Are you wondering about Food Ordering App Development but not sure of how you should go about it? With the advent of online food apps like Uber Eats, Skipthedish, Door Dash, the traditional restaurant dine-ins have turned to delivery apps. The sole purpose of food delivery app development is to provide consumers with timely and “at their doors” ready-to-eat food of all stripes.
If you are thinking about certain questions like:
- How to develop a seamless “deliveries near me” app or ordering app?
- Which features to integrate into the food delivery app?
- Which is the best food delivery app in 2021?
We have the following content listing as below:
- What is a Food Delivery App?
- Why Invest in Food Delivery App Development?
- How Does On-Demand Food Delivery App Work?
- Key Features of Food Delivery apps like GrubHub and SkipTheDishes
- Technology Used to Build Food Delivery App
- How Much Does it Cost to Develop an On-demand Food Delivery App?
- Food Delivery Business Tips
- Best Food Delivery Apps in 2021
- 4 Features to Achieve Ethical Online Ordering During Coronavirus Pandemic
- FAQs
- Conclusion
What is a Food Delivery App?
A food delivery app is a mobile app that allows clients to use their smartphone or tablet computer to place a food order from all of the partner restaurants in a city.
Food delivery apps are the latest craze, from restaurant owners making their own food ordering app for you to supply food services while sitting on your couch. Apps like Ubereats, Zomato, Doordash, Food Panda, and Swiggy act as a food delivery platform for restaurants and users to collaborate.
Why Invest in Food Delivery App Development?
People don’t have time to go to restaurants. Yet, the food delivery industry is booming. Because they have developed apps that deliver food, right at the customer’s doorstep. People are enjoying delicious meals in the comfort of their homes, without having to dress up and go to restaurants.
In fact, GrubHub claimed to have around 19.9 million active users and 115,000 associated restaurants in Q1 2019. While SkipTheDishes is the most prominent food delivery app in Canada having associated with over 16000 restaurants.
These are not empty words, you may take a look at how the online food delivery segment has fared in the market globally.
Online Food Ordering Statistics
- According to Statista, in 2021, revenue in the Online Food Delivery segment amounts to US$151,526 million.
- This is expected to show a growth rate of 9.9% per year, resulting in a market volume of US$182,327m by 2024.
- Of the total online food delivery market revenue, the Platform-to-Consumer Delivery segment has the largest part with a market volume of US$79,608 million in 2019.
- This is expected to increase to US$96,864 million by 2024.
- The Restaurant-to-Consumer Delivery segment amounts to US$71,918 million in 2021, expected to increase to US$85,463 million by 2024.
Therefore, by investing in an app for ordering food, you will get a wide potential customer base.
Now, would you like to understand the basic app structure along with its key features and functionalities? Let’s have a look at it.
How Does On-Demand Food Delivery App Work?
It is essential to know that there is not just a single app, in fact, there are 3 food ordering apps with different functionality and features to make the food delivery process seamless.
Customer App: The customer app is the one that will be installed by your customer base. This app should be user-friendly and help them compare different restaurants and offers.
- Customer sign in and register the profile with a delivery address
- App users browse the food menu on the app
- Upon selecting the preferred food, the user places an order
- The user makes the final payment once the order is confirmed
- User track the delivery, time, and location
- Upon receiving the final order, the user may choose to review the food and service
Restaurant App/Admin Panel: A restaurant owner with the help of the admin panel controls and manages the delivery orders with this web-based platform.
- The restaurant list the food and menu along with prices on the app
- They receive an order and confirm or reject it
- The restaurant assign the staff to prepare the order upon confirmation
- While preparing the food, the restaurant view nearby delivery boys and assign the food to delivery
- The restaurant can also check the history of completed deliveries
- Finally, pay the delivery boy and manage the operations
Delivery Driver App: The delivery personnel manages the pick-up and drop-off of orders with this app.
