Driving growth and profitability with food photos at DoorDash
DoorDash was the last food delivery platform to have photography. When UberEats launched with beautiful photos, we needed to quickly launch our own program. The program I built from the ground up changed the face of DoorDash forever.
Full case study
How I brought photography to DoorDash
Challenge
Uber has arrived
DoorDash had been gaining marketshare steadily in America, but Uber already had a significant global supply chain footprint.
When they launched UberEats with beautiful in-app food photography, DoorDash needed to ensure that Uber didn’t have a competitive edge that might pull away customers, or worse: attract exclusive lucrative deals with national chains.
Approach
Led by Design
Launching photography at DoorDash involved some design tasks, but was predominantly an operations project. As a designer, I was asked to lead it because photography would have such an outsized impact on consumer app user experience.
Advocating for quality despite internal resistance
Photo quality is critical when you eat what you buy, but everything at DoorDash had to be argued with data. Before we had data, I needed to advocate for quality.
When it was proposed that we cut costs by having customers provide photos, I showed food photos provided by Yelp users next to photos from our photographers.
The difference was self-evident.
When a picture is worth a thousand words, “show, don’t tell” was how I got the company onboard with maintaining high quality standards.
Photo quality from Yelp
Photo quality from my photographers
Scaling quality across 40k images with smart systems
Behind-the-scenes of an early test shoot
The style guide to scale our quality and consistency
Spinning up photoshoot supply & demand
Because the program was new, I needed to figure out how to hire photographers while scheduling restaurants for photoshoots.
Sourcing photographers
I tried working with large and small photo agencies, but it was expensive and slow. The method that led to the highest quality and lowest cost was simply hiring photographers through Craigslist.
Signing restaurants
I experimented with a variety of methods to sign restaurants for photoshoots. Drip email campaigns captured a small percentage, but I quickly discovered that the best way to reach decision-makers was to call restaurants after the lunch rush. I hired two Task Rabbits to make the calls.
I set up simple third-party tools, like Asana, to build automations, manage photoshoots, and easily oversee dozens of photographers across the country
Shaping the product strategy around a “failed” experiment
When we added photos to the home page, checkout conversion didn’t increase. When there was a call to cancel the project, I asked “What did change?”
Looking again, we found a 12% traffic increase to restaurants with photos. Photos on the home pages weren’t a silver bullet to lift sales, but they did help users make the next immediate decision.
Instead of cancelling the project, I advocated for adding photos to every step of the customer journey to ease decision making.
This is why you see photos across all of DoorDash, today.
Results
Photos unlocked huge, unexpected value across all of DoorDash
No one, myself included, expected photography to create so much impact for so many parts of the business. That impact is still being felt today.
I built and led an 80-person team that curated 40k high-quality images for 70% less than competitors.
I scaled photography at DoorDash from a few test shoots to a global team of 80 photographers and ops-team members.
By iterating on our processes and training, I was able to get photoshoot costs down to $50 per shoot (a third of what competitors spent), giving DoorDash the edge again.
I built and led an 80-person team that curated 40k high-quality images for 70% less than competitors.
I scaled photography at DoorDash from a few test shoots to a global team of 80 photographers and ops-team members.
By iterating on our processes and training, I was able to get photoshoot costs down to $50 per shoot (a third of what competitors spent), giving DoorDash the edge again.
Major wins across the business
Photos build trust and desire. They help you assess what you’re going to eat, and the “yum” factor boosts key product metrics. I suggested that we place photos across every part of the product, which is what you see today.
Conversion
12% traffic shift to partners
Photography helped customers make key decisions, like picking restaurants or items, improving conversion at every step.
Sales
Landing national deals
National chains were eager to display their products. Once DoorDash had photos like our competitors, lucrative sales deals became easier.
Marketshare
Expanding to new verticals
When DoorDash wanted to expand to grocery and retail, I had already built the infrastructure to match images to menu items at scale.
Partnerships
A valuable partnership with Apple
Apple reached out to DoorDash to demo their new iMesssage mini-apps. DoorDash’s app wouldn’t have likely been a fit it was text-only.
Profitability
Signing new partner restaurants
Because photos were only offered to partner restaurants, they became an incentive to enter more formal (and profitable) relationship.
Campaign relevance
Massive marketing library
Having thousands of photos from restaurants around the country gave the marketing team relevant visual assets for every campaign.
Today
Food photos continue to deliver for DoorDash
The photography program I built permanently changed the face of DoorDash.
Despite initial hesitation, the company went all-in on photos. Photography is now central to the every part of consumer app experience.
For years, photos have been driving key metrics, attracting national chains, and making customers hungry for their favorite restaurants.
