Storefront — Merchant Segmentation & Go-to-Market Research for B2B Growth

Overview

Storefront was DoorDash’s white-label eCommerce product — a tool that allowed merchants to power their own branded ordering websites with DoorDash fulfillment.
Despite its promise, adoption was low and activation rates were flat. SMBs found setup intimidating, mid-market partners were confused by pricing, and enterprise clients demanded deeper integration with their own POS and marketing systems.

I led a B2B segmentation, pricing, and GTM research program to answer one core question:

“What’s preventing merchants from adopting Storefront, and how do we turn it into a platform they trust, value, and expand with?”

This initiative became the blueprint for Storefront’s growth.
Over six weeks, we went from diagnosing adoption friction → building a new segmentation and pricing model → shipping feature and business design updates that increased activation, retention, and ARPU.

Business Challenge

• Subpar activation and retention; merchants dropping off post-signup.
  
• Generic one-size-fits-all messaging and pricing created confusion.
  
• Support costs were rising due to manual setup needs.
  
• Enterprise clients requested POS integration and brand control.
  
• Teams (PMM, Product, and Sales) lacked a shared segmentation or GTM framework.

‍Approach

Phase 1 — Market & Benchmarking

To establish context, I led a competitive intelligence scan across six leading white-label and POS-integrated ordering systems (Olo, Toast, ChowNow, Square, BentoBox, GloriaFood).

We benchmarked:

• Pricing models (flat, tiered, revenue share)
  
• Integration depth (POS, CRM, API)
  
• Feature differentiation (marketing tools, customization, analytics)

This market scan revealed a whitespace: competitors charged transparently and offered brand-control features, while Storefront’s pricing was opaque and its UX felt too “DoorDash-branded” for independent businesses.

Phase 2 — Segmentation & Journey Mapping

Designed and executed a mixed-method segmentation study to understand adoption barriers and drivers across merchant maturity levels.

• Quant survey (n ≈ 1,800) measuring operational readiness, marketing sophistication, and tech integration.
  
• In-depth interviews (n=15) with successful adopters, drop-offs, and non-adopters.
  
• Mapped three distinct B2B merchant journeys (SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise), highlighting where trust broke down and adoption stalled.

Phase 3 — Pricing & Feature Optimization

To design a more compelling business model, I ran a Van Westendorp pricing sensitivity analysis and a conjoint study modeling feature-value tradeoffs.
We evaluated willingness to pay across features like:

• Customization and brand control
  
• CRM and analytics
  
• Marketing automation
  
• POS integration
  

The data revealed clear pricing thresholds and a preference for tiered packaging that matched technical capability.

Phase 4 — Synthesis → GTM & Product Strategy

• Created 3-tier pricing & packaging model mapped to merchant maturity.
  
• Facilitated cross-functional workshops with PMM, Product, and Sales to translate findings into a unified GTM strategy.
  
• Partnered with PMs and Engineers to embed insights into platform features:
  
  
  • Marketing-as-a-Service: lightweight marketing toolkit to boost SMB traffic.
    
  • CRM dashboard redesign with lifecycle analytics and engagement metrics.
    
  • POS integration roadmap for seamless enterprise adoption.
    
  • Enhanced personalization tools enabling merchants to brand and customize their storefronts.

Insights

• Top adoption driver: clarity of pricing and integration simplicity.
  
• Biggest friction: merchants felt the product “wasn’t built for their size.”
  
• Marketing capability, not revenue, predicted success.
  
• Customization and brand storytelling were key to perceived legitimacy and long-term retention.
  
• Enterprise partners required ecosystem integration, not just feature parity.

Impact

→ Simplified pricing, increased adoption, expanded product ecosystem.

• Redesigned pricing model using conjoint and elasticity modeling: moved from flat fees to tiered structure that improved perceived fairness and trust.
  
• Added Marketing-as-a-Service, boosting ARPU and helping SMBs self-promote.
  
• Launched CRM dashboard upgrade, driving faster onboarding and engagement visibility.
  
• Developed POS integration roadmap, reducing enterprise setup time and creating ecosystem stickiness.
  
• Introduced storefront customization tools, allowing merchants to reflect their own brand identity.

Leadership & Influence

Senior–Principal (L7–L8) scope:

• Led research spanning Product, PMM, Sales, and Engineering.
  
• Unified teams through structured workshops and GTM offsites.
  
• Mentored PMMs on segmentation and pricing methodologies.
  
• Elevated research from insight → business model design → execution.

Organizational Impact

This project reframed Storefront from a transactional product into a strategic growth platform.
By aligning pricing, product design, and GTM messaging with real merchant needs, we transformed adoption and retention trajectories.

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The work established a repeatable framework for B2B research-driven strategy — combining segmentation, pricing science, and product vision to guide how DoorDash builds and monetizes merchant-facing platforms at scale.

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