- Delivery boy will register a profile on the app with complete details
- Delivery boy receive an order and accept or reject based on their convenience
- Upon acceptance, the delivery boy view delivery tasks details
- They will navigate the map and the app will show the route suggestions to deliver the order to an accurate location
- Deliver the order and receive tips
- Mark the ‘complete order’ on the app
Need such a smart workflow in your food business?
Our app developers can build customized food delivery solutions.Consult With Us
Key Features of Food Delivery Apps like GrubHub and SkipTheDishes
Moving further, we’ve described the essential food delivery app features that you should consider in your on-demand food delivery app development. Checking out these features will give you insight into why GrubHub and SkiptheDishes have integrated and how it benefits users. We have listed down features of each app like customer app, restaurant app, and driver delivery app.
Ingredients for customer app
- Search: The customers should be able to search and compare different restaurants, offers, cuisines with the food ordering app solutions. They should be able to search by location, cuisine, price, ratings, review, restaurant names as per their convenience.
- Order: Ordering food with uber for food apps must be easy. This feature should enable customers to add and remove items from the cart. They should also be able to cancel or reorder as and when they wish.
- Favorites: The customers should be allowed to mark and save their favorite dishes and eateries so that they don’t have to search all over again. This makes reordering or ordering something previously out of stock very easy.
- Real-time Tracking: Using GPS navigation or a tracking system integrated into a food delivery app like Ubereats, customers should be able to do order tracking, from order preparation to shipment and delivery at the doorstep.
- Coupons: All top food delivery apps have this feature to encourage customers to order food online and building a loyal customer base. Customers prefer to save money with discounts and that is why this feature is a must in your food delivery food app.
- In-app Chat: Customers might have some tips or queries/disputes that they need to discuss with the delivery personnel. This is why it is necessary to have the contact details of the driver as well as the in-app chat option when you looking for food delivery app development.
- Payment Details: While developing an online food ordering system or delivery system, making payments easy, fast and secure is really important. You could have integrated payment gateways like cards, e-wallets, net banking, or COD as an option to pay bills.
Some Recommended Features
Our food delivery app developers recommend these basic features for the customer app:
- Schedule Delivery: This unique feature is from the Postmates app. The customers can schedule their delivery at their convenience. They may order their dinner to be delivered at 7:00 pm while they are in their office at 2 pm.
- Pick Up: The pick-up option is fairly common in most Uber-like apps for a food delivery business. This feature waives off the delivery fee and the customer can order online and then pick up the food by himself.
- Dine-in: Dine-in was recently introduced by the UberEats app. With this feature, a customer can order online, skip the waiting lines, delivery fees and come to sit in the restaurant and eat.
Ingredients for restaurant app/admin panel
- Manage Content/Details: The restaurant owners need to manage the name, contact, and address of their restaurants. They also need to edit pictures, menus, prices, offers, etc.
- Manage Orders: The restaurant partners receive an order with the details like order location, item name, payment, and time of delivery. The admin then manages orders according to priority and schedules with this order management feature.
- Manage Deliveries: As soon as an order is prepared, it is assigned to the delivery personnel. With this feature, the admin keeps a track of the real-time location of the delivery personnel from the time he leaves the restaurant until he delivers the order.
Ingredients for drivers app
- Registration: A delivery person should be easily able to register himself with this feature. Signing up using a simple username and password and verifying with Apple, Google, or some social media account is considered.
- Manage Deliveries: The delivery personnel for food businesses should receive orders in a timely way. He could then decide which orders to accept, reject or prioritize. Using this feature he can keep a track of all his deliveries.
- Status Update: The delivery personnel should receive updates if there are any changes in the order location, the order gets canceled, or any other change. He should be able to update the customer and the admin about the pick-up and drop-off of every order.
- In-app Chat: This feature is a must as the courier or food delivery person could have queries regarding customer location or tips. A driver app should have an in-app chat option so that he could contact the customer directly.
