Explicit Guide on How to Start with Food Delivery App Development
What does the future hold for food delivery companies?
In 2020, COVID-19 has disrupted the world and many industries have fallen under the pressure of the crisis.
Food delivery, on the other hand, is experiencing an unprecedented surge.
If you want to create a food delivery app, this article will tell you how to do it right.
Let’s dive right into the technical and business details.
Market Potential & Reasons to Invest in Delivery Apps
With dozens of successful food delivery apps examples, the market might seem overcrowded. Still, there is enough space for new and aspiring names.
On-Demand Food Delivery Market Leaders
Therefore, the main market players are as follows:
- UberEats
- goPuff
Check out the goPuff Case Study
- GrabFood
- Zomato
- Otlob
- YandexEda
- Glovo
- Postmates
- DoorDash
- GrubHub
- Domino’s Pizza
The listed applications help to get a grip on the main trends on the market and identify the features these apps consist of.
Business Models for Food Ordering App Development
If you decide to pursue the idea of app development, you’ll need to know about the main business models for these apps.
How does the aggregator model in a food delivery business work?
The platform acts as an intermediate between customers and restaurants, and can either provide delivery services or not.
Aggregators without logistics work this way:
- A user chooses food and places an order
- The payment is placed within the system
- The restaurant receives the order and prepares it for delivery
- The food is delivered by the restaurant’s courier
- The payment is deducted
Almost all famous, big names in the industry started as food delivery aggregators without delivery, including Just Eat in the UK, Grubhub in the USA, and Delivery Hero in Germany.
Aggregators with logistics work the following way:
- A user chooses food and places an order
- The payment is placed within the system
- The restaurant receives the order and prepares it for pick-up by the platform’s courier
- The food is delivered by the platform’s courier
- The payment is deducted
A great example of this sort of app is UberEats, which uses its own couriers to deliver orders to customers.
Hybrid platforms
These applications are great for small businesses that want to build brand loyalty with a branded app, but don’t have enough resources for their own vehicle fleet.
Here is how a hybrid system works:
- A user chooses food and places an order
- The payment is placed within the system
- The restaurant receives and packages the order
- The app’s admin sees the order and sends it to a third-party courier for pick-up
- The food is delivered by the third-party courier
- The payment is deducted
Some great examples of this kind of application are Panera Bread, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, and Outback Steakhouse, which use their own branded apps and third-party delivery companies. Panera Bread cooperates with GrubHub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats for food delivery.
Why Restaurants Should Invest in App Development
For restaurants, working with existing applications is not always beneficial, as they might face the following pain points:
- High dependency on the delivery partner & fee payment
- Inability to control the quality of delivery services
- Lose a chance to build customer loyalty
Revenue Streams for Food Delivery Apps
There are multiple ways in which food delivery apps can generate revenue. Let’s check them out to understand how to create a food delivery app that will become successful.
- Commissions
- Subscription
- Fees during busy hours
- Paid advertising
In case you are wondering whether investments will pay off or not, just take a look at the below table showing some of the top examples.
How to Start a Food Delivery App
Any app development should begin with market research and the formation of a new app idea, continue with app strategy, design, and successful development.
Analyze the Market & Define Your TA
Before you start app development, you need to understand the local market, your key competitors, and define the target audience. Thorough market research will help you decide how to build a food delivery app:
- select the market where you want to launch the solution
- identify the most promising project concept (including app type, features, business model, etc.)
- find niches in the market that still have a place for new apps
- study the demographics and test your idea among the defined target audience
- decide on the best way to build a food delivery app based on the collected data
Finalize Your Value Proposition
During this step, you need to identify your unique selling proposition — something that will help differentiate your future app from competitors. The application of the Business Model Canvas will help you structure all the necessary elements.
Select a Reliable and Capable Software Development Company
Ukraine is a popular destination because of the high level of technical education, long history of development outsourcing, competitive prices, and taxation system.
