Development of a Mobile App for Food Delivery

Why is a mobile app so necessary for food service businesses? No matter the size of a company, it needs a food delivery app. It could be a chain of restaurants or a small kitchen that doesn’t even have a guest room, but having a tool like this greatly expands the capabilities of the establishment.

Here are a few reasons why mobile food delivery apps are necessary for every establishment:

1. Growing market value. It’s impossible to grow a company without attracting new customers and making a profit. The introduction of new technology will acquire new customers and increase their loyalty; thanks to it, the average check also increases.
2. Saving customers’ time.
3. Quick and easy way to order food. The easier it is to collect, the better for the customer.
4. ROI. This is a measure of the profitability of the investment, or, to put it simply, the payback rate. Food delivery app development is an investment that will increase ROI.
5. Business expansion. Implementing new technology helps you expand your business significantly.

A food delivery app is an important tool for any foodservice company. Expanding opportunities, increasing the audience, increasing profits, and growing the business is by no means a complete list of what introducing new technology brings, especially against the backdrop of a competitive market.

How Food Delivery Apps Work

The global food delivery market is estimated at 83 billion euros. The sphere is growing and becoming even more powerful. Hence online food delivery is inevitable. A mobile food delivery app has three models of operation, and each one has its characteristics:

1. Aggregators. It presents a menu from different establishments. The customer places an order, after which the aggregator manager transmits the data to the restaurant’s courier delivery service. Partner conditions bring the aggregator a profit. Advantages for the establishment: no need to create your app, additional audience expansion. Cons: Loyalty develops not to the restaurant, but the aggregator; the payments are considerable, so the profitability of the dish decreases, although the overall profit increases. The owner of the aggregator may not even have an established and still receive income from the meal delivery app.
2. Available services. New services that provide aggregator and delivery services for restaurants have been developing recently. The owner of such a service must organize the logistics for food delivery from establishments and create his courier service.
3. Own services. It is possible to invest in creating your mobile app development for food delivery, and this is the best solution for medium and large establishments.

Main Characteristics of Food Ordering Apps

Each mobile app for food ordering has a unique design, in most cases maintaining a common brand style, different functionality, and features.

Customer version

The client version of the app should look stylish and attractive and be as easy to understand as possible. The main goal is to allow customers to order quickly and comfortably. Technically, the customer version of the app development should have the following features:

1. A personal profile. It specifies information about the client, preferences, payment methods, and other useful information. You can make it functional to save orders to repeat them, save the address so that you don’t have to enter a new one each time, and so on.
2. Delivery time and real-time tracking. A useful feature that will show how long it will take for the courier to arrive. A good addition is the ability to track where the order is at the current moment.
3. Payments. The functionality of fees should be stylishly designed to evoke a sense of security and be technically competently implemented. Multiple payment methods, repeat payments, card scanning, and other solutions will help make the payment process fast and secure.
4. Ratings and reviews. Before ordering, a customer should get acquainted with the dish, and the best way to do that is to study ratings and thoughts about the establishment and the word itself.
5. Push notifications. This feature will allow you to receive messages about changes in order status instantly.

This is a necessary set of features in a mobile food delivery app development for the client. The rest of the features are implemented at the request of the app owner.

Courier Version

Courier is the most important link in the chain between a client and an establishment. The overall efficiency of an establishment depends on its work, so the courier version of the application should include the following features:

1. Personal profile. It contains information about the courier, his rating, feedback on his work, the number of completed orders, and other useful information for the courier.
2. Order management. Ability to accept, reject orders, review details, write a comment, and other features to ensure efficient handling of orders.
3. Status. The function allows you to see the quality of the order, its details, and other necessary information in real-time.
4. Locations and Routes. The courier needs to provide a quality map with locations and routes. This will improve efficiency, logistics, and speed of delivery.
5. The Courier version should not be too busy, but at the same time, understandable, accessible both for Android and on iPhone.

Admin Version

In any job involving human contact, there are disagreements and difficulties. When working with the food service industry, there are even more such issues and problems. The administrator solves them. In addition, he has to process orders, receive payments and control the work of the couriers. The administrator’s version must include the following functions:

1. Personal profiles. And both customer and courier profiles. This will help to organize the work and improve the contact between the institution and the customer.
2. Content management. Adding new items, changing prices, the ability to block establishments or individual dishes, and other content management functions should be implemented.
3. Order processing. The administrator accepts online orders and processes them in the shortest possible time. If it is an aggregator, it redirects the order to the establishment; if the application is created for your restaurant or cafe, then the processing and implementation of the order.
4. Receiving payments. The payment function is implemented in the client version of the application. In contrast, the administrative version must provide the ability to view the payment status, receipts tables, and other information related to payment.
5. All three versions of the food delivery app development should include these feature sets. The rest of the features are selected individually, depending on the budget, amount of time allocated, specifics of the establishment, and other data.

Food Delivery App Development Stages

Developing a mobile food delivery app development is a time-consuming and responsible process that takes quite a lot of time. The product consists of several stages. It is important to think through every detail and take care of the design and unique features to get ahead of the competition and offer customers the best conditions.

Research

Before technical development, it is necessary to study the market, target audience, partnership terms, and other details. Detailed information makes it easier to create a general app development concept and think through a marketing plan.

Design

The app design must comply with several important conditions: ease of use, attractiveness, and accessibility. The designer’s task is not just to develop a pretty look that will look good on an iPhone or Android system. The main goal is to make an understandable interface that will help reduce the time to order.

Programming

The designer provides a prototype on which programmers work, and from the picture, transfers all the ideas to understandable Android or iOS code.

Search and Menu

An important task of a mobile food delivery app development is organizing a convenient search and menu.

Upload on the App Store and Google Play

Once development and tests are completed, the app is uploaded to services. At this stage, an active marketing plan for promotion begins.

Updating and Processing Reviews

For a food delivery app, customer feedback is the most important because the goal is to make a convenient and practical service based on users’ opinions.

Developing a mobile food delivery app is a great investment for most food establishments. The main task is to satisfy the customer’s needs and make ordering fast and easy. Then the business gets an expanding audience, increasing loyalty, competitiveness; hence — the income increases and the company grows.