With a flurry of mobile apps and each business targeting the daily needs of a consumer, on-demand food delivery apps have come to play a major role. The market is presently governed by industry leaders like DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub, Amazon Prime and Postmates; however, there are always new startups coming up. Out of which some fight against the fierce competition and come out with flying colors while others just simply shut down.
Today’s market is about customers and how well you are able to cater them. It’s all about client servicing- serve your customers well and take a flight to success- simple yet onerous.
There are numerous challenges that these giants overcome on daily basis in order to establish themselves and become better than yesterday. Today, we’ll be throwing light on their business models and how they did it so that you don’t commit crazy mistakes but drive your food delivery startup to new heights.
Key learnings from industry giants like Postmates, DoorDash, UberEats and more.
- Work in a niche
- Be specific with your target audience
- Decide your service area
- Don’t just deliver from any eatery; be precise and specific
- Goal setting is important
- Set a maximum delivery time just like Pizza Hut and Dominos
- Don’t act until you plan
- Master one region at a time
- Don’t tie up with eateries just for business rather build relationships with them
- Determine revenue generation schemes at the start
- Don’t forget to offer periodic coupons and deals
What does it take to develop an on-demand food delivery app?
There are several factors to consider and variants of the app that are required to be built including user version of the app and staff version of the app. Plus, app developers are required to work on the back-end server development for the modules to function. Each will have a different set of features, which are needed to be worked upon. It is advised to build an MVP of the project first, in order to validate its complexity and usability. Once the MVP is ready and out in the wild, you can gain feedback, know the real-time issues, on-demand challenges, useless features and the important ones which you didn’t include in the MVP at first and plenty more things that matter. The gathered feedback can be then analyzed to reproduce a new version of the app that will be more effective and more refined.
Features and screens to have in the user version of the app
- User profile
- Listings screen (with essential filter options, most important being the location)
- Food outlet detail screen (with menu, images, estimated delivery time, call-to-action and more)
- Order screen
- Order tracking
- Order history
- Push notification
- Rating and review
- N more
Features and screens to have in the staff version of the app
- Orders (new, pending and completed)
- Order details
- Customer details
- Push notification
- Admin panel (with all the necessary managers and fields like outlets, customers, menu, revenues, commissions and more)
Features and screens to have in the admin panel (backend)
- Database of food outlets, users, staff and data related to each
- Push notification
- WebSockets chat to keep up the two-way real-time user-server and staff-server connection
- Logistics control
- Data management
These are just to give you an idea. There can be many more features which you need to include in the final version of the app.
How much does it cost to build a local on-demand food delivery app?
The cost of developing a food delivery app will vary on factors like region of development, industry and overall experience of app development company, expertise of the hired app developers, number of hours spent in building a complete app (which is calculated by the hours put in to build different project modules) and more. If you outsource your project to app developers in India, the average hourly cost ranges between $15 to $35. Whereas, it goes up to $45 to $75 if you outsource it to European or American app development companies. The cost for the entire project would fall in the range of $25,000 to $35,000.
How to succeed in building a revolutionary on-demand food delivery app?
Three aspects that’ll help you win are-
1. Business model
Being a food delivery startup, your business model would pretty much be the same as the existing ones-satisfying people’s craving for food from anywhere in the city. The leading food delivery platform ‘Postmates’ has gained a lot from this model and has set a benchmark for others.
Postmates offers 24*7 food delivery service at customers’ doorstep, helps eateries to expand their service area, helps them reach more new customers every day and gain recognition in the areas where they never planned to open an outlet- all without hiring a team of delivery workers, app developers and investment in a new place. The Postmates app earns from the delivery charges that customers are willing to pay in return for their food desires and convenience of delivery at their doorstep.
Considering UberEATS, which is also gaining momentum in the local food ordering business, has a slightly different approach. It has a standard delivery fee of $5, serves between 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. and does not have that conventional 5-star rating mechanism. Users can rate the meal either by a thumbs-up or down. Neither of which applies to Postmates model.
Postmates charges based on the size and bill of the food packet. It is a round-the-clock service and has a 5-star rating model.
Each business functions differently and has an individual approach to accomplishing goals. So, it is important for you to research the market well, identify how your competitors implement it and how you can do in a more effectual manner. The business model will ask you to make periodic changes, and alter your methods so be prepared to adjust as it comes your way.
2. Market analysis
Do a lot of research and continue doing it. Take a closer look on how the market leaders make it happen or how they mend their ways to achieve targets. The more you get involved in how the market is performing, what are the demands of customers, how businesses are satisfying them and stuff likewise, the more you will be prepared for the upcoming battle of ‘survival of the fittest.’ You can’t just rely on one survey cycle or a couple of reports that your analysts generate; it is an ongoing process which needs to be run periodically. That is how you will be able to plan and devise ground-breaking growth strategies.
3. Action plan
Next most important aspect that’ll help you win in this highly competitive market is your action plan. Once you are aware of the criticalities of the domain and associated challenges, it is time to strategize and execute.
Point to be Noted- Execution is the only factor that’ll make a difference and help you stand out.
Plan it smart and execute it even smarter. That is what your mantra should be if you are up against the industry behemoths like Postmates and UberEATS.
Final words
On-demand mobile apps are growing in number. There are not many industries left untouched. The food industry is one such industry that has been benefitted by mobile apps. Restaurant owners have excelled and made their presence count in the areas where opening an outlet was certainly not an easy task due to the involvement of huge investments. On-demand app development is flourishing at an unprecedented rate. Every day, new possibilities are discovered by entrepreneurs and the refinement of the procedures continues.
Make sure that you connect with a well-established on-demand app development company for turning your ideas into reality. You can rely on our services. We have an industry experience of 14+ years and an excellent team to cater you. Fill the form below or drop us an email with your requirements. Our rep will get back to you within 24 hours.