Building a Food Delivery App

 

Building a Food Delivery App: Important Aspects That Can Have An Impact 

 

Smartphones play an integral role in Gen Z-ers’ lives. Cooking a meal after a tiring work can be the least finish one can get for the day. Stepping out to reach restaurants is another back-breaking process amid the jam-packed traffic. What if there’s a platform to bridge this gap between customers and restaurants? This need has led to the rise of on-demand food delivery apps. 

 

A food delivery platform provides a win-win-win situation for the entire community. Restaurants can boost their sales by signing up with the platform. Users enjoy their favorite meal from the comfort of their homes. On the other hand, the platform owner generates revenue from numerous sources. Such a beneficial and profitable business opportunity is always an entrepreneur’s delight. 

 

If you’re an entrepreneur eyeing to launch a food delivery app, this blog will lay the foundation of how you must approach the development process. Besides, we’ll also look into specific aspects in an UberEats clone that can come in handy and enable you to gain instant popularity.

 

What should a food delivery platform offer? 

Now, let’s look into the minimum requirements of a food delivery platform. 

 

• Instant order booking and delivery
• Real-time tracking options 
• Payments via multiple modes
• Feedback mechanism 
• Regular updates and reminders
• Simple app design for navigation 

 

If a platform can promise these characteristics, it is worthy enough to be recognized among the audience. Being successful is another dimension that we’ll discuss later in the upcoming sections. 

 

A comprehensive food delivery app solution involves a minimum of three separate entities. They include, 

 

• Customer app 
• Service provider app
• Administrator panel 

 

Let’s discuss in detail about the features and functionalities of these apps here. 

 

Customer app interacts with your target audience 

Your entire supply chain depends on consumers. Your business’s aim reflects on the customer app. The more attention it draws, the higher are the chances of success. Let’s discuss the app features here, 

 

• Single-step registration: Users register with your app to order food and not to apply for a job. Do not load the registration step with irrelevant details. Enabling users to log in via their social media handles can make it easier and efficient. 

 

• Search and filters: Among the sea of food products, users need to choose their desired meal. Surfing past the entire menu is daunting and can exasperate the hunger to a whole new level. A search column, aided by filter options, can help narrow down results, leading to the ultimate product. 

 

• Real-time tracking: Placing orders and waiting for an eternity is highly unlikely in this fast-paced world. Ensure your customers get instant updates on their orders. Besides, with real-time tracking by their side, customers get to know the delivery executives’ exact location. 

 

• Multiple payments: What’s with an online platform when people cannot pay via digital modes? Pre-loaded numerous payment gateways can enable swift payments, boosting your profits. 

 

• Order history: Besides invoice generation, the app must have a separate functionality for order history. Users can verify their past orders and re-order them on a future date if need be. 

 

• Ratings and reviews: How will you keep service quality in check? What if users do not like the restaurants’ packing or delivery workers’ professionalism? A feedback mechanism is mandatory, enabling users to rate and review their experience after every order. 

 

A service provider app decides the platform’s reliability 

Unless and until the platform balances between supply and demand, success becomes a distant fruit. The service provider here involves both restaurants and delivery executives. You can either create a sub-category or have distinctive apps. The features worth-considering in a service provider app include, 

 

• Registration and verification: Customer satisfaction depends on the quality of the services. No second thoughts. Instead of allowing everyone who signs up with the platform to provide services, verify their authenticity by conducting a background check. This verification process can instill trust among customers. 

 

• Availability and ordering dashboard: As soon as the customer places an order, service providers receive the request. If service providers aren’t in a state to provide services, they can go offline using the toggle functionality. Once the provider accepts the request, they get details on their dashboard. Restaurants process, prepare, and pack food orders, while delivery executives reach the locations to pick up orders. 

 

• Profile: Service providers can manage their profiles by adding relevant information from time to time. Besides, they also have access to their weekly/monthly earnings, real-time analytics, number of successful orders, etc. 

 

• In-app navigation: Timely services are crucial amid the neck-to-neck competition. Delivery executives can reach restaurants’ and customers’ locations seamlessly through in-app navigation. Similarly, restaurants get to know the exact location of delivery executives and can manage orders accordingly. 

 

• Push notifications: Instant activity isn’t possible unless service providers respond in the shortest time. In their hectic schedule, service providers needn’t open the app every time. They get regular updates via push notifications, paving the way for better order management. 

 

The admin adds a crucial ingredient - responsiveness 

The admin of the platform manages the UberEats Clone app activities from a single place. If you opt for manual order dispatching, the admin has much more responsibility to connect service providers with customers. Some of the features of the admin panel include, 

 

• Customer management: The admin resolves customer queries from time to time by reaching out to customers’ ratings and reviews. Besides, the admin manages disputes between customers and service providers, paving the way for the app’s smooth operation. 

 

• Transactions management: The admin transfers payment between customers and service providers after the necessary commission cut-down. Besides, the admin also has access to processed, failed, and abandoned transactions. 

 

• Real-time analytics: The admin can generate real-time analytics based on customer ratings, peak hours, areas of high demand, etc. This way, the admin can reroute professionals or make an informed business decision, based on proven data and insights rather than instincts. 

 

Focus on the things that ensure success

A considerable group of entrepreneurs lose track of their end-product and settle for a product of substandard quality. By having a clear vision of what you’re about to develop, you can avoid running out of resources or funds. Here is a list of things that need the utmost care. These things, coupled with your determination to succeed, can scale your UberEats clone to greater heights.

 

• Gain technical assistance: Venturing into app development can be quite lonely, especially when things do not turn up the way you imagined. Having a dedicated team behind your back can help you streamline your activities. You can also opt for the cost-effective clone app solutions, eliminating the burden of developing the app. 

 

• Opt for a minimalistic design: A complex design can make things complicated for unfamiliar app users. Having a simple design, seamlessly navigating users towards services can come in handy.

 

• Integrate numerous payment gateways: Customer convenience depends on paying for orders as well. Integrating multiple payment gateways can enable them to pay conveniently in the mode of their choice. 

 

• Maintain the supply chain: Each stakeholder has a crucial impact on your business. Any disruption to one supply chain will invariably affect the other. 

 

• Use customer engagement tools: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will rule the online world in the upcoming years. Leveraging these tools can boost your customer engagement rates, leading to enhanced leads and sales. 

 

Conclusion, 

A food delivery platform needs to be robust, must create an impact, and has to evolve with the customer trends. A feature-filled app can draw more attention to the site. Focusing on the back-end (admin-end) is equally essential as the admin maintains the app activity and resolves disputes instantly. Focusing on these strategies will ensure your food delivery app’s success in the market. 

 

Reach out to an app development company, tell them your needs, and launch your UberEats clone right away!