Similar to how Zoom or Netflix have changed the way we communicate and chill food ordering websites have impacted our daily lives. The industry is growing. As per the Business of Apps report, the market is expected to reach $320 billion in 2029. Do you want food delivery app development to take advantage of the potential of this market?
Entrepreneurs who choose to launch a food delivery app development service have numerous concerns. What are the features that should be added to restaurants, clients couriers, as well as their managers? It can be done to improve efficiency and offer better service? What is the best technology stack? What about the price? is development going to cost?
Artoon Solutions a leading food delivery app development company has created a comprehensive guide covering all these important topics. We’ve worked on developing sophisticated, scalable solutions for different industries and requirements including groceries delivery applications and eCommerce websites.
Keep an eye out for more information about the process of creating an app that delivers food.
What can you do to stand out by creating a Food Delivery App in 2023
According to research conducted by Nextbite, 43 percent of Americans prefer dining out at home, rather than going out. In addition, 23% of people utilize food delivery apps at least once every week.
The distance for a dinner from your favorite eatery is now just a couple of clicks on the app. Brands such as Uber Eats, Postmates, Deliveroo, and many others have taken the market to a higher level of flexibility, quality, and user-friendliness. We will look at the key aspects of the most popular food delivery app development company.
UberEats
64,200,000+ users
Profiting from Uber’s success, UberEats provides millennials with more options for services. It is as easy and user-friendly as Uber and driver’s availability enables the company to reduce delivery times. Additionally, it comes with a variety of functions like reminders for eating at specific time slots.
TIP: If you have a wildly popular service that is connected to food or delivery use the name and your existing business model. Don’t forget to create an emotional connection to your customers with exciting features.
Deliveroo
8,000,000plus users
Deliveroo has a restricted delivery area and has partnered with local eateries. For customers, it promises speedy fulfillment of orders on average it takes just 32 minutes. Deliveroo works with top restaurant chains, whose business model does not usually involve delivery. This means that everyone wins including the customer’s restaurant, the restaurants as well as Deliveroo itself.
Tips: Don’t be scared to collaborate with restaurants who haven’t yet entered the delivery business. This means you can provide customers with something special.
Postmates
10,000,000plus users
Postmates is focused on mobility in service. Customers can receive their orders through local delivery firms that use the API. In addition, you can place orders for not just restaurant food, but also drinks (except in certain categories) grocery household products, and other items. However, the most important thing is that the service is accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Tips: Beat the competition in speed of delivery by collaborating with delivery companies. Don’t just focus on food items, but rather be a one-stop shop offering products that are related.
Things to consider when developing an app for food delivery
When it comes to aspects, you must realize that a restaurant, a consumer restaurant, and a courier require different sets of tasks. In addition, you need to manage and coordinate all parties.
Here is a list of the required and optional features that can be built into an app that delivers food such as UberEats as well as Deliveroo:
Client App Features
Customers the app designed will allow for quick and easy food ordering. These are the essential features that should be included:
Sign up
The registration process doesn’t have to be required to make an order. You can however encourage registration by utilizing advanced options. To facilitate users allow it to be done via social networks or using a Google account.
The customer database can prove useful multiple times during your marketing campaigns.
Home Screen
The home screen should give easy access to other functions, but should not filled with unnecessary features. Also, it should display information on previous orders, favorite places, and meals.
Search using Filter
Create a user-friendly filtering system to search for establishments based on cost, cuisine type special offers, ratings, and distance to customers. Also, give customers the nearest restaurant by default.
In the filter, think about specific requests, like vegan and vegetarian options, as well as meals that are gluten-free or lactose as well as other allergens. Alongside the price specify the time of preparation.
Menu Screen
An area for the primary navigation, which contains information on restaurants, including their rating, reviews, and contact information. It is also necessary to add categories of food items on this page.
Make use of the menu as a tool for marketing to highlight special deals.
Dish Screen
The detailed information on the dish includes a picture and price, as well as cooking time ingredients, grams, proportions, and calories. Customers can edit the recipe by removing or adding ingredients. There should be an option to order.
It would be also great to recommend other complementary items, like an appropriate wine that is paired with fish or pasta.
Check-Out Screen
The screen for order information should include the delivery location dishes, their quantities, prices, and their total value, as well as an estimated time for delivery. Include a comment section and chat for communication with the delivery and courier service.
Keep in mind that delivering as fast as possible may not be ideal, so let your customers decide on a date.
