Explicit Guide For Food Delivery App Development For Your Business

Explicit Guide For Food Delivery App Development For Your Business Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness – Auguste Escoffier Today, when the world is going mobile dependent, the demand for on-demand delivery apps has surged significantly. If we talk about the current scenario when people are afraid of stepping out of their homes, they wish to get their requirements delivered at their doorsteps. The online food delivery market is not left untouched by the new market demands and by the power of online food delivery apps. With the growing usage of food apps, it is expected that the next five years will be filled with more global consolidation.

Do you know the market revenue increased by 204% in the last five years as the platform to customers services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Postmates were introduced? These business giants provide a wider selection of restaurants, cafes, and a variety of food items. The global food delivery app value is expected to multiply every next year. Check out the below figures by Research And Markets that show how the global food delivery app value is increasing year by year.

Source: Research & Markets The entire world and several industries are falling under the pressure of COVID-19.

The global pandemic and safety regulations made food delivery apps like UberEats more popular than ever before.

Today, when the dinings at restaurants are totally restricted in some countries, people look for online services to enjoy their favorite meal from their all-time favorite restaurants. Also, food business owners can serve their consumers via their active online presence.

Are you planning to become a part of an industry that is all set to reach $200 billion in 2025? Do you have raw ideas for your food delivery startup that you want to convert into a successful app? Wait, before you reach any conclusion, figure out some vital aspects to validate your business idea into successful app development.

In this food delivery app development guide, you will find yourself immersed in the below facts and concepts:

● Why is the market still open for new food delivery apps? ● How food delivery applications work and their business model?

● Right business strategy to run your food delivery business successfully. ● Key challenges that you have to deal with to survive in the competitive food delivery market. ● Steps to develop food delivery app (Research, development, and promotions) ● Top features that make your app successful. ● What are the key technical integrations?

The on-demand delivery apps are becoming widespread in recent years due to the customer’s growing usability of online services. Studies found a sudden rise in food app downloads. Businesses can opt for food delivery app development services to expand their business.

Top five reasons why your food business needs an on-demand food delivery app?

Cloud Kitchen Businesses that are looking forward to set-up virtual restaurants or commissary kitchens can opt for food delivery applications. It helps food business entrepreneurs to connect with commercial kitchens to launch their own virtual restaurants. Earlier traditional kitchens neglected the concept of cloud kitchen but with the advent of online food delivery tech innovation food businesses are exclusively focusing on facilitating seamless online delivery services.

Increased demand for food delivery

We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming increasingly widespread. The way of living of every individual is going digital. People rely on online services to get their day-to-day essentials. The food industry got a sudden rise in the demand for online food delivery services. Food business owners are required to cater to more audiences than ever. If you are operating in the food industry, then this is the right time to get your restaurant delivery apps and serve the growing market demands.

Food delivery apps have the potential to flourish in future Change is the only constant thing! Expecting changes in the world of technology and the food market is not wrong. As per the current market trends, the food market is expected to get matured with an overall growth rate close to 3.5% in the upcoming year. This is how you can witness the exponential growth of the online food delivery market in the future. Hence, creating a robust app will help your food business to sustain itself in the future.

Enhance transparency for both users and vendors The on-demand delivery apps have already gained huge growth and popularity. The technology penetration is contributing to mature the food market. The food app provides enough transparency for both users and merchants.

Increase returning visitors Every business owner wishes to retain their customers for a long time. To increase returning visitors, developing a customized on-demand application is the first thing to do. To drive more customers and to build a strong relationship with them, businesses need to invest in-home delivery apps.

Developing a food application will help you to connect with potential customers. To drive the target market, food business owners must invest in custom app development that can reach a wider array of audiences that need online food delivery services.

What Are the Different Interfaces of a Food Delivery App? Admin Panel The app owner can keep track of the complete transaction that takes place on the app. From tracking customer’s actions, payment transactions, editing menus, promoting the latest offers, and tracking driver’s activity, this panel allows the admin to manage everything.

Delivery Person Panel This allows the delivery person to accept or reject delivery requests, find the shortest route, check the user’s location, and update the delivery status on the app.

