Few Important Things You Must Know About Building Food Delivery App

The need to consume food is never going to stop. However, the way in which food was commercially consumed is bound to change from time to time. There was a time when food was prepared at home. Restaurants came to the rescue of people who were outside their homes.

Lovely, restaurants started to become hangout-joints and people started to make excuses to visit restaurants. The restaurants also started to offer different cuisines and dining experiences. Some restaurants retained their classic stance of providing just the food as a utility.

For people who do not have the comfort of cooking at home (or would you prefer the convenience of not cooking at home), restaurants came to the rescue. For people who wanted to enjoy restaurant food at their homes, food delivery services available.

However, it was increasingly difficult for restaurants to maintain a fleet of delivery executives.

This is where food delivery services became relevant. Food delivery services are mostly restaurant agnostic and they take care to deliver the food from any restaurant to your home. The bliss of food delivery has been welcomed by bachelors in new cities, working couples and people who like to party at home. 

Given the unending need for food and the rapid adoption of smart devices, it would be a great idea to start a new food delivery application as a service.

If you’d like to go global, you can always use the UberEATS clone.

However, if you’d like to find local success confined to a particular market, you can use a clone of Swiggy. Swiggy is an app-based food delivery service that has a significant presence in India. It has penetrated to even the second and third-tier cities, making it the biggest player in India.

There are a lot of clones of Swiggy food delivery app that are made available by established app-development service providers. You can customize it according to your requirements and launch your food delivery service in a very short time.

Even if you have to engage a Swiggy clone development service provider, it is important to ensure that a few aspects are in place to enable the smooth functioning of your food delivery app.

A Few Astounding Stats

The revenue in food delivery services is expected to show an annual growth rate of 9.9% from 2019 until 2023. This translates into a market volume of $156 billion by 2023. 

Until now, the revenue from online food delivery has amounted to more than $100 billion.

To succeed in your food delivery business, there are two critical aspects that require attention. One of them is with regard to the business and the other is the application itself.

The Business Aspects

Know your budget

The budget is one of the most important aspects that you need to consider. It is to be understood that money needs to be spent for putting together the different aspect of the application. The different facets include development, marketing and design.

Based on the business model that you are adopting and the market that you are taking on, you will need to ensure that the budget is meticulously distributed among the different streams of expenditure.

The Technology

Technology is never a constant. something that is considered as the latest technology today might be rendered obsolete in a few months. Therefore, it is important that you choose a technology or a platform for building your app that will stand the test of time.

You will also need to take into consideration the integration of third-party applications. The technology that you choose needs to be flexible and at the same time, should not compromise on security. 

The Business Models 

There are various business models for food delivery application. 

The Aggregator Model

The most common of them is the platform to consumer model, which is also called the aggregator model. A lot of popular food delivery applications use this type of business model. The customers can browse through a list of restaurants that are available in their area. They can choose a specific restaurant and add the dishes to the cast. Once the dishes are added, they can place the order and choose a payment method which could be online payment or cash on delivery. A delivery partner will pick the food up from the restaurant and deliver it to the customer. The food application generates its revenue from the delivery charges and from the commission that it gets from the restaurant.

The Restaurant-Centric Mode

The other model is the restaurant to consumer model. In this model, the restaurant receives the order and engages a delivery partner to have it delivered to the customer. It is to be noted that the commencement of the process is not with the app but more with the restaurant itself.

To have all of these in place, there need to be different apps for different users. It should be one for the customer, one for the delivery partner, and one for the restaurant. Above all of this, there should also be an administrator panel from where a business administrator can see all the activities of the application.

Now that we have seen the business part of it, let us look at the finer elements of the application.

Essential Features of a Food Delivery Application

Order tracking

There is always a sense of satisfaction and delight when a customer can live track their food from pick-up to delivery. It might be a simple thing to execute but it goes a long way in customer satisfaction.

Payment security

Digital payments have become mainstream. Given the lavish usage, it is important to guard the payment information of the users with the essential security measures. It should be noted that even a small lapse in security could result in a massive displacement of the users.

More than just a mobile app

It is true that mobile application contributes to the highest amount of traffic when it comes to food deliveries. However, it cannot be forgotten that there are people who might want to access your service from a website. Your service should be available across major operating systems and web spaces.

Rewards and offers

This is one of the simplest yet straightforward ways to retain your customers. It is quite simple and only logical that customers would want to order from an app that provides the maximum discount. It is important to make your partner restaurants understand the importance of offers and rewards.

Conclusion

There is no question that food and food delivery will stay for a longer time to come. If you would like to stay competitive in the race, you have to ensure that all the above-said aspects are completely taken care of.