Technology Used to Build Food Delivery App
Using the appropriate technologies plays a contributing role in making successful food apps. So, we, as an on-demand delivery app development company, have mentioned the tech stack here to go forward with the online food delivery app development for your food delivery startup.
| Tech Stack | |
|---|---|
| Programming Languages | Objective CSwiftJavaKotlin |
| IDE | XcodeAndroid Studio |
| Cloud Storage | Amazon S3 |
| Database | Mongo DBRedis |
| Utilities | Google AnalyticsMixpanelVisual Website Optimizer |
| Analytics | MixpanelGoogle AnalyticsKeen.io |
| GmailAWSSendGrid | |
| Deployment platforms | CloudiOSAndroid |
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an On-demand Food Delivery App?
Every app is unique and the cost to build each app is different. In the app development process, factors like features, functionalities, platforms, time to build, and many other affect the cost.
To get an estimate of on-demand food delivery app development expense, you need to apply a simple formula:
Estimated Development Hours x Developer’s Hourly Cost = Total Mobile App Development Cost
Food Delivery App Development Cost And Timeline
Here is an estimated timeline that will help you calculate the cost approximately
Just investing in online food delivery services is not enough. If you want to make a successful food delivery app, then you should also know how you can make the most of it. Here are some tips from our expert business analysts.
Food Delivery Business Tips
- Develop Food Delivery AppIf you already have a restaurant or a cafe and deliver food on-demand via phone calls or a website, an custom food delivery app will make the process faster or less cumbersome for your target audience. In fact, you could convert your online food booking website into a mobile app or web app.
- Conduct Market ResearchIf you’re looking to develop a food delivery app, then conducting market research is critically important. In the following table, we have mentioned how you can conduct market research.
- Why Should You Research?Performing research helps you to make better decisions by knowing market trends and users’ requirements. Also, you can check instant reports, insights, and feedback to strategize your process.
- What Should You Research?Identify your competitors, understand their strategies, know competitors’ strengths & weaknesses, and look for opportunities missed by your competitors.
- How Should You Research?Check Google Play Store or Apple App Store to find a similar app to your idea. Assess feedback of your target audience to know users’ requirements.
- Provide Affordable ServiceYou could provide cheaper service as compared to food delivery giants as they invest a lot in marketing but you could start with your existing customers and become a food delivery hub in your area then slowly grow out to be the big game. You could also sell it to or merge with a bigger company or local restaurants, which is profitable for both.
- Keep Reviews and Ratings SeparateIt is advisable to keep the reviews and ratings for the food and meal delivery services separate. This is because it is possible that the food was great but there were issues with delivery, bringing the entire rating down.
- Expand Your ServicesYou could diversify your delivery services just like Postmates did. It is an Uber business model for food, alcohol, and grocery delivery. This way, you could make your on-demand delivery app like Uber Eats, Uber for alcohol delivery, and Uber for groceries, all in one platform.
- Make Your App UniqueYou need to make sure that your food delivery app like GrubHub is not an exact GrubHub clone. It must stand out in the crowd of other food delivery apps. You need to find your own USP and make it the best app to order online for your target audience.
For successful food delivery mobile app development, you will have to closely identify your competitors. Herein we have curated the best food delivery applications of 2021.
Best Food Delivery Apps in 2021
- SkipTheDishesSkipTheDishes app was launched in 2012 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada by a pair of brothers- Josh and Chris Simair. It was launched for Canadian cities but later expanded to the US and other countries. It was joined by the third brother in 2014.
- Source: SkipTheDishes AppIn December 2016, SkipTheDishes was acquired by Just Eat for $200M but still functions with the same brand name. Over 16000 restaurants are associated with SkipTheDishes worldwide. Over 2000 employees and delivery executives of this company are working to make it one of the top Canadian food delivery apps. The app has received total funding of CA$8.5M according to Crunchbase.
- Pros & Cons:
- Easy-payment
- Wide variety of restaurants and cuisines to search from
- Random time estimates
- Inaccurate tracking
- Poor customer support
- DoorDashDoorDash is San Francisco-based on-demand app to deliver food. It was launched in 2013 in San Francisco, California, United States. They now have over 6900 employees and delivery executives that make food delivery as breezy as possible. It has collaborated with over 340,000 selection of stores across the US and Canada.
