Whether it's families enjoying a meal together on Christmas or couples planning a Valentine's Day date night, people like treating themselves on special occasions — that's why holidays and events are great opportunities for restaurants to drive sales.
Wondering if DoorDash is busy on major holidays like New Year's Eve, Easter, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving? Keep reading to find out the top ten busiest holidays and special occasions for food delivery in 2023, as well as tips on how to prepare your kitchen for high order volume days.
Methodology: We examined DoorDash Marketplace data from 2023 to reveal which holidays and special occasions generated the most delivery orders for restaurant partners. To capture accurate insights, we adjusted for stores open during this time period (i.e., stores that had at least $50 in sales on the given day).
What are the busiest holidays for restaurant food delivery?
Here are the top ten busiest holidays, sports events, and special occasions for food delivery in 2023, based on the average number of deliveries with DoorDash per open restaurant location:
Christmas (December 25, 2023)
New Year's Day (January 1, 2023)
Mother's Day (May 14, 2023)
Easter (April 9, 2023)
New Year's Eve (December 31, 2023)
Memorial Day (May 29, 2023)
Labor Day (September 4, 2023)
Men's College Basketball Finals (April 1, 2023)
Thanksgiving (November 23, 2023)
Veterans Day (November 11, 2023)
While they didn't crack the top ten, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Game Day, Presidents' Day, the Fourth of July, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day appeared in spots 11-16, respectively, in 2023.
Of the top 100 busiest days overall in 2023 (not just holidays), 42 were Sundays, 36 were Fridays, 17 were Saturdays, and 4 were Mondays. Restaurants can prepare for increased order volume on weekends, including Sundays.
Comparing 2023 vs. 2022 busiest holidays on DoorDash
The below infographic shows the busiest holidays for restaurant food delivery in 2023 vs. 2022, based on the average number of deliveries with DoorDash per open restaurant location.
Our takeaways:
Christmas, New Year's Day, Mother's Day, and Easter were the four busiest holidays for food delivery for the second year in a row.
New Year's Eve saw the biggest spike this year, jumping from #13 in 2022 to #5 in 2023.
Beating football's biggest Game Day two years in a row, the first game of the Men's College Basketball Finals landed at #8 in 2023.
Thanksgiving jumped from #12 in 2022 to #8 in 2023, as more consumers chose to order delivery instead of cooking.
Veterans Day fell on a Saturday in 2023, perhaps helping to keep it in the top ten. According to the Restaurant Online Ordering Trends report, Saturday is the second most popular day of the week for food delivery on DoorDash, after Friday.
Valentine's Day slipped from #6 in 2022 to #11 in 2023, perhaps as more consumers dined out at restaurants to celebrate with their significant others.
Though it was #9 in 2022, Game Day was ranked #12 in 2023 as other holidays became more popular for food delivery.
Restaurants can rest easy on Christmas Eve, which was the second-least busy day of all of 2023.
Is DoorDash busy on holiday long weekends?
Here are the most popular days for delivery in 2023 when just looking at weekend days before or after major holidays:
Sunday before Halloween
Friday before Presidents' Day
Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Friday before Veterans Day
Sunday before Indigenous Peoples' Day
Friday before Halloween
Friday before the Fourth of July
Friday before Memorial Day
Friday before Indigenous Peoples' Day
Friday before Juneteenth
Restaurants should note that if a holiday falls on a weekday, the surrounding weekend days may see a spike in food deliveries. For example, since Presidents' Day falls on a Monday, consumers may settle into the long weekend by ordering delivery the Friday before.
Planning for the busiest holidays for restaurants in 2023
Wondering how to prepare your restaurant staff for these high order volume days? Here are a few tips to manage restaurant operations on the busiest holidays for food delivery:
Add photos and descriptions to your menu. Before the big day, work to optimize your storepage on DoorDash by adding photos, including menu photos, logos, and header photos, as well as menu descriptions.
Staff up for these holidays. You may want to have an expo overseeing delivery orders, or double-checking each order before handing them to Dashers so you avoid having missing or incorrect items.
Optimize your kitchen layout. Consider setting up a lane specifically for takeout orders, with a kitchen display system (KDS) or tickets for pickup or delivery going directly there.
Minimize your DoorDash store downtime. Downtime measures the amount of time DoorDash is unavailable to your customers during business hours. If your kitchen gets too busy, DoorDash partners can update their store status to "Busy," which adds prep and delivery time to orders.
Update your menu in real time. Need to 86 a menu item? Use DoorDash's menu manager tools to temporarily deactivate items on your DoorDash menu.
For more tips on managing your DoorDash business, read our Learning Center article How to Quickly Train Your Team to Use DoorDash.
Maximize holiday delivery sales with DoorDash
By understanding which national holidays are likely to be the busiest for food delivery, operators can build a restaurant marketing strategy that engages guests and drives revenue.
Want tips to drive food delivery sales on popular holidays? Download the free Restaurant Holiday Marketing Calendar and Toolkit to get a calendar of 270+ national and social media holidays plus creative strategies for restaurants to drive sales year-round.
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