Restaurant Panel This panel allows restaurant owners to manage tasks like order management, edit the food listings, prices, latest offers, updating product availability, and resolve the customer’s queries related to products and restaurants.

Customer Panel This enables customers to find the food menu, make secure payments, find the list of nearby restaurants, share feedback and reviews and check the real-time location of the delivery agent.

Super Admin (In multi-vendor App) In the case of developing a multi-vendor application, the super admin manages the complete network on the app that includes access to plugins, adding a new listing,

privacy setting, and managing the entire transaction that takes place on the application.

How to develop a feature-rich food delivery app in 2021?

Conduct Market Research This is the most important phase before starting food app development. Conduct deep market research to know your target audience, go with competitor analysis, and find out the latest food industry trends. To take your app development in the right direction, grasp the strong market scenario, and hottest online food delivery trends.

Choose the right business model There is an existing food delivery apps business model that includes:

The order only model The first generation food delivery service providers like JustEat and Grubhub have introduced this model. The unique selling point of this model is to notify new orders to the restaurants. It replaces the old-fashioned phone ordering system with an optimized web portal and mobile app services.

How does it work?

1. Customers can place an order using the website or mobile app.

2. The restaurants get notified about the new order requests.

3. Delivery will be made by the delivery agent allocated by the restaurant.

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The Order and Delivery Model This is the revised version of the previous model. This model is followed by popular food delivery brands like DoorDash, Uber, and Zomato. In this model, the service providers carry extra requests and orders to the eateries and give their own logistics network to convey orders from eateries to their armada of independent couriers. This model eliminates the need of investing in resources for food delivery and arrange vehicles that are good for restaurant owners. Under this model, order and delivery platforms manage logistics for food joints, restaurants, and home delivery services.

Cloud Restaurant Model In this model, restaurants remove the in-house dining service and cater to audiences as food delivery businesses only. Here the customer’s orders are prepared in a cloud kitchen and get delivered to them via their employed delivery agents. Development based on this model takes less investment, offers food at a lower cost along with maintaining healthy margins.

Meal Kit Delivery Model This model is gaining traction by the food delivery market serving customers who want to cook as per their recommendation but have a lack of ingredients and resources. Under this model, restaurants provide hand-curated ingredients and recipes to the consumers. Customers will have the option of vegetarian, non-vegetarian, family, or individual and the restaurant will deliver the resources

accordingly. An in-house team of chefs will prepare the dishes and a team of delivery agents will offer a meal kit.

Choose the revenue model The monetization model of an application includes the following:

Delivery Charges The food delivery service providers generate income by delivering the required food item to a particular address. The cost for food delivery is calculated by distance and fixed price.

Revenue Sharing Most of the home delivery apps coordinate with eateries on pre-defined commission rates from each order. The commission rate may differ with every order or based on the order size it can be fixed.

Advertisement and Promotional Services Food delivery application also generates income by promoting the restaurant’s profile on the search listing. Restaurants can promote banners or advertise their products, special offers, discounts, and services on the app listing. It helps them to enhance their brand visibility and make them recognized by the wider audience.

Surge Pricing This monetization strategy includes delivery charges at peak times like lunch or dinner. Various top food delivery brands surge prices from the customer during the festive season, lunch or dinner time when the demand gets high.

White Labelling

In this concept the food delivery service providers source dishes from restaurants and sell them as their offerings. This option is the best fit if the restaurant has not gained enough attention or is not well known among consumers or for the services operating from home.

Which are the Must-Have Features for a Food Delivery App? Customer App

Sign up & Profile Management Sign-up is the first stage where users will register themselves using their email Id, mobile no. or social login. Users are required to create their profile by inserting

relevant details like phone no, name, email id and address. Your app should offer an easy registration process hence offering registration via social network is also a great option.

Geo-location This feature enables users to track the real-time location of the delivery person and also find the location of the restaurants.

Restaurant List Users can view the list of top or nearby restaurants. Users can go through the restaurant’s reviews and choose the one with maximum positive reviews to order their meal.

