On-demand apps are in trend and if you are planning to start your on-demand food delivery app like UberEats, this blog is for you. There are many things you need to keep in mind while you develop a food delivery app. In this blog, we will discuss a step by step guide to make an app like UberEats.
The buying patterns of millennials have evolved with time. They don’t just want a good product or service from the businesses, but they expect a gratifying experience from the brand when they deal with it. Most of the businesses who fail to make an impact in today’s era of cut-throat competition are due to the fact that they fail to understand the pulse of the target audience and suffer huge losses. Millennials are working most of the time of the week and they don’t have time for going shopping and wait in long queues for hours. The reason why on-demand apps are so popular is that millennials find them more convenient, comfortable and easy to deal with. These apps keep the interests of the customers on priority and the results are visible.
On-demand food delivery apps came into existence because users don’t have time to visit the restaurant and wait for the order to serve. They want everything quick and on their fingertips. UberEats, Postmates, Deliveroo, Swiggy, Zomato are some of the prominent names of on-demand food delivery apps that have earned quite a reputation and popularity for their world-class services and professionalism. The lucrative market of on-demand food delivery apps has attracted entrepreneurs to invest here.
(remove this line) If you want to develop food delivery apps like UberEats, this blog is for you. This blog depicts almost everything that you need to know about making food delivery apps like UberEats, Postmates, Deliveroo, Swiggy, Zomato and Doordash.
Food delivery start-up model types:
The aggregator model
This is a traditional food delivery system where the app acts as a bridge between the users and the restaurants and functions as the third party. Here, a consumer can browse several hotels, restaurants offering different cuisines and the app allows consumers to order through the app. The consumer can check out the menu, reviews and other crucial details before selecting the restaurant. Once the consumer places an order, the order is confirmed by the restaurant and the food is packed and sent for the delivery. Here, the app does not play any role except being a medium between the consumer and the restaurant.
Food delivery app with logistic support
Here, the app offers logistic support to the restaurants. The app takes care of the delivery services here and that is how it differs from the aggregator model. Startups who don’t have their resources for delivery, they can take advantages of such on-demand services. For restaurants, they don’t have to maintain personnel, vehicles and other inventories for delivery services. UberEats and Swiggy fall in this category.
What are the must have features of the on-demand food delivery apps?
Here are some of the prominent features for food delivery app development. These features are very crucial for performance and success of the app and will give superior experience to the users while using the app.
Data access
On-demand apps require data and information that help users to decide in a better manner. If you are making an on-demand food delivery app, include as many menus, reviews, cuisines, restaurants, delivery times and calorie and ingredient information. These details will make users understand what they are ordering and they will find it interesting to spend more time on the app. You can gather such information from APIs in mobile apps.
Payment integration online
Users don’t just want to order food from their homes, they also want to pay online too, except when they choose to pay on delivery. Most of the users will pay online as it is an easy and quick way to pay. Being a developer, you need to ensure that the app has as many payment options available as possible to give a choice to the users. Users will surely appreciate this thing. Some of the popular payment options are a debit card, credit card, Visa Checkout, PayPal, Square and online UPI pay.
Delivery
Users become restless once they place an order and want their order to be delivered as soon as possible. In the era of instant gratification, users want to know about the micro-details of delivery and hence, providing an estimated delivery time feature is recommended. It will calm down the users and give you relief too. UberEats offers this feature and you can check out the estimated time of delivery. It can be done with the help of machine learning technique and you can provide accurate time of the delivery. Introduce this feature without fail to make users engaged and interested even after the order is placed.
Tracking
Users also want to track the delivery schedule to know when exactly they will get the order in their hands. Uber, a famous taxi app started this feature to let people track the taxi they have hired. However, Postmates offers this feature in its food delivery app too where users can track the order. Here, the GPS tracking system is used to track the order. First of all, the GPS locations of the user and the delivery boy are identified and then, two-way tracking is made possible. Also, delivery boys would be able to find the exact location of the consumer to reach out to them as quickly as possible. Some of the tools that make tracking possible are MapKit, Google Maps and Waze’s Navigation.
Reviews and Ratings
Sometimes, due to strange reasons, delivery personnel jeopardize the reputation of a brand and service providers. You need to monitor their activities and professionalism from time to time to avoid any issues. It can be done by asking customers to write a review and ratings about the delivery boy. It is an effective way to keep track of the delivery boys and to ensure that they don’t misbehave with the customers. Furthermore, it will help a service provider to decide whether they should continue with the delivery personnel or fire them for misconduct or incompetence.
Three versions of the food delivery app
Food delivery application development is not like developing a single app that works well for all the stakeholders such as WhatsApp or Instagram. Here, you need to take care of all the stakeholders and make three versions of the app for three stakeholders- consumers, delivery personnel, and restaurant managers.