Payment Gateway
This feature comes with an online shopping cart, as well as payment options – Apple as well as Google Pay, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and other options. It also allows customers to pay cash upon delivery.
If your business offers discounts or coupons, you can allow customers to use them during the time of checkout.
Delivery Tracking
The ability to monitor an order enhances the customer experience and reassures the customer that the purchase is under your supervision. Additionally, you aren’t allowing fraud through late delivery since everything is documented within the system.
Connect the information of your order and courier to the tracking page, and you can contact the courier and even leave them a note.
Push Notifications
Utilize push notifications for mobile devices to inform clients when their order has been processed and accepted or when the courier is scheduled to arrive. Offer special deals and referrals, but be careful not to over-promotional, so that users don’t deactivate this feature.
Reviews
Many developers don’t realize this beneficial feature. Make sure to enable the feedback feature to make sure that the user is aware that their opinions are important and can read the reviews of other customers.
Restaurant Features
Another component of the chain is an application for restaurants. Let’s look at the functions important for this part of the application.
Sign up
In contrast to the consumer that is the restaurant, it must set up an account to post relevant content. It also boosts engagement and, in the case of an aggregator model creates more traffic.
Menu Management
The most significant aspect of the function of a restaurant is to:
- Edit dishes, descriptions, pictures, and prices
- Announce special deals
- Food categories that are controlled and their roles
- Design customization for different categories
Restaurants generally work on central platforms, so they need to instruct the staff on how to utilize the software.
Screen Order
The circumstances may be different Therefore, restaurants should have the option to accept or accept or reject orders. They must have all the details regarding ordering, pay,ment and delivery. This will ensure security and control for companies.
Take into consideration how the kitchen is receiving details about the order. Also, permit orders to be distributed to couriers once they’ve been made.
Information Updates
A great application should be simple to upgrade and scale since HoReCa is an extremely rapidly changing sector. Management should be able to create new restaurants and add them to their menus.
Order Management
This feature allows managers can effortlessly sort orders, issue messages to customers, and then transfer the information to couriers.
Analytics
Analysis of data and data are vital to any business. Allow tracking of sales, revenue as well as delivery and preparation time, and average billing as well as customer ratings and reviews.
This information can help optimize your marketing and business campaign. Advanced features based on AI and ML can include recommendations and forecasts.
Courier Features
The best solution for a mobile courier is a distinct module for Glovo. It lets workers set the working hours, take deliveries, interact with customers, and get suggestions in the app.
In any event, some fundamental functions of the delivery module can’t be left out:
Sign up
Like the restaurants that register, it is required for couriers. But before you ask for an array of personal information be sure to describe the conditions of operation in detail.
In the process of applying during the application process, you must fill in the full name of the applicant, their personal identification number, driver’s license, and telephone number. If you require authenticating your identity live, incorporate the microphone and camera functions in the application. For regular logins, you can use a mobile phone/email and a password.
Make sure you create an onboarding video for new couriers.
Screen for Order
To manage orders efficiently to manage your order, include them in your order management system as a filter. Allow couriers to rank orders based on the distance from the location of delivery and then list the order information in a concise format.
You should also provide contact information for the customer, including the possibility of reaching them.
Information about the structure of completed delays canceled and upcoming orders. Furthermore, couriers have to be able to accept or reject orders, at the beginning and end of the working day, and anything else that is compatible with the functions in your model of business.
Map & Navigation
Pay particular attention to maps that have a built-in navigator. The calculation must be as exact as possible since it directly impacts customer service. If the delivery you are planning involves the use of various kinds of transport, make certain to consider this.
There is no need to design your routing system. Simply use Google Maps, Mapbox, Bing Maps, or other alternatives.
There is also the option of rewarding couriers for arriving earlier than what is the Estimated Date of Delivery (ETA).
Schedule
If your device allows for flexible scheduling for workloads, you can connect a calendar such as Google Calendar and Cronofy. You can also alter the amount you pay for night shifts and holidays.
Payment
Make sure to include an ability to monitor earnings and withdraw earned funds.
Push Notifications
Push notifications can be helpful to clients and couriers to be informed of order statuses.
Administration Features
A functional administration panel is essential to oversee the delivery workflow. The structure of the panel is dependent on the model of your business It can be an aggregator or restaurant application or a chain solution. In any event, the app you choose to use should offer:
Restaurant Management
It should be possible to remove and add restaurants, check the status of payments, and interact with your partners. It is not necessary to provide the required documents required for cooperation in this case such as digital versions as well as scans (requires additional functions).