Delivery Address This option allows the user to enter their address or the app can identify the user’s current location via a GPS tracking system. Users can save multiple addresses on their profiles.

Payment Mode This is the most vital feature of a food delivery application where the user finds multiple payment options like Debit/Credit card, Cash On Delivery, eWallets to streamline secure payment.

Food Cart Sometimes customers want to order a variety of meals that they cannot find in the same restaurant. This option allows users to add or remove items from the food cart before placing the final order and making payment.

Order Scheduling

This feature allows consumers to schedule the food order delivery time to avoid challenges like late delivery and unavailability.

Order History This is a time-saving feature. When a user wants to repeat past orders then he/she will not be required to go through the entire process. All they need to just click on the repeat order and get their order placed again.

Review & Rating As the name implies, this feature allows users to share their reviews and rate the restaurants and quality of the meal. This feature adds transparency for the users who are going to order dishes from particular restaurants. They can go through the reviews and ratings of the restaurants to know about the products and service quality.

Push Notifications This functionality keeps the users updated about the latest offers, discounts, and coupons. Users will get notified on their mobile no. or email ID about the best offers.

Multiple filters Based on some factors like location, review, price, rating, food type users can filter their search criteria and make their order process more convenient.

Restaurant App

Managing Orders This feature allows restaurants to update order status and let users know about it.

Users will get updates like “restaurant has accepted your order”, “your food is being prepared” that will give them an approximate delivery time.

Accounts & Management The restaurants registered with the admin app can manage the financial transactions and accounts under this feature.

Dashboard This feature manages new order updates, canceled orders, orders under preparation, completed orders, and the whole amount collected on each order. This helps restaurant owners to take further actions accordingly.

Restaurant Profile This feature allows restaurant owners to edit their prices, discount rates, food listings, and current updates for the availability of the products.

Add Products The store manager can edit the menu and food items to the restaurant using this app and get it updated on the app in real-time.

Accept or reject an order Restaurant owners can accept or refuse orders.

Brand Management If a restaurant brand is operating from different locations then this feature allows them to manage their store conveniently.

Special Offers/ Coupon Code Management It allows food service providers to promote new deals, offers, discounts, and enhance customer retention.

Track Payments Restaurant owners can link their account details and view transaction status like successful payment or pending settlements.

Order Reports Restaurants can get the reports for the performance of their business to take the further required actions.

Customer Support

This feature allows store owners to address product and restaurants related issues.

Admin App Registration & Profile Management The admin panel includes a feature where details of customers, delivery agents, and restaurants have been recorded. Numerous restaurants can register by entering details like restaurant name, manu, location/address, and prices. After completing the registration restaurants will be able to get order requests from customers.

One-click Dashboard From a centralized dashboard system, the admin handles the complete back-end operations. Via this panel admin can manage inventory, keep track of orders received from consumers, and other activities.

Manage Customers This feature allows admins to add or remove users. Admin can view the user’s details like address and contact information.

Feedback Management This feature allows Admin to view customers’ reviews, feedback, and ratings.

Payment Management This functionality enables the admin to manage all the app transactions including payment or money refunds. Admin can track all the payment transactions and fix the commission rate with other business partners.

Driver Management

This feature allows the admin to track all details related to the driver like trip details, contact no. availability, login-time, real-time location, and total commission earned.

The admin can add or remove drivers or alter information relevant to them.

Modify Elements of the App From users and product-related information to the design of the app, this feature enables the admin to do everything.

Manage Restaurants Under this feature, admin can add or remove restaurants from the app.

Reset Passwords The app maintains a complete database that includes driver and customer-related information. This feature allows the admin to change the password as per the user’s request.

Campaign Management To gain user’s attention, this feature facilitates businesses to strategize and run email, SMS, and social media marketing campaigns.

Plan Discounts & Promotions This feature enables the admin to plan and run discount and promotional offers on the app.

Push Notifications Under this feature, the admin gets notified of the emails, driver acceptance on the request, and order delivery.

