How to Build a Successful Delivery App in 2023
A successful food delivery app development is not limited to designing an excellent web page and adding delivery contacts there. To succeed, any self-respecting delivery company must develop a reliable, safe, and fast application with incredible functionality. So that it helps users always to have quick access to their favorite delivery service and order food fast without wasting time searching on the web. Let’s review how to create a delivery app by a startup development apps studio, some of their types and their development process.
Types of food delivery applications
Of course, you may and should start small, because not everyone will be able to immediately conquer the market. Before you open the delivery of food at home, you need to prepare carefully. It is best to create a business plan, because this way you can gradually distribute all the points and not miss anything.
Adjusting to the new market reality and current consumer needs, more and more companies want to implement delivery of food really fast and of high quality to stay extremely competitive. Depending on the goals, they may choose several options.
B2B
This is an app that may be designed to satisfy huge catering requirements and uses restaurant-prepared food delivery for corporate clients. This is also a kind of on-demand delivery service that has disrupted the traditional market during the pandemic; there are 3 basic components of a meal experience managed. They are ordering, cooking, and delivering available. So, more often this is a mobile platform for selling and delivering dishes from a large number of sources at once.
B2C
Busy and overworked families traditionally order their meals via such apps. Two major options – heat and eat, or cook and eat are the principal kit offerings applied here. Fast fresh and healthy food of relatable meals may only resonate with those customers who often face slot delivery issues currently. These may be an app like ubereats or similar.
P2P
This one is a specific model that is based on a peer-to-peer delivery network that is built to connect the food truck or van owners to people, vendors, and businesses that are in need to move or deliver large items on demand. Unlike the conventional client-server model, such a P2P delivery venture should benefit both its participants equally. So, mind that during the project design preparation.
Undoubtedly, there is even more competition there, but with desire and hard work, you will find your niche that will make you successful.
Key features of the delivery application
Before starting a food delivery business, you need to figure out how you can stand out from your competitors. To succeed, you need to constantly be on top, pleasantly surprise your customers and make them contact you again and again. It’s good if you manage to organize a full cycle of services, that is, from cooking to food delivery. So, you need to build an awesome app that will cover all your food delivery needs. For that you have options such as to order the full cycle development of a site from scratch or buying a ready-made project. The second option will cost you less, besides, you can immediately start working with it but the procedure will be a bit different. It’s up to you to choose.
Depending on the type and other specifics of your future delivery application, you may choose the following features as a must to cater foods to your customers with high quality.
Sign up / Sign in
Registering, signing in/out processes, and customizing profiles should be smooth and easy. UX/UI design of your app should adjust great navigation and fill in the forms. The first step for the courier or delivery person would also be to finish the registration, so, make it easy.
Catalog
Besides the registration and order management page for couriers handling orders, pages with food for users that enable them to book deliveries in real-time should be well thought out. Your app should contain a great catalog that will be easy to update and manage. Such a feature should provide all the details of an order, including pick-up and delivery location, order size, and the customer’s contact information, etc.
Tracking
Maps, tracking GPS and navigation for the couriers, and the ability for status updates must be available for both the users and their food delivery teams. Providing the correct and fast contact information including locations for the delivery person is also a thing to consider.
Payment options
Handling payments via the wallet feature, integration of the payment systems, and card or bank transfer options are good things to consider because the users need maximum comfort and speed while dealing with the payoffs. Think of the cash payment option, too, and how to manage it.
Delivery history & other
Customer satisfaction and feedback are very important. Your food consumer should be able to control their actions to the fullest and have access to their payment and delivery history, etc. reviews and ratings, social media Integration, etc. are also welcome.
Food delivery app development process
To start a delivery app business you need a professional product development team. They will design a mobile application for food delivery. This is a laborious and responsible process that takes quite a lot of time. It is important to think over every detail in advance and take care of the design and unique features to be able to outrun the competition and offer customers the best delivery conditions. The development process may consist of several essential stages.
Search the market
One of the most important things is to conduct comprehensive market research. Before technical development, it is necessary to study the market, target audience, partnership conditions, and other data in detail. Through surveys and social media listening you will better get to know your target customers and their pain points. You may conduct a fast SWOT analysis of your competitors and better explore the industry trend and then analyze your findings and apply them to your app. Thanks to the detailed information, developing a general application concept and thinking about a marketing plan is more effortless. It is not just enough to create an app from scratch; it must be deliberately designed and further maintained. This refers to groups of people looking for a specific product and wanting to collect more information before doing so.
Verify your target audience
The most crucial step is to research the target audience, their needs, pains that should be solved using the application, etc. Only then is a work plan made, and the requirements may be passed to specialists. One of the best ways to find out who your target audience is to look at those who already buys your product or service, or who have an interest in your products. How old are they, where do they live, and what are their interests and pains? An excellent way to learn this is through engaging on social or distributing customer surveys.
Find a delivery app development company
Finding an ideal development team may be a trouble. You may check out the lists of the top food delivery app development companies in your region. Or you may search for someone in an international area to hire developers. Fireart has been out there for the most complex projects including cross-platform development services for years. So, you are also welcome here. We have been in the on-demand economy for more than ten years and have created many successful app solutions for multiple industries, including delivery, as well as other designs. Here are some of the projects:
A POS app concept:
Here Smoothies iOS App concept is made. Here you can order various healthy delicious cocktails and create your own recipes.