The average price for food delivery app developers’ work is about $40 per hour, which allows you to hire the best team to work on your project and spend less on the development process. When compared to other countries, Ukraine has a great time zone.
Develop an Appealing Food Delivery Product
The first one is dedicated to business analysis, UX/UI design research, and creation. The second stage is related to development tasks, during which your development team creates the front-end and back-end of your application, and performs testing and quality assurance services to ensure the flawless function of the app.
Apply Top Design Practices
Food delivery app design has a direct influence on the future popularity of an app. A good app design should be user-oriented, have a unique style, and look great on the screens of all mobile devices.
Ensure Flawless App Performance
The team creating a food delivery app should ensure the high quality of your app. One of the ways to guarantee high performance is by opting into native app development.
Take Care of Proper Product Testing
After the app is ready, it’s time for the QA specialist to test the application on various devices and work through various possible user scenarios. The goal is to fix bugs before the app is released to end-users.
Promote Your Food Delivery App
A possible marketing promotion plan can look like the following:
- Marketing campaign
- Influencer marketing
- SMM
- Partners
Food Delivery App Features
The features of food delivery apps are divided into three groups:
- Features for clients
- Features for couriers
- Features for admins
Client-Related Functionality to Develop Food Delivery App
A food delivery app should include such core features as:
- Registration
- Profile management
- Search
- Order placement
- Payments
- Receipts
- Ratings & Reviews
- Notifications
Here are a few advanced features that will help it stand out:
- Bookmarks
- Order history
- Delivery time estimation
- Loyalty programs
- Social network integration
Functionality for Courier
Core functionality for building a food-delivery app:
- Registration
- Profile management
- Order management
- Status update
Extra features to develop for a food delivery app:
- Navigation
- Delivery history
- Earnings
Features for Admin
The app for restaurants should include the following features:
- Registration
- Profile management
- Content management
- Order management
- Payments
Admin Panel in On-Demand Food Delivery App Development
Tech Components & Elements
In the table below, you can see the main integrations and tech components that should be included.
These APIs allow you to obtain information about food chains and restaurants listings.
Challenges in Developing a Food Delivery App
Creating a good digital product that will rival market leaders is not easy, but still possible. Below, you can find an overview of all of the challenges and a short plan for how to overcome them.
1. Sustainability and scalability of food delivery app
Solution: These are all reasons why you should find an experienced software development company that will take care of the tech side and will create a user-friendly UX and UI, and ongoing app scalability and addition of new functionality.
2. High competition
Solution: The best way to ensure the success of your application is to study the market upfront, pinpoint your main competitors, and analyze their unique selling propositions. You need to turn their weaknesses into your strengths by offering unique features combined with great user experience.
3. Features for the first working app version
Solution: Based on the analysis of competitors and your unique idea, along with a reliable IT vendor, you need to create a full list of features.
4. Searching for partners
Solution: Starting to collaborate with small local brands might be a good idea.
5. Searching for couriers
Solution: For this reason, you need to dedicate some time to finding the right people and building a corporate culture.
6. Retaining users
Solution: This goal requires the creation and implementation of a fully-fledged digital strategy. You need to utilize all the means possible, including digital and influencer marketing, advertising, coupons, special offers, and other activities that can help you retain customers.
Concluding Thoughts on How to Build an On-Demand Delivery Service
So, let’s sum up the main steps of food delivery app development.
Step 1: Conduct thorough market research and identify your customer segments — users, restaurants, and couriers that will use your app.
Step 2: Define your unique proposition — what value you can offer to all segments of users and how you can solve their problems.
Step 3: Identify key food delivery app features — for end-users, restaurants, and couriers.
Step 4: Analyze and allocate resources to app development — including expenses on development, promotion, etc.
Step 5: Find a reliable company providing app development services — a company with experience in the building of this type of apps.
Step 6: Create a financial plan — how you will generate revenue, measure achievement, and how long will it take to pay off initial investments.
Note: This is a summary of a guide.
Check out more details and recommendations to build an eCommerce website inside the complete article on the MLSDev blog.