Reporting and Analytics

By tracking real-time Analytics, the Admin can gain actionable insights for effective business management.

Delivery Person App

Registration The delivery person needs to get registered on the app. Once the delivery agent completes the registration process and gets verified by the app they can accept orders and start delivering.

Managing Orders This feature allows the delivery agent to check order requests, and reject or accept orders.

Call/Chat option

This feature enables delivery agents to view customer’s contact no. and call them if they face any issue like finding the exact location.

Online support The delivery agent can communicate with the app support team in case of any complexity

Delivery History This option allows the delivery person to keep track of their deliveries and payment records for each parcel.

Status Update This allows the delivery person to update the delivery status.

Top five food delivery apps trending in the market: Uber Eats

Uber Eats is a standalone online food delivery application, that operates in several countries like India, United States, Mexico, Japan, and Brazil. It supports features like cashless delivery and expected delivery time. It allows users to place an order for their preferred food from local food chains or restaurants and get it delivered at users’ doorsteps in the shortest possible time. Recently, this popular food delivery brand has acquired Ando. Ando operates for a couple of kitchens located around Manhattan that deliver only lunch menu. This app is available for Android and iOS.

Grubhub

More than 30,000 restaurants are listed on this renowned food delivery application.

No wonder that Grubhub is one of the best apps for providing hassle-free food delivery services and satisfying their customer’s cravings for delightful food. Grubhub has offices in London, Chicago, and New York. This app is available for Android and iOS.

Postmates

This versatile online food delivery application is available in more than ninety cities across the USA. With the most uncommon features like food valet, this app has created a unique identity. This app is not restricted to delivering food only, it also works for pick-up and delivery of groceries and drinks. This app is available for Android and iOS.

DoorDash

With a 56% market share, DoorDash has become the largest food delivery company in the United States. It allows users to discover local food chains and grocery stores.

Over 3,00,000 local and national food brands across Australia, Canada, and the US are incorporated with this app.

Zomato

Zomato is a highly popular food delivery service app that operates in top cities across the world. Zomato serves nearly 25 nations that include India, Australia, and the USA. It is one of the fastest food delivery apps that brings all the modern app features. Zomato is supported by Android and iOS.

General tech-stack to develop modern food delivery apps: Back-end Server ● DigitalOcean Cloud Services ● Amazon Web Services

● Linode ● Vultr ● Microsoft Azure

Programming language ● PHP ● Python

Framework ● Symfony ● Django

Database ● MongoDB ● MySQL ● PostgreSQL

Web Server Software ● Apache HTTP Server ● Nginx

Caching Tool ● Redis ● Memcached

Front-end Programming languages ● TypeScript

● JavaScript

Markup Languages ● HTML5/CSS3

Framework ● Angular ● Vue.JS ● EmberJS

Preprocessors ● Sass

Payment Gateway ● Braintree ● Stripe ● PayPal ● Square API

User location ● Google Places API ● Google Maps ● CoreLocation Framework

Direction Finding ● MapKit ● Google Maps ● Routific

Registrations ● Facebook SDK ● Gmail SDK ● Autho

Storage ● AWS ● Google Cloud Storage ● Azure, Digital Ocean

Analytics ● FireBase ● Google Analytics

Push notifications ● Amazon SNS ● Urban Airship ● Firebase Cloud Messaging

Top reasons why food businesses should invest in on-demand food delivery app development?

Customer convenience

Online media provides ease and comfort to the users. Developing food apps help your customers to enjoy their favorite meal anytime. It ensures contactless and safe delivery. Food lovers can make secure online payments using their credit or debit cards or any other preferred mode of payment. The modern food app ensures all the modern features like a variety of food options, a list of nearby and top-rated restaurants, choosing the preferred mode of payments that woo customers. Offering great user convenience is the key appeal to develop an online food delivery app.

Increased access to a wider market Businesses can revitalize their operations with scalable delivery apps. A proficient app facilitates businesses with wider market reachability and access to a large client base. Organizations can promote their products, services, discounts offered, menu, and any other premium plans in a better way. It is not possible for any restaurant or cafes to operate all the time, but their services can still be accessible to an extensive range of customers via a proficient app.

