Growing Usage of Grocery Delivery App Like Instacart Has Uplifted On-Demand Grocery Market

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Here is a synopsis on how to create a clone on-demand grocery delivery app like Instacart!

Half of the tech-boom of the past decade is the result of the on-demand companies that cater to various industry niches. With the increasing popularity of smartphones and the utility of ever growing internet, e-shopping has dominated the retail sector (popularly known as e-commerce or m-commerce). There has been a proportional increase in market revenue and a growth opportunity for aspiring app developers. Apps like Instacart, BigBasket, Grofers, Flipkart Supermarket, Amazon Pantry – all fall in this category. These have been working on the principle of connecting local restaurants and stores with customers. As the customers place their order, a representative selects the items (as fresh as possible) and adds them into their cart. As the payment is complete, the items are packaged and delivered to the respective location.

Grocery Industry with a Digital Twist

Food and grocery industry have gradually incorporated digitization, thus coming up with brands like Peapod, Instacart, Amazon Pantry and likewise. Stores like AmazonGo etc have already ensured big chunks of the e-grocery market share. The growing consumer base is going to become an additive advantage in coming years.

How Should A Food And Grocery Delivery App Look Like?

A food and grocery app must be customizable according to business requirements, must be able to reach audience and markets, and must be scalable enough to include new modules and features in future, and incorporating changes to design and themes in future. To make it even better, ready to go Android and iOS applications for food and grocery must-have features like cart sharing, product comparisons, reward points, ratings and reviews, multilingual features, email notifications, and wishlist, etc.

What Major Retailers Think – Same Day or Next Day Delivery?

To many of us, next-day grocery delivery makes no sense, as we want it fast. Senior executives at US-based online retail giant Amazon and More think about a policy landscape that is far more enabling for an industry which is still so early for evolution. Updated e-commerce policy, released in December 2018 caused disruptions in operations of companies that required growth. The grocery market has to be built over the years and is not something that can be scaled in a hurry. As an example, Amazon recently picked up a 49% stake in Witzig Advisory Services, which acquired retail chain -“More”, which has more than 500 outlets across the country. “More” is a seller on Amazon’s grocery delivery application Prime Now along with several other offline retailers.

In another instance, Amazon has also reportedly babbled out to pick up a stake in “Future Retail”. Amazon is competing with e-grocers like Alibaba backed Bigbasket and Soft-Bank backed Grofers besides Flipkart in this space, which have focused on the next-day delivery market. But Amazon plans to ramp up focus on instant two-hour delivery, which will allow the firm to make fulfilled orders quickly rather than wait for it from a warehouse outside the city.

Features Update – On-Demand Grocery Delivery App Like Instacart

A list of essential features that must be included in app:

  • Delivery within 1 hour
  • Exclusive coupons and deals on essential products (grocery items)
  • Quickly find products at your favorite local stores
  • Save shopping lists and reorder items from previous purchases
  • View nutrition info and add filters by gluten-free, organic or vegan diets
  • Tag favorite items for easier shopping
  • Chat directly with your personal shopper
  • Make use of group carts to easily shop together with friends, family & co-workers

Terms and Conditions Applicable

Groceries are subject to availability. Service fee and taxes are applicable accordingly. Grocery Shopping Apps like Instacart are simple delivery platforms and is not a grocery retailer. These (Instacart et. Al) may not be available in all zip or postcodes.

Wish to Develop A Grocery Delivery App Clone Like Instacart?

Best Grocery List Apps focus on providing a user experience. Therefore such an app must come with a good design, theme, colors, and HD quality images (real time). App throughput and response time required in loading pages must be low to retain new customers.

A decision to make the app in pure native or cross-platform must be accompanied by considering features like – is the base data structure going to change over time? Are the major categories going to remain same, or frequent additions are possible? Subcategories to be included, moving the items into the cart, check-out, checks coupons, offers, etc.

The only constant change in the grocery industry is the changes in the availability of the inventory and prices.

Native applications will help in going native as the applications will load fast. If these are developed with a synchronization framework (and category and inventory pictures are not going to change frequently), these can be stored offline and can be synchronized occasionally.

Prices and availability should be in online mode as they can change daily and in real-time. To optimize the user-experience, customers should be allowed to continue the shopping in a disconnected mode, checking the cart periodically for the prices and availability of the items.

How Do Apps Like Instacart Work?

Here is a list of important points involved in the process:

  • A buyer (customer) can select their groceries online and place their order.
  • A personal shopper is assigned for that order who shops on the buyer’s behalf.
  • As soon as the personal shopper receives the order, they start collecting the items.
  • The personal shopper pays the bill through (grocery delivery partner like Instacart’s) prepaid debit card which accepts at the store.
  • Then the personal shopper goes to deliver the groceries to the customer according to address instructions.

Instacart Business Model

Grocery delivery Apps like Instacart have built an adequate technological infrastructure, thus dealing with local market partners, managing delivery partner workforce and catering 24X7 with customers.

On-demand food and grocery apps are based on sharing revenue model to run business. Three entities are involved in the process: User, shoppers, and stores.

These apps generate revenue via payments on Instacart delivery fee, membership fees, mark up prices and customer relationships.

How Much Does Instacart App Cost

While the delivery fees of apps like Instacart go on dwindling from $5.99 to $3.99 / order, charging 5% service fee and $3.99 default delivery fee from customers, such companies/apps subscription fees costs around $99/year now (updated Nov 2018). Membership fees are $9.99.

Conclusive

Time will always stay ahead of money on the priority lists of the people. They are too busy owing to the barrenness of their own lives that they are hardly left with time to look after daily essentials like groceries. The least they demand is convenience and hassle-free shopping in exchange for money. On-demand grocery business is undeniably good and no marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that. Trust our experts for everything you need to conquer your on-demand grocery shopping app. Mail us your queries and get instant feedback!

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About Author
Neeti Kotia

Neeti Kotia

Neeti Kotia is a technology journalist who seeks to analyze the advancements and developments in technology that affect our everyday lives. Her articles primarily focus upon the business, social, cultural, and entertainment side of the technology sector.

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