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How to Navigate the Merchant Portal

Learn how to navigate the Merchant Portal to track your business performance, get actionable insights, and make adjustments directly on the platform.

9/12/24
16 min read
How to use the Merchant Portal - Navigation

Whether you're checking financial statements, updating store information, or analyzing customer data, the Merchant Portal gives you the tools to manage and grow your business all in one place. Learn how to navigate each section, including sales insights, reporting, menu management, marketing tools, and more.

What is the Merchant Portal?

(Short) EN Portal Navigation R2

Dashboard Dashboard

Once you’ve logged into the Merchant Portal, the first section you’ll see is Dashboard. In the left hand column, you can see a table of contents of all the sections within the Merchant Portal.

At the top of your DoorDash dashboard is your optimization score. This is a “health tracker” that helps you understand how your store is running and ways to improve your sales on DoorDash. You can learn more about your optimization score here.

On the main Dashboard page, you can scroll to find a store overview that includes:

  • Sales

  • Orders 

  • Average Ticket Size

When you scroll down the page, In the top-left drop-down menu, you can filter the information you see on the Dashboard by time.

Underneath this section you can see Insights & Actions and sort them by: 

  • All: See all suggestions we recommend for your store

  • Growth: Opportunities to grow your business

  • Operations: Advice to improve your operations

  • Announcements: New features that DoorDash has launched to help your store sales

In the top-left drop-down menu, you can filter the information you see on the Dashboard by time.

If you scroll down, on the right you can view:

On the left hand Dashboard, you can view different sections of the Merchant Portal.

Insights

In Insights, you can see Sales as well as Operations Quality.

Optimization Score

Here you can view your Optimization Score, which helps you understand your store’s performance and next steps you can take to potentially increase your sales on DoorDash.

Sales

In the Sales page, you can see Sales, Total Orders, Average Ticket Size, including a total overview of your sales as well as Top Opportunities to build your business. 

Operations quality

This section shows you how good of an experience you are providing your customers. 

The first thing you’ll see is Areas requiring your attention. These metrics show areas where there is room for improvement.

By scrolling down you’ll go into Areas on track. This includes information on:

  • Wait time: Total amount of time Dashers wait for orders at your store.

  • Cancellations: Orders that were not prepared, picked up, or delivered.

  • Order accuracy: A measure of orders reported with missing or incorrect items.

  • Downtime:  A measure if the amount of time delivery is unavailable during business hours.

Most Loved

Learn if you’re on track to qualify for the Most Loved program.

Reports

Create and manage the reports that provide access to your store's sales, operations, and financial data on DoorDash. Once in the Reports tab, you will see a summary of existing reports with the option to choose a breakdown between month, week or day. Compare a product and customer type to see how things have changed over time.

To get the most out of your sales data, head over to Make Strategic Business Decisions Using DoorDash Reporting. Download previous reports by selecting Download report under "Action." If you are making a new report, choose Create report. This feature enables you to build a report in two steps:

1. Select a report type

  • Financial

  • Sales

  • Marketing

  • Customer

2. Customize your report

  • Choose when you receive a report between either Immediately or a Recurring Schedule.

  • Choose a time frame.

  • Choose to view either by Time, Store or Order

Customers

The Customer tab allows you to see Store Loyalty, Customer Insights, and Ratings & Reviews.

Restaurant Rewards

Performance insights since the launch of your loyalty program, reflecting a maximum of 12 months of data.

Customer Insights

In Customer Insights, you can have an overview of your customers. You can view what percentage of customers are New, Occasional and Frequent. You can also see where your customers are located to get a feel for what neighborhoods are ordering from you.

Ratings & reviews

In the Ratings & reviews tab, you can read reviews from customers, respond to customers, as well as see ratings during a specific time or your lifetime rating. 

If you want to learn more about viewing and improving your restaurant reviews, head over to our article on customer reviews.

Orders

This tab enables you to track orders from every channel in real-time including:

  • Active: Orders you are currently fulfilling.

  • Scheduled: Orders that haven’t occurred yet, but were requested in advance by customers.

  • History: A list of all your past orders.

Marketing

In the Marketing tab, you can run a campaign such as:

  • Sponsored Listings: Ads that are featured in highly visible places on the DoorDash app, like the homepage and search results.

  • New Customer Promotions: Drive sales by enticing customers with a discount, free delivery, free or discounted items, and more.

Campaign reporting

When you’re running a DoorDash promotion you can view metrics on how your marketing campaign is doing.

If you want to learn more marketing tips, head over to our article on How to attract new customers.

In the Menu Manager tab, you can see an overview of your menu(s). Your menu is separated into the different categories you select. The most popular categories are:

  • Appetizers

  • Entrees

  • Dessert

  • Beverages

In this section you can make DoorDash menu updates:

Pricing

Review how your menu pricing may affect your business performance and view opportunities to grow your sales.

If you want to learn more about how markups could impact your sales, check out How Menu Pricing Could Impact Your Sales.

Store availability

Here you can check your store status, update store hours, or add special hours and closures.

Regular Menu hours

You can have multiple menus in this section such as breakfast and lunch or an all-day menu and adjust the specific times for each, so customers can know what they can order and when.