Increased Visibility (Exposure for food delivery startups and medium-size businesses) Irrespective of the nature of your business, an app for food delivery is the best way to gain maximum business exposure. A rich-quality app breaks the demographic barrier and helps businesses to get easily noticed. It helps them to enhance their online visibility and make their digital presence more strong.

Improved food delivery process Online food ordering is beneficial for both business owners and consumers. With advanced features like real-time tracking, order updates, route optimization, delivery agent’s contact details, the food delivery process gets more efficient. Customers can monitor their food delivery and also the delivery agents can follow the shortest path to ensure less delivery time.

Managed Database Developing a food app helps businesses to maintain a database that includes details of recurring consumers, repeated orders, and customers’ preferences in terms of food menu and restaurants. Recording transaction history has simplified ordering favorite cuisine. It also enables the feedback sharing options where users can share their feedback for taste and quality of the food, delivery time, delivery agent’s behavior, and other reviews related to services and products. Customer’s valuable feedback helps businesses to enhance their quality of products and services.

Increase brand recognition Today, people across the globe rely on online mediums to get their requirements fulfilled. In such a scenario, a robust online presence plays a lead role to bring food brands to the frontline and make them recognized by millions of internet users.

Businesses need to understand that a remarkable online presence is all that is needed to succeed.

How much does it cost to develop an on-demand food delivery app?

The overall cost for on-demand delivery app development depends on several factors. Apart from the complexity of mobile app development, the price of apps development is determined by the following key factors.

App Features & Functionality Based on your business model you can decide what feature and functionalities you want to offer to the end-users. Today, various industries are moving toward automation and offering comfort to their target audiences. Following the app

development trend, the more advanced feature, and functionalities you will add to your app the higher the price will be.

Platform The two popular platforms to develop a mobile app are Android and iOS. Based on your target audience, you can decide what development platform will be the right fit for your business. While comparing android and iOS, Android will be less expensive.

But if you want to target iOS owners then you will be required to increase your budget.

Technologies There are several technologies combined to form a complex application. Based on your business model and the platform of your app you can choose the right technologies that help in meeting the desired specifications.

App Design An interactive app design is all that you need to gain the user’s attention. Adding 3D elements, engaging graphics, vibrant color schemes and the presence of interactive design elements will influence the development cost.

App Development Team If you are from a non-technical background then it is recommended to hire an app development professional to develop your dream app. You can hire an on-demand delivery app development company equipped with experienced app developers.

Availing of professional app development services will help you to deal with technical challenges and get your project done on time.

You can hire the following industry experts to build a successful food delivery app:

● iOS developer ● Android developer ● Project Manager ● Business Analyst ● Front-end developer ● Back-end developer ● Testing engineer ● UI/UX designer

Summing-up!

It’s no secret that people always look after what brings them comfort and convenience!

The idea of on-demand food delivery is not new. Earlier, people used to place their order via phone calls, that eateries ensured to deliver to the address they have provided. It is to be noted that in 2011 the number of food orders placed via phone amounted to 11$ billion only in the United States. With the rise of mobile phones’ usability, internet accessibility has become easier. It becomes easy for people to browse the internet anytime, anywhere as they don’t need to sit in front of big desktop systems to browse the internet. Due to this, the delivery service apps have revolutionized the online food delivery market. It also introduces new opportunities for businesses and provides a great source of income generation to food business owners.

While developing an online food delivery application, it is vital to understand which food delivery market niche you are planning to target, what will be the challenges that you need to address, and what will be your project plan to accomplish the goal.

A successful food delivery app provides user-friendly features, freedom of choices to end-users, contributes to the growth of the restaurant business, and simplifies the food pick-up and delivery process.

To develop an app that works excellently for your food business, you can contact Sparx IT Solutions. With a certified team of app development professionals, they provide award-winning app development services to global businesses. Their team has amazing technical expertise and knowledge of dealing with complex app development challenges. Get the perfect business solution that gives you a competitive edge and helps your business to grow faster.