Courier Management
For managing couriers, you must have access to personal information, contact details as well as ratings and reviews. Additionally, you should include time and the tracking of performance, salary data orders, information about the order, and chat within the application.
Manage the coverage and workload by marking times and areas with high levels of delivery personnel. This allows couriers to organize their work efficiently.
Analytics
The analytical panel monitors financial flows, which are crucial in collaborating with your partners. Alongside general information about expenses and income, You require analytics on the sales and profits earned by every restaurant.
Tables, graphs, and charts make it easier to understand information reveal the company’s dynamics, and assist owners in making the best business choices.
The Food Delivery App Development Stack
The past was when developing an app for food delivery required more time and effort. Today, food delivery apps have an extensive technology stack that includes advanced frameworks and tools
- Cloud services — AWS, Azure
- Programming language: PHP, Ruby, Python
- Front-end React as well as Flutter (cross-platform solution) and Objective-C, Swift (iOS), Java, and Kotlin (Android)
- Registration -Registration – Google sign-in Facebook Login SDK
- Payment — Paypal, Amazon Payment, Stripe, Wepay
- Geolocation and Maps Geolocation and Maps Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps, Mapkit JS
- Restaurant listings Restaurant listing Yelp Fusion API, Foursquare API The Grubhub API
- Analytics Analytics Google Analytics, Apple Analytics, Localytics
- SMS — Twilio
Food Delivery App Development Costs
What is the cost of creating an app for food delivery? The answer is both simple and intricate.
The formula to calculate MVP development costs is as follows:
Fees for Food Delivery App Development = Number of Hours * Hourly Cost
What is the reason behind the hours and developer rate? Let’s look it up in a systematic manner.
Development costs are affected by a variety of factors, including:
- App type
- The most desired features
- Technologies and tools
- Location of the team
- Design Complexity
- App security
The hourly price is affected not just by the expertise degree of a specialist, but as well as the nature of their work. To create an app for food delivery it is necessary to hire specialists, for example:
- Business analyst
- Project manager
- UI/UX designer
- Front-end developer
- Back-end developer
- Specialist in QA
- DevOps
Now you understand the elements that affect the development costs. Find the approximate cost for the major development phases that were developed by the Artoon Solutions team:
Web and Mobile Development
The first stage of application development.
That’s where the tech implementation takes place: starting with the admin panel and up to the features and technologies you’d like to incorporate into your application, such as chatbots as well as push notifications.
The main thing to note is the fact that, for more complex features you’d like to add the more expensive the development cost will be.
Furthermore, you must take into consideration the platform that you want to use for your application, iOS or Android. If you wish to meet all the requirements of clients it is best to develop cross-platform applications that are compatible with all the most popular OS.
The price for mobile and web development could take as much as 90 hours, which is approximately $27,000.
UX/UI Design
An innovative UI/UX design can produce user interfaces that are responsive and enjoyable experiences by analyzing your intended audience. Additionally, the flexible food delivery app can run seamlessly on any device, particularly when it’s an application that runs on multiple platforms.
Designing UX/UI costs up to 200 hours costing $6,000.
Testing and Quality Assurance
You must test the product before making it available to the general public. At Artoon Solutions both manual and automated tests will guarantee that the product it is running without any issues and that all bugs are eradicated.
In addition, it provides information about the app’s use as well as helps in improving the features and user interfaces.
Price for QA: up to 200 hours, for $6,000.
Project Management
A project manager is responsible for ensuring that the milestones are achieved and that the scope of the project remains the way you want you want it to be. They will also conduct risk assessments to find possible security vulnerabilities and will discuss with you the development of your delivery application.
Conclusion
Food delivery is a growing industry however, the development of a customized food delivery application can be a challenge. To create a robust product, you have to be able to rely on trends in the industry as well as the knowledge of the market’s top players. In this article, we’ve tried to explain the key aspects of developing the app that delivers food with a focus on the essential elements, cost, and the technology stack.
All you have to do is to find a trustworthy software provider. Artoon Solutions can provide full-cycle development services for startups that are promising as well as established companies. For companies that are just starting We employ an integrated strategy that involves market research, the creation of an MVP as well as achieving a break-even point.
If you have any concerns or would like to discuss your idea for a food delivery software Contact us today. Artoon Solutions team of developers.