How do you get more orders on DoorDash?

Most of the decision happens on one screen. A hungry customer scrolls a list of nearby stores, taps one and skims the menu. There is no server to describe a dish or suggest a side. The photos, the item names and the prices do that job. DoorDash puts it simply: your menu does the selling for you.

Each step is a place to lose the order. A store with no photos loses people at the menu. A vague dish name loses them at the description. A price far above the counter menu loses them at checkout. A store that cancels orders loses them for good. The fixes cost little, and most are free. Work through them in the order a customer meets them, one store at a time.

Yes, and the delivery apps say so with their own data. DoorDash found that menus with item photos saw up to 44% more monthly sales. Grubhub says restaurants that add pictures and descriptions get as much as 70% more orders. It also reports 65% higher sales for them. These are each company’s own numbers. Treat them as a direction, not a promise.

You do not need a studio. DoorDash offers a free professional photoshoot where it is available, and the only cost is the food. Its Smart Photo Tools turn quick phone shots into cleaner menu photos. You can also pull dishes straight from your Instagram account. Start with the items people order most. DoorDash gives the same advice when photos are a store’s weak spot.

Plainly. A customer who has never visited does not know your house names. “The Jefferson” means nothing on a phone. “Spicy fried chicken sandwich” tells them what they get. Names and descriptions also do quiet work in search. DoorDash uses them to apply food labels like vegan, gluten-free or spicy. Those labels put your dishes in the right searches and dietary filters.

Clear descriptions also cut mistakes. When customers know what comes with a dish, missing-item reports can drop. DoorDash links that to two of its store signals, missing items and cancellations. Short on time? Its Item Description Generator drafts a description from the item name, photo and add-ons. Read each draft before you save it. A franchise brand often controls item names, so ask your franchisor before you rename anything.

The top of the menu gets the most attention on a small screen. DoorDash suggests splitting the menu into categories, much as a printed menu does. It also adds a Most Liked Items category on its own, so customers see what locals enjoy. Up to three items can carry that label at a time. Your own first categories come right after it.

Pick dishes that travel well for that first category. A burger that arrives soggy earns a Didn’t Like rating, however good it is in the store. Then make each dish easy to build on. Offer a side, a drink or a size choice with each entree. Uber Eats says menus that allow customization get over 20% more orders. You edit menus in the Merchant Portal, so check each store’s menu after any change.

DoorDash grades every store on four operational signals. It calls the result Merchant Status. The tiers run from Poor to Needs Work, Almost There and Most Loved. Only Most Loved shows to customers. Those stores get a badge, a dedicated homepage carousel and more homepage visibility. The status updates monthly, based on the prior month’s orders.

Status is set store by store. Two locations of the same brand can sit in different tiers. That makes it a useful monthly scorecard for a franchisee. Open Insights › Most Loved in the Merchant Portal at the start of each month. Fix the signal the portal flags first. Then move to the next one. You do not need to fix everything at once.

Customers rate an order as Loved, Liked or Didn’t Like. They can add tags such as Good Flavor, Accurate Order or Late Delivery. Most leave feedback within a day of the order. You can reply privately from the Merchant Portal. DoorDash gives you seven days to respond, and it recommends replying within a day.

The tags matter more than any single review. Several Accurate Order complaints in one week point to the bagging station, not the customer. DoorDash may reject public reviews that mainly blame delivery time or food temperature. Those sit outside your control. Reviews on Google work much the same way. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers asking guests in the store.

DoorDash charges a commission on each order’s subtotal. On its Basic plan, delivery orders cost 15%. Higher plans charge more, up to 30%, and reach more customers. Pickup orders cost 6% on every plan. DoorDash lists no monthly or signup fee. Run the numbers on a typical order before you pick a plan.

Owners feel this cost. In a National Restaurant Association survey in May 2026, 47% of full-service operators said third-party delivery orders made no profit. So did 43% of limited-service operators. Two in three said their average fee fell roughly in the range of DoorDash’s delivery rates. Our guide to setting a marketing budget helps you weigh that fee against your other spending.

Most operators already charge more. Eighty-three percent of limited-service operators in that survey charged more on third-party apps. So did 66% of full-service operators. The association links those higher prices to delivery fees. But a wide gap costs orders. DoorDash studied small restaurants in 2023. Menus with marked-up prices saw up to 37% fewer sales.

DoorDash does not require price matching. It does count markup as one of its four signals. You keep control of your prices. A smaller gap on the dishes people come for is often enough. Customers notice the price of the item they opened the app to buy. They rarely compare the price of a side.

Desmond’s fix cost some staff time and very little money. The ads came last, once each store page could turn a visit into an order.

After the store page is fixed. Ads, called Sponsored Listings, put your store on the homepage and in search results. You pay only when someone orders through the ad, not per click. Promotions offer a discount, free delivery or a free item. Stores new to either may get a free trial credit. Check the Marketing tab in the Merchant Portal.

You set a bid per order and a budget, so the spend has a ceiling. Test at one store for two weeks and compare it with a similar store that runs nothing. Our guide to Google Ads for one location uses the same one-store test for search ads. Keep whichever campaign brings orders you would not have had anyway.

Many do. A customer may see your dish on Instagram or in a friend’s video, then search your name in the app. So your DoorDash photos can work as social posts too. DoorDash lets you use its photoshoot pictures on your website and social accounts. You cannot use them on other delivery apps.

A creator’s video is one way to start that search. CreatoRain, which publishes this guide, makes those videos for restaurant chains and franchises, done for you. Each video costs $300, with the creator’s pay included. Ask that the dish be named exactly as it appears on your menu. A viewer can then find it in a few taps.

Work in the order a customer meets your store. Photos and names come first, because they win the tap. Hours and stock come next, because a canceled order wastes everything before it. Prices and reviews follow. Paid campaigns come last, and only at one store to start.

Check Insights › Most Loved at the start of next month. Compare each store with its own last month, not with your other stores. A store that moves up a tier has earned its ad budget. A store that does not has its next fix already listed in the portal.