Dive Brief:

• DoorDash has added the ability to use SNAP EBT online payments for on-demand delivery of eligible grocery items as part of numerous updates to its app for consumers, merchants and workers, the company announced Wednesday. 
• Multiple grocery and retailer partners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Meijer, Aldi and 7-Eleven, will accept SNAP payments through DoorDash, making the payment capabilities available at more than 4,000 grocery and convenience locations nationwide, per the announcement. 
• This app update, alongside others, marks the biggest one in DoorDash’s 10-year history and comes at a time when DoorDash is positioning itself as a multi-category platform, company executives said at a media event on Tuesday. 

Dive Insight:

DoorDash will also offer SNAP recipients access to its DashPass membership, which provides free delivery on eligible orders, for free for two months. 

SNAP participants can currently use their food assistance benefits through DoorDash at nearly 900 Safeway and 380 Albertsons locations nationwide, per the announcement. Starting in July, more than 260 Meijer locations, more than 2,200 Aldi locations and over 130 7-Eleven stores will also add the capability. 

Offering SNAP EBT payments improves access to on-demand grocery delivery for vulnerable populations, including seniors, people living in food deserts and those facing disability or transportation barriers, Fuad Hannon, the company’s vice president of new verticals, said in a statement.

Rajat Shroff, DoorDash’s head of product, noted during the media event that SNAP is one of the “key features” DoorDash is turning to as its product team prioritizes affordability and accessibility for the products on its platform. 

“Making SNAP more and more available, more and more accessible is always something that you will see us continue to innovate on,” Shroff added. 

DoorDash joins Instacart in allowing customers to use their SNAP EBT benefits to pay for online orders. Instacart first started offering the payment option in late 2020 through its partnership with Aldi and has since expanded its availability through additional retail partners. In September, Instacart said it would work with the USDA to expand SNAP payment access to its grocery partners nationwide in 2023, with the goal of offering all of its grocery partners access by 2030. Meanwhile, competitor Uber does not offer users the option to add EBT cards to their accounts. 

Along with the SNAP EBT online payment option, DoorDash unveiled several other new grocery-related changes as part of its app updates. 

DoorDash customers are now able to use a universal search bar to search for any item they need from any location. For a customer searching for a salad, they will not only get prepared salads in the restaurant tab, but will also be able to get recommendations for items to create a salad in the grocery tab. Additionally, its browse functionality allows customers to click on a topic, like flowers, gifts, party supplies or arrange for a package pickup. 

DoorDash also added “grocery” and “retail” navigation tabs that appear wherever a customer is in the app to give them easier access to these options. 

Customers can discover new items through customized carousels based on prior search history, Shroff said during the media event. Consumers can also build multiple carts that allow them to build a grocery cart throughout the week and a lunch order for that day without having to delete progress in a cart.

DoorDash also announced during the media event several new features for its workers, including the ability for consumers to add or increase their tips post-checkout, the option to turn on location sharing for five contacts and the choice to earn a guaranteed hourly minimum rate on top of tips. Another new option lets workers select where they want to earn on their way to their preferred location, such as if they want to handle orders while commuting. 

“I live in San Mateo but enjoy dashing in a city south of me like Redwood City, because I'm familiar with the restaurants there. I'd rather get a dash that takes me to Redwood City instead of having to drive there and wait for orders to come my way,” Austin Haugen, DoorDash's head of dasher product, said at the media event on Tuesday. 

DoorDash executives said Tuesday that the company now works with over 500,000 merchants, of which 100,000 are not restaurants.

DoorDash has continually added new functions within the past year, including expanding its Drinks program to allow users to add c-stores and other retailer products to an existing order though DoubleDash. Last summer, it added new ways to rate, review and find local restaurants.