A step-by-step Guide to Build On-demand Courier Delivery Application

A step-by-step Guide to Build Ondemand Courier Delivery Application

The concept of on-demand apps have redefined comfort and convenience for customers. An on-demand delivery application has shown a great potential in serving the customers across different industry verticals including hospitality, healthcare, and eCommerce. In the age of online shopping and mCommerce, courier services have a vital role to play to deliver products on-time at the customer’s doorstep.

All the challenges regarding tracking consignments and delivering products can be effectively addressed with the help of a robust courier delivery app.

Let’s go through the development process of an advanced, on-demand courier delivery application. The on-demand courier delivery app can make your courier services more efficient and popular. But, here the question ariseshow to develop an app with all necessary features for your courier business?

Read on to know the entire process to develop a feature-rich on-demand courier app. But, before moving ahead, let’s go through major types of customized courier delivery apps.

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Types of On-demand Courier Delivery Apps • Postal and Courier Service App Think of FedEx and DPD. They have successfully used mobile apps to grow their parcel and courier services. FedEx has a separate app for managing the same-day delivery service. DPD has a full-fledged admin panel to create shipments along with labels for packages.

• Real-time Tracking App The real-time tracking app is beneficial for package tracking aggregation. In this business model, the data from all member carriers are gathered at a single point. Here, the courier company needs a single application to track all its packages.

What’s more, courier companies can also add packages seamlessly by using their IDs. Customers can also get notification regarding the status of their orders.

• Branded Delivery In this type, courier companies use mobile applications with the order tracking feature. The branded delivery model is also helpful for online retailers because they send products at the doorstep. The integrated app solution can enable customers to know whether their package is dispatched, shipped, or delivered. The branded delivery model can give online retailers an edge over their peers.

• Parcel Delivery Apart from private transportation, Uber has successfully forayed in hospitality and courier delivery domains. This model is like a marketplace for parcel delivery.

Depending on your business model, market trends, and business requirements, the mobile app development company can build an ondemand courier delivery app. Let’s go through the app development process in detail.

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Main Aspects of On-demand Courier Delivery App Development The app development process begins with the selection of the right business model. You can choose the most suitable model from the above-mentioned options for your on-demand courier delivery business. It is better to consider some of the major factors like the target audience, market conditions, longterm objectives, availability of resources, etc.

Also, you need to do extensive research on the scope, opportunities, and customer expectations before choosing the right business model. The following questions can be helpful to make a proper decision.

• Do I need to operate the business within a city or country, or should I go for worldwide operations?

• What type of delivery model should I offer to my customers?

• Which type of parcel or packaging do I prefer?

Answers to these questions can lead you to the selection of the right platform.

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Must-have Features of Courier Delivery App After selecting the business model and making a roadmap to develop an ondemand delivery application for your courier business, you can start creating a functional specification. It should be built in a way that all your business requirements are fulfilled effectively. Here, you need to focus on scope and functionality to ensure the success of your business model.

Let’s go through the key features for all courier and parcel delivery applications. These are the most basic features and your on-demand courier delivery app must have them.

Admin Chat This is one of the most important features of courier delivery apps. Admin can easily chat with the customers and delivery agents at once to improve the quality of courier service and enhance customer satisfaction.

Real-time or continuous communication with delivery boys and customers can also streamline the delivery process and helps your company meet deadlines.

Packaging Options This feature facilitates the user to get the special packaging to prevent any possible damage during the delivery process. This can be an additional and chargeable service for app users. The charges depend on packaging size and material.

Real-time Tracking Another important feature is real-time tracking of the package. It can be a game-changer for your parcel and courier delivery business. You can integrate this feature in all three versions of the on-demand courier delivery app- admin, user, and driver. In the customer’s version, the user can track the location of their package in real-time.

This feature plays a vital role in increasing customer satisfaction as your customers can remain assured of the location and delivery status at any point.

Similarly, the admin can also find the nearest driver for delivering the package in urgency. What’s more, you can find multiple routes for delivery and your app users can add multiple addresses in their lists of preferred places.

Premium Delivery Option You can offer this option for faster delivery. Amazon Prime is a great example of premium delivery. It offers free two-day shipping on over 100 million items.

Amazon Prime customers can even get same-day delivery in the selected cities. As per this option, users pay some extra price to get faster delivery.

Push Notification We just cannot imagine an on-demand delivery app without this feature. Your customers can get live updates and real-time delivery status through push notification. The app can send notifications for the current stage, estimated time of delivery, and a change in the route or time of delivery. Also, notifications containing the driver’s information can be sent.

