How to Develop a Food Delivery App (Like Uber Eats) in 2021

The food delivery market will keep on growing steadily for the next decade. From this article, you’ll get to know how to create your own iOS and Android app in this segment,

By 2030, the worldwide market for food delivery is expected to reach $300 billion. Today, its size equals just 4% of the food sold through restaurants and 1% of the overall food market. The growth potential is evident! From this article, you’ll get to know to develop a food delivery app that you might make a lot of money on.

Choose Your Model

All the food delivery apps fall into two categories: aggregators or order delivery. The former approach to web application development is a bit older than the latter, it appeared around a decade ago. The latter was introduced in 2013.

Aggregators act as mediators between restaurants and their clients. The user creates an account in the app, goes through the list of venues, reads their menus, checks other people’s reviews and places an order. The restaurant receives this order, prepares the meal and delivers it. This model is optimal for establishments that have their own couriers.

Order delivery apps act like aggregators but have an additional function: they rely on their own couriers. Thanks to such apps, even the smallest cafes can deliver food to their clients. Bigger venues also like this model more than the former because it enables them to fully focus on what they can do best — that is, cooking meals. If you launch an app of this type, you’ll need to put much more effort into supervising its work. But you should be able to get more clients and boost your income.

The Three Facets of a Food Delivery App

Your app should have three separate interfaces for the following types of users:

• Customers
• Admins
• Delivery people

To produce the most favorable impression on customers, the app should have a visually appealing design and an intuitive interface. It should load very quickly and the process of placing orders should be remarkably simple. No need to say, there should be no bugs.

Authorized personnel of the food delivery service or the restaurant will use the admin app to carry out the following tasks:

• Accept customer orders
• Dispatch these orders
• Handle payments
• Track the orders
• Keep up with the logistics of it all

You might want this part to be available not only as a mobile app but also as a web-based software.

Couriers will be able to use their part of the app to accept or reject orders. The system will notify them as soon as a new order appears, will show the drop-off location and build an itinerary of getting there.

The List of Features for a Food Delivery App

No matter which model you choose, your app should have the following features.

• Registration. This is a rather obvious feature. A new user should be able to create an account in the app in just a few seconds.
• Profile management. For customers, the most important part of the profile information is the delivery address. Admins should be able to add exhaustive information about their restaurants: type of cuisine, price range, opening hours, the name of the chef and so on.
• Search option. It should be quick, easy and reliable. Customers should be able to sort restaurants with the help of filters. But sometimes, filters might fail to help, so people should be able to type their requests manually.
• Easy lists. Many customers who open your app don’t know for sure what they would like to eat. The names of the lists should facilitate their choice: Mexican, Vegan, Breakfasts and so on.
• Order tracking. As soon as a customer confirms his or her order, they should be able to track it. The app should let them know the estimated delivery time and display status updates for their orders.
• Payment gateway integration. Ideally, customers should be able to pay for their orders either in advance or when they meet the courier. Couriers should accept cash, credit and debit cards. When paying online, customers should be able to use credit and debit cards as well as digital wallets. That part of the app that is available to couriers should display the sums on their accounts and show whether a transaction has been successful or not.
• Preferences on the home page. Customers should be able to indicate their preferred types of restaurants in their profiles (such as Panasian or Budget-friendly). When they open the app, they should see the suggestions of such types of venues right on the main page. You might want to use machine learning to make the app remember each user’s preferences and come up with smarter, more flexible suggestions.
• Ratings and reviews. Customers need them to be able to select the top restaurant and the best meals. For admins, it’s one of the easiest ways of receiving impartial feedback. They can use this data to improve their food and quality of service.
• Offers, coupons and loyalty benefits. Most restaurants have their special offers — but you can introduce additional ones in your app. The more coupons and gifts your customer can get, the better. This should help you to expand your client base and maximize your income. Also, special offers enable users to establish an emotional connection with your app.
• Push notifications. This is one of the most efficient tools for increasing your users’ loyalty. Push notifications can inform people about special offers, restaurant news and the delivery progress of their orders. The most important thing is to make these notifications customizable. Users should be able to choose which information they want to see and how frequently.
• Admin panel to manage orders. Through this dashboard, restaurant managers will distribute the orders, track them, gather the statistics (such as the number of late or canceled orders) and so on.

Optionally, you might want to add social media integrations, an opportunity to send SMS right through the app and other features.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this information came in handy and now you better understand how to build a successful food delivery mobile app. You can monetize it through in-app ads, order fees and delivery fees.