Special closures/hours

This section enables you to select specific times your business will operate during holidays. Click Add New to add a closure date, or View History to see when you have closed in the past.  

If you need to immediately stop new orders from coming in, click the red Pause Store button at the top of the page. 

If you want to learn more, head over to our article on store essentials, where you can learn more about adding all necessary details to your store.

Financials

In the Financials tab, you can see Transactions, Payouts and Statements.

Transactions

This section gives you insights into the total number of orders and estimated payout during a specific period of time, which you can input into the fields at the top.

Note, these are estimates to provide a snapshot of your business during a specific period of time.

Payouts

This section gives you the finalized payment data for your scheduled payouts and the finalized order level detail included in the payout. This should be the data used when you are conducting your regular financial reconciliation. You can select a period of time from the drop-down menu to view your payouts.

Statements

These are your monthly statements based on your business activity. Monthly statements are available by the 5th day of each month.

To learn more about your Financials, check out How to Understand Your DoorDash Payout and Monthly Statement.

Request a delivery

Here you can schedule a Dasher to deliver an order. On this page you can enter the customer details as well as any order details your Dasher may need to accurately pick up an order. This is also where your staff can enter orders that have been taken over the phone or catering orders.

Settings

Underneath Settings, there are a number of tabs. You can change your Account settings, Store settings, Store communications, Bank account and Integrations.

Account Settings

Here you can input and key information that will help run your store smoothly, such as:

  • Set Menu pickup and delivery rate

  • Toggle on or off if you’ll use auto-generated menu descriptions

  • Create or manage a PIN for Tablet access

  • Add Dasher pickup instructions that all Dashers can see when picking up orders or Dynamic instructions for different times of the day or certain days of the week. You can also add Customer pickup instructions.

  • Under Your Plan you can see specifics on DoorDash and Caviar Marketplace including Delivery Commission Rate, Pickup Commission Rate, if you have DashPass, as well as if you pay nothing because you received at least 20 orders per month. 

  • Revise Other Rates & Fees and have an option to have daily payouts.

Your plan

Here you can see your DoorDash plan and the associated costs. This could vary depending on your plan, but could include:

  • Delivery commission rate

  • Pickup commission rate

  • DashPass subscription

  • DashPass commission rate

  • If you are receiving 20 or more orders per month

Other rates & fees

Here you’ll see tax rates and other fees that may vary, depending on your region.

Daily Payouts

Here you can opt-in or out of receiving daily payouts.

Store Settings

Under Store Settings, add your store name, address, phone number, website, a description of your store and as well as your store logo and header images. As something to keep in mind: menus with header images and logos get up to 50% (header) and 23% (logo) more monthly sales than restaurants without these branding elements. They also qualify for the Most Loved program, which can help you gain visibility.

Here you can find out more about setting up your store.

Manage Users

Here you can edit what your staff have access to in the Merchant Portal

  1. In the Settings section of the Merchant Portal, click on Manage users.

  2. Click on + Add user.

  3. Add or manage employees and store managers. Select one of the following options:

  • Business Admin

  • Store Manager

  • Store Operator

Read our article on logging into the Merchant Portal to find out more.

Store communications

Here you can manage your preferences around emails about your store, such as: 

  • Important Alerts: If you will receive alerts on store deactivations and who will receive the alerts.

  • Performance Reporting: if you would like to receive alerts on your stores performance and operational efficiency, as well as the frequency you receive these alerts and who will receive them.

Bank account

Here you will find a summary of your Banking Information. In this section, you can update key banking information such as:

  • Company name

  • Bank account details 

  • Representative

Note: banking information will vary depending on your region.

You can also see if you’re verified to receive orders and payments from DoorDash. You can also see if you’re verified to receive orders and payments from DoorDash. To learn how to add and manage your payout information, read How to Set Up Your Restaurant’s Banking Information.

Integrations

See how to connect the apps and software that are essential for the operation of your business.

Add solutions

Here you can learn about all the ways that DoorDash can help you increase your sales as well as grow your business. 

The DoorDash Merchant Suite showcases all the products available to small and medium-sized businesses in a simple self-serve fashion. The suite puts restaurants’ needs first, and was built as a direct result of listening to partner feedback. Whether you want to Grow Online, Attract New Customers, Increase Order Size & Volume, and more – you can easily identify and access the unique set of DoorDash tools that can help you achieve your goals and succeed off-premise.

To learn more about specific options, head over to how to grow with the Merchant Suite.

Help

On this page you can reach out to support

Point of sale

If you have a point of sale integration system you can configure it or add your menu on this page. To see if we integrate with your point of sale system, head over to our page on integrations and learn how to connect your POS system.

DoorDash Merchant Portal FAQ

Why is my Portal slightly different from the above?

We customize the Portal to your needs and are committed to continually improving your experience. Depending on your account type and product usage, you might see a slightly different view.

How can I give my team access to the Merchant Portal?

You can add your team to the Merchant Portal and set user permissions. If your team can’t see a specific section of the Portal, it may be due to their user account settings. Here is where you can learn about adding and adjusting user settings.

We hope this helped you understand your options in the Merchant Portal as well as how to navigate from your DoorDash dashboard to all the various sections of the Portal.

As a next step, here’s how to add your team to the Merchant Portal.

Author

Merchant Learning

Merchant Learning