FROM THE HEART OF THE HOUSE
Jason Molinari
Industry Analyst, Popcorn GTM
Economics and Business Studies Student at New York University
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Delivery Might Not be the Opposite of Dine-In Anymore
For years, restaurants have treated delivery and dine-in as two separate businesses: one happens through an app and the other happens in a dining room. However, new 2026 data suggests that the distinction is becoming less and less useful. DoorDash and SevenRooms, a restaurant hospitality company, analyzed behavior from more than 50 million monthly DoorDash users, alongside a survey of 3,001 U.S. consumers, and found that 79% of delivery customers also dine in at the same restaurant. To further support, 62% of consumers said a delivery order later led them to dine at that same restaurant, while 74% said the reverse happened—a dine-in visit eventually led to a delivery order. The takeaway is simple: delivery isn't necessarily taking a customer away from the dining room, it's instead introducing them to it in a new way.
On the economics side, it becomes even more interesting when you look at what happens after that first transaction. DoorDash reports that 80% of dine-in visits and 79% of orders are with restaurants customers have already tried, suggesting that familiarity is a major driver of restaurant demand. That means the first delivery order has value beyond the revenue generated on that individual ticket. If a customer orders a burger from a restaurant they have never visited, likes it, and then chooses that restaurant for a Friday-night dinner two weeks later, the economics of the original delivery order look very different. The restaurant wasn't just buying a delivery transaction; it was potentially acquiring a repeat customer. DoorDash's 2025 community research points in the same direction: 70% of merchants surveyed said the platform helped them gain new customers by first introducing them through delivery, while 90% said it helped them reach consumers they otherwise would not have reached.
The bigger implication for restaurant operators is that profitability shouldn't be counted as just one single part of the process. A delivery order may carry different fees and margins than a dine-in check, but judging it only on the economics of that first transaction can miss the value of the customer relationship that comes along with it. Restaurants should instead be asking: How many first-time delivery customers eventually return, order directly, join our loyalty programs, or come in our front door?
The restaurant that treats those as competing businesses may be measuring the wrong thing. The better strategy is to make delivery the top of the funnel, use it to get the first taste into a customer's hands, and then give that customer a reason to eventually walk through the door.
For a deeper dive, check out this episode of Modern Solutions for Modern Restaurants that features "The Delivery Tax Stack."
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