Let’s discuss each version and related features that must be included in the versions.
Consumer Version
The consumer version is one that will be accessed and used by consumers. Here, superior user interface and satisfying user experience are two parameters that developers need to work on. Some of the important features are discussed below.
Registration
Once the consumer downloads the app, he will open the app and see the registration page. Here, your relationship with the consumer starts and you need to ensure that you make it as pleasant and stress-free as possible. Consumers would be creating the account with your app with details such as username, password and other details such as profile photo uploading, restaurant and cuisine preferences, adding favourites, etc.
Facilitate your users to login through social media channels such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Instagram.
Also, make the whole registration process as simple as possible to ensure that the users don’t get disinterested with it.
Restaurant browsing
Once the registration process is over, the actual game starts. Users will search for restaurants now to decide where they want to order food. Also, they want to search for restaurants in the vicinity.
Crucial features to be added in the app:
Restaurant finding in the vicinity, Data and information about restaurants including menus, reviews and ratings, ambience photos, cuisines and deals and discounts if any.
Order placing
Now, the consumer has found what they were looking for and it is the time that they order for the same. Users must have the liberty to choose, add or remove the dishes from the cart. Once the order is placed, the summary should be displayed for the users to double-check their orders.
Payment for the order
Now, consumers would pay for the order and here you need to need to add as many payment options as possible for the convenience of the users. Also, ensure that the payment process is fast and safe.
Order tracking and location setting
Once the payment is done, your consumer suddenly becomes restless and impatient as he wants his order as soon as possible. In such a scenario, you need to ensure that you set the right location for delivery. Also, it is recommended that you add the feature of order tracking to give some good time to the consumers. They would like it.
Rating and reviewing
Once the order is delivered to the consumer, ask them to rate and review the deliveryman for their services. Ask how was their experience with the deliveryman and the food and how would he rate the whole experience from 1 to 5. Let them write about the overall services of food, delivery man, and delivery.
Some of the features that you can add to the consumer version of the food delivery app are:
- Order history
- Delivery time estimation
- Social media logins
- Wishlist creation
Delivery Personnel Version
When it comes to mobile app development for on-demand food delivery app, a separate version of the app must be developed for the delivery Personnel.
Registration and profile creation
First and foremost, the delivery personnel have to create profiles for identification. They can register themselves on this version of the app by any means, through social media log in, mobile number, or email address. The app owners might also ask them to add some additional information too.
Order management
After registration, the delivery person must have all the data about the orders including pick up and drop locations, size of the order, contact details of the consumer and other crucial details. Also, they would be able to accept or reject the order with this feature.
Status updating
The delivery personnel need to update the status of the delivery to ensure that it reaches to the consumer who is eagerly waiting for the order to be delivered. They need to update the status such as approved or rejected order, order picked from the restaurant and order delivered to the customer.
Once the delivery personnel delivers the order and the consumer confirms the same, the amount will be credited to the account of the delivery personnel.
Some of the features that can enhance the overall experience of the delivery personnel are:
- Booking history
- Additional pickup and delivery routes
- SOS service
Partner restaurant version
The third and final version of the app to create a food delivery application like UberEats is the partner restaurant version. Let’s check out some of the crucial features of this version.
Admin Panel
It is a web-based portal that helps managers of the restaurants to manage everything about the order. Here, a manager can view the order coming up, accept it, make a request to the delivery personnel, and edit menu and other important information. In short, it is a comprehensive portal that helps to manage everything from the restaurant end.
Registration
Restaurants too need to register themselves by opening an account either through mobile number or an email address or by creating a username and password.
Content management
Restaurant managers must be able to add content in the version to attract more customers to order from them. They should be able to manage or edit the crucial information about the restaurant as and when they want.
Some of the information they can add or edit is the name of the restaurant, contact information, address, opening and closing hours, photos, menus, descriptions, delivery charges and prices.
Order management
Once the registration and content management is done, the restaurant version awaits for orders. Here, the restaurant manager should be able to track and manage multiple orders on time. Some of the features to be incorporated are:
A complete, detailed view of the order
Updating and notifying the consumer and the delivery boy about order acceptance and once the order is ready for pick up
List of the current orders
Payment receiving
Once the consumer confirms the food delivered to him, the payment for the restaurant partner is released.
Cost to make a food delivery app
When you are planning to make a food delivery app, you need to know how much it cost to make an app like UberEats. Here is an answer to the question. The total cost of developing an app like UberEats varies and depends on many aspects such as several features and functionalities, country of app development and other factors. For example, if you hire an On-demand App Development company from Asia, you might get quite a cost-effective deal compared to the companies located in the USA and European countries. According to experts, the total estimated cost of developing a simple, highly-functional on-demand app is estimated starting from $10,000.