Apr 24, 2020
Create a Restaurant App that Brings Profit: 9-Step Process, Advanced Features, & Costs
Are you a restaurant owner who wants to bring your business to new heights?
One way to achieve great results, increase awareness of your restaurant, and make your business more competitive is through software development.
Let’s discover how to create an app that will benefit your restaurant business.
5 Key Reasons to Build an App for Restaurants
So, why do people use restaurant apps? According to a Statista survey in 2013, the top reasons to use a restaurant app were to view menus and prices, check out hours of operation, and search for nearby restaurants.
Take a look at the provided graph to get a better idea of what your target users might be looking for in a restaurant mobile app.
According to restaurant app statistics, there are two main spheres of use. Almost 30% of customers use them to order food online, and 23.8% turn to these apps to make a reservation with their favorite restaurants.
Highlighted below are the main advancements a business can get from app development.
1. Customer loyalty
2. Payment options
3. Location-based marketing
4. Ordering and delivery
5. Entertainment
The benefits of creating a mobile app for restaurant ordering are numerous and far too attractive not to consider them when contemplating the idea of app creation.
Categories & Top Examples of Restaurant App
We can suggest that the options below are types of mobile restaurant apps that are a safe bet, as they are all popular in the industry today.
There are five main types of applications with examples of the top restaurant apps within each category, namely:
1. Restaurant-locator app- Zomato app
2. Table-reservation app- OpenTable
3. On-table ordering and payment app- FlipDish
4. Online ordering and delivery app- Domino’s Pizza
5. Loyalty program app- Starbucks
Step-by-Step Process to Build a Restaurant App
Below, you can check out how to develop such an app by following a 9-step process, namely:
1. Conduct market research
Market research should be your first step in the app development process.
2. Set your strategy and business goals
Think about the main KPIs, set business goals, and search for the best ways to receive the necessary results.
3. Find a software development company
You need to approach this aspect with consideration and choose a company that has experience working with industry-related projects and has already created a restaurant app.
4. Figure out exact restaurant app functionality
With the help of a professional software development agency, you need to make a product backlog and list all the features that will be implemented during the app development process.
5. Design a professional restaurant app and website
Design is part of the foundation for successful mobile app development. The main steps in app design can include:
- Research
- User experience design
- Visual design
- Branding
- Illustrations & Animations
6. Test, deploy, and launch the application
By the time you are ready to launch an application, all the features should be fully implemented so that the app will work without a hitch.
7. Roll out marketing campaigns
Whether you are developing a mobile app for restaurant ordering or the one to order food from home, it is a good idea to start a marketing campaign that will help you tell the world about your product.
8. Collect and analyze feedback on your restaurant app
By collecting feedback on your products, you will be able to find out which features are useful and which ones your application lacks.
9. Ongoing application support and enhancement
Continuous support should also ensure that your application is optimized for the latest versions of operating systems and shows the highest performance.
If you decide to start a project, think about the web version of your application and a website that will represent your brand online.
Here is a list of 12-steps toward creating a restaurant website, namely:
- Selecting a capable restaurant website development vendor
- Business analysis and product backlog development (listing all website functionality)
- Planning the website infrastructure
- Creating content for a restaurant website
- UX/UI design creation for the website
- Finding appropriate web hosting
- Purchasing a necessary domain name
- Applying SSL certificate for website security
- Website coding phase (front-end and back-end)
- Quality assurance and testing the website
- Website setup and launch
- Ongoing website maintenance and support
Engaging Functionality of Restaurant App
The below functionality will help you create an app with basic functionality or more advanced features to stand out among competing solutions.
Core Features of Restaurant App
We have gathered the basic features that build the basis of any application for a restaurant.
- Menu screens
- Online ordering and pre-ordering
- Table reservations
- Online payments
- Food delivery
- Locating restaurants nearby
- Loyalty programs
- Social media interaction
- Push notifications
Advanced Functionality of Restaurant App
What if you wanted to build an application that would be different?
Listed below the most interesting and novel features that will do the trick in the development of a custom restaurant app.
- Chatbots
- Location-based services
- Taxi ordering
- Gamification
This state-of-the-art-technology is just finding its way into most applications, and restaurant apps are no different.
Budget Necessary to Build a Restaurant App & Website
The question of how much it costs to develop a restaurant app is complex. In general, the budget necessary to create an app can start at $50,000 and go beyond $240,000.
The app cost depends on many factors, like the development vendor you hire, features you want to include, the number of operating platforms (web, iOS, Android, etc.), level of customization the solution will have, and so on.
Below is a table that illustrates the rough costs with core components on one platform and the price to develop a project with more complex functionality.
Our company divides the development process into the Discovery and Development stages, which include the following steps:
Discovery stage:
- Business analysis
- UX/UI design
- Software architecture planning
- Project management
- Team review
Development stage:
- Early planning (1–2 week period, 1st development sprint)
- Development
- Quality assurance and testing
- Project management
- Team review
Take a look at the scheme representing the process that influences mobile app development cost and its precise calculation.
Cooperation with a dedicated software development firm — an optimal option, as only by working with experienced developers can you feel secure about the quality of your application and the overall success of the project.
Just remember that the money you invest in app development is justified by the quality of work you will get.
Our Expertise In Restaurant App Development
MLSDev team has vast experience in custom mobile app development that helps us in our work while making projects that meet all the requirements. We have developed the following solutions that best show our expertise:
GoPuff — a delivery application that started as a mobile food delivery app and quickly grew into a solution where users can order a bunch of different things.
TableFever — native solution that you can use to search for available restaurants nearby and book a table.
This is a summary of an article. Check out more details and recommendations for developing a messaging app inside the complete article on the MLSDev blog.
