the company saw its total orders increase 19% year over year to 685 million and its marketplace gross order value (GOV) rise 21% to $21.3 billion, according to the earnings release.

It also saw its monthly active users rise from 37 million in December 2023 to an all-time high of 42 million in December 2024, and its DashPass and Wolt+ members rise from 18 million to 22 million over the same period, per the release.

The shareholder letter attributed the company’s growth in part to its focus on adding to its product selection, improving affordability, boosting the speed and accuracy of delivery, and enhancing customer service.

The selection of products the marketplace now offers includes those from 94 of the top 100 restaurants and 44 of the top 100 retailers in the U.S, according to the letter.

In the company’s first business — the restaurant segment — DoorDash sees continued strength in demand, per the letter.

“When we review our most recent 2024 cohorts, we see new cohorts with significantly higher engagement than our pre-COVID cohorts, and their engagement level has stayed consistent for the past couple of years,” Xu wrote in the letter. “In addition, each of our more mature cohorts grew their order rates through the year.”