DoorDash AppIt is one of the best food delivery apps in Canada serving the cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa among others. According to Crunchbase, It has received total funding of $2.1B. The company is currently worth more than $13 billion and is the largest third-party delivery service in the world, surpassing Grubhub in 2019.
Pros & Cons:
- User-friendly
- Easy and fast payments
- No minimum order limit
- Card verification issue
- Order cancellation issues
- Card scanner feature doesn’t work
- App freezes
Little Caesars: Little Caesars was established in 1959 Garden City, Michigan, United States and is definitely one of the most famous pizza places of all time. The app is on our list because it was launched in 2018 but is already considered among the best food delivery app solutions.
- Source: Little Caesars App: Little Caesars has introduced its award-winning Pizza Portal pickup in nearly all Canadian stores. Pizza Portal pickup is the first heated, station in the restaurant industry. This app also has a unique functionality of TouchID/ Fingerprint and FaceID login. This makes the app much more secure to use.
- Pros & Cons:
- Custom pizzas
- Self-service mobile order pickup
- Issues while checking out
- Errors in location detection
- Log-in issues
4 Features to Achieve Ethical Online Ordering During Coronavirus Pandemic
- Contactless Drop-Offs To meet the safety measures and to avoid mishaps, you being food ordering or food delivery startups, should have this feature. People are getting more cautious about hygiene and in-person contact, thus, you can carry out your deliveries with such options. And leave the package at their doorsteps or on their vehicles to avoid contact.
- Eliminating Delivery ChargesTo encourage online purchases and continue practicing social distancing, you should eliminate your service fees. You can also urge your customers to tip your delivery guy, the same amount which they used to pay the delivery fee or charges.
- Scheduled Meal Kit If you want an engaging app during the flu season, then, to meet the demand-supply food chains, you should prepare some meal kits with basic necessities that people can immediately buy without going through individual categories. This will also help you manage your inventories well in advance and will result in timely customer satisfaction.
- Check the PackagingAllow your delivery guy to check the order history when he goes to pick the order. Such a tactic of cross-checking will meet the end user’s requirement and they will also rely on your services for accurate order deliveries.For this, you can also integrate an in-app camera, so that the delivery guy can send a photo of their respective package and address the users for picking up and checking the parcel.
FAQ About Food Ordering App Development
- How to make a food delivery app?Here are 6 simple steps to develop a food delivery app:
- Carry out complete market research
- Research about competitors and develop a strategy
- Decide on which features you want to integrate into your app
- Hire experienced app developers
- Deploy your app on app stores
- Advertise your app solutions on appropriate platforms
- Prepare monetization strategies and payment methods
- How much does it cost to build a food delivery app?Food delivery app development expense depends on three main factors:
- Number and complexity of the app features
- The time taken to integrate features
- Developer’s hourly rate
- What is the best app for food delivery?Some of the best food delivery service apps:
- DoorDash
- GrubHub
- Instacart
- Postmates
- Uber Eats
- Little Caesars
- Seamless
- goPuff
- Delivery.com
- How does a food delivery app work?The food delivery solution works in 4 simple steps:
- A customer places a food order from a wide variety of dishes on the menu on your food ordering app.
- The order is instantly pushed to your smartphone or tablet where you can review it via the admin app/ restaurant.
- The delivery personnel is informed on the delivery app about the pickup and delivery details.
- After the food is prepared, the delivery boy picks it up and delivers it to the concerned customer.
Conclusion
During food delivery app development, it is necessary that you know which food delivery market niche you want to target, what challenges you will face, and how you plan to face them.
A food delivery app should provide freedom of choice to the consumer, it should fit into the consumer’s schedule, should be user-friendly, and work excellently for restaurant business owners.
If you need an app that lives up to all and much more, Henee Studio will come to your aid. We develop and deploy smartphone mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Web platforms for years. We also specialize in developing mobile and web-based IT solutions for the food and beverage industry.