Push notification can engage customers and enhance the transparency of your business model. You can also inform your customers about various schemes or offers through a personalized notification. All such means are useful to retain customers in your business.

Payment Gateway Just like an eCommerce or other online delivery apps, you need to integrate payment gateways in the courier delivery app to facilitate your customers to pay through any means they like. You can integrate a top-up wallet and bank transfer facility in the app. If your business is associated with an eCommerce company then you can also provide COD (Cash On Delivery) services.

Payment gateway integration also enables your app users to receive a digital receipt instantly that contains necessary information like the time and date of delivery, item description, and other charges.

Review and Ratings Customers can rate your services and give you their valuable feedback thanks to this feature. You can implement necessary suggestions and improve your services through the feedback. Also, this feature can make your app more popular in app stores because prospective app users can find good ratings and reviews for your app.

Help and Support This is another must-have feature for your courier delivery app. App users or customers can easily contact the help desk in case of an unusual delay in the delivery of parcels or other related issues. This feature can improve the trust factor significantly, and you can have a loyal customer base.

Courier companies with budgetary constraints or financial limitations can consider to come up with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) initially.

Read More: Boost Your Business with Custom On-Demand Mobile Apps

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Approaches for On-demand Courier Delivery App Development Like the development process for other on-demand delivery apps, your courier delivery app can be developed by using any one of these two approaches• Hire on-demand app developers • Assign your app project to a reputed mobile app development company Here, your choice depends on several circumstances. For example, if you have no time or technical background for handling a team of developers, you should opt for a second option. The in-house team of developers is preferable if the roadmap is clear and you know what you want from an app.

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Approximate Cost of Courier Delivery Application Once you have decided the approach and made a list of features, it’s time to think about the cost of an on-demand courier delivery app. Here, you need to consider multiple deciding factors like the duration and complexity of the app. Let’s make a list of such crucial factors that impact the cost of your courier delivery app.

• The mobile platform like iOS, Android, or both • Post-launch services like app marketing • Number of features and complexity • MVP or full-fledged app • Per hour cost of developers Though these are interrelated factors, you need to consider them all in line with your business model and budget. You can also launch an app with basic features initially and keep on adding new features in subsequent versions.

You can also add additional features in the premium version of your courier delivery app. From a mobile app development company’s perspective, the estimated cost for an on-demand courier delivery app is around $14000 to $25000.

If you want to hire experienced app developers for building an on-demand courier app, then You can hire experienced app developers for building an on-demand courier app. But, their hourly rates are different across the world. It is better to hire mobile app developers from India through flexible and scalable engagment model.

Read More:- how much does it cost to hire experienced app developers in 2020?

Crucial Factors to Keep in Mind for Developing Courier App Finally, you have got your app and it is live. Do you think your task is over?

Wait. Merely launching an app is not enough in today’s competitive and challenging business scenario. Here we give some tips to make your app successful and get a high ROI through it for your courier delivery business.

• App Marketing Do you know that you need to start promoting your app during the development phase itself? It can generate curiosity among people for your app before its launch. An aggressive marketing campaign for your courier delivery app across social media channels, print media, and other platforms can get your app initial downloads. These downloads can give your app a necessary boost soon after its launch.

• Build long-term relationships The success of on-demand services largely depends on long-term relationships with customers, stakeholders, and service providers. You can reach a target audience through social media and other channels. It is better to make efforts to establish a strong customer relationship through feedback, 24/7 support, and other means. As a result, you can get a loyal customer base and valuable feedback that can help you improve business operations.

• Attract and retain customers Today, competition is intense and increasing rapidly across every industry sector. Talking about the courier services, you need to think and plan a strategy to attract more people or customers toward your business. You can

opt for promotional offers and a combination of discounts as well as referral points to engage and retain customers.

• Improve app performance The most effective way to improve app performance is taking prompt action on feedback. Feedback can enable you to read the customer’s thoughts regarding your app or services. You can implement changes mentioned in the feedback or change the way you serve the customers based on feedback.

• Use personalization approach Customized messages with personal and informal tone can work wonders.

Your customers can remain in touch with your business activities and various schemes through personalized messages. These messages can enhance the customer’s engagement and make communication more effective. As mentioned above, you can utilize the app’s notification feature for sending messages. However, it is better to keep in mind that excessive and irrelevant messages can ruin the reputation of your business. 

Concluding Lines Making a long story short, a courier delivery application can take your courier business to the next level. But then, merely developing an app is not enough, you need to consider various aspects to grow your business and necessary app features to provide your customers with the best on-demand parcel delivery services.

In this article, we have covered all the major facets of courier delivery app development. We promise to come up with another interesting topic next time.

Keep reading this space!