Enjoy a cartoon video for ClubSoda, a cool food-ordering application.
Here’s an animation sample created for another food delivery project:
Our team also has produced an explainer video for Freshy, a food discovery app that helps restaurants optimize expenses and bring customers.
Design
Application design must comply with several important conditions: ease of use, attractiveness, and accessibility. The users will not think about how to add order and pay if they do not find a solution immediately, they will simply close the app and delete it.
Come up with requirements
Therefore, the task of the designer is to develop both a highly functional and beautiful app for iPhone and Android system and both. The main goal is to make a clear interface that will help reduce the time to order. The designer here thinks over not only the user side but also the courier side and the administrative side. Each group has different tasks.
Develop
The designer provides a prototype that programmers work on and transfers all ideas from the concept to a code that is understandable for Android or iOS, or both. Writing code takes quite a lot of time, as each function needs to be tested and made convenient and work correctly.
Test
An important task of a mobile food delivery application is to organize a convenient search and menu. The search must be done in such a way that the system understands what is needed. Users may not know the name of the dish, so a detailed study of the search functionality is a necessary development stage.
The menu should also be convenient and multifunctional. You can make a division into categories, establishments, types, etc. It is better if as many ways as possible to find and choose the right food are implemented. QA is a must for flawless app functioning.
Place the app on App Store and Google Play
After the development and testing is completed, the application is uploaded to the services. At this stage, the active implementation of the marketing plan for promotion begins. Prior to this stage, marketing activities might also be carried out, allowing you to connect establishments, if it is a B2B, and promote the application among their customers if it’s a B2C, etc.
Update and process reviews
After the release of the project, specialists continue their work and provide support for the application, fix technical issues, and process feedback from customers. For a food delivery application, customer feedback is the most significant, because the task is to make a convenient and practical service based on the opinions of users.
How much does it cost to create a delivery app?
A basic food delivery app may cost you up to $30,000 – $50,000. A multi-feature on-demand food delivery app like UberEats can cost $52,000 – $90,000. Instead of 3-6 months of a long development, you get an effective application for a restaurant or food delivery service in just 3-7 days if you use a professional design and development team with deep expertise of both native and cross-platform development.
Based on our experience and multiple previous projects, the estimated cost of an application for delivery may reach between $80,000 and $100,000 for a full development cycle, including design, prototyping, and application testing.
How to start a delivery app business?
Business publications state an unprecedented growth in the segment of ready-made food delivery from year to year. The reason is not only the global economy shifts, but also the change in consumer habits. Such app is a highly demanded service on a very competitive market. Few people manage to launch a truly successful business from scratch. However, negative examples do not stop enthusiasts – and that’s great. The business keeps developing a gastronomic culture and behind it there’s a dream to feed everyone anywhere. And to start means to build on demand delivery app.
The question is how to start an app development. Creating a food delivery app must be thought out to the smallest detail. Today there is a lot of competition and a constant increase in demand for courier services. That is why you should take a responsible approach to project development before you start. Dive into the world of White-Label Apps, where customization meets efficiency and innovation.
To create a delivery application, if you are just getting started, you will need to contact a professional studio for the development process, which will help you choose the best solutions for your application. Finding reliable and trustworthy developers is a headache for every startup.
Food delivery trends in 2023
Application development like any other product design area nowadays has numerous trends to offer for consideration. Here are some of the most popular food delivery trends to look for in 2022:
Delivery gamification
The major fans of speed delivery and gamification are millennials (23-35 years old audience), and zoomers are following them. And they need not just food in a box, but diversity and positive emotions. That is why interactive websites and applications for ordering food are so much-approved by them and widely applied while on the go.
Delivery of personalized meals
It is not difficult to guess that in 2022 demand for personalized meal delivery will raise especially when you consider the growing interest in healthy eating. Perspicacious restaurateurs are already using this technique, offering clients menus for weight loss or, conversely, for weight gain, some sports food and so much more. So, your app concept will need to be more sophisticated if you follow the trend.
Speed delivery
Delivery in 30-40 minutes? What’s next? This is no surprise to anyone. Often, preference is given to an establishment that offers even a higher speed of delivery. Especially on Fridays or Saturday evenings, when the residents of the sleeping areas order pizza or Chinese food at the same time in large amounts and are extremely hungry. Another app feature to think over, right?
Multi delivery
IT solutions and smart marketing are transforming the food market. Recently, one of the American delivery services launched a multi-delivery function. What does this mean? When choosing a dish on the restaurant website, the client has the opportunity to add products from the store next door to it. One option for multi-delivery is pooled delivery from multiple locations.
Conclusion
Today it is not at all necessary to go buy food, because everything you need can be ordered via an app online. Moreover, there is no need to even waste time on cooking – it is much better to order food with home delivery. A business created in this service sector can become very profitable, and besides, it has many prospects.
When choosing the main features for an application, feel free to use the minimum list as a landmark or simply directly ask a professional for specific details for your product delivery app project. We will help bring any unusual idea to life and understand the development of applications. Keep in mind that services usually have separate interfaces for customers, restaurants, and couriers, plus they make different applications for iOS and Android. We know how to create a food ordering app even if it’s a complete delivery app project launched on a tight schedule, and may provide you with nice pieces of advice on how to deploy the product design development and testing in just a few months with excellent results.
