I mean, since these apps and even their businesses have become successful, I see such types of questions in almost 10 emails a day. Everyone wants to have a similar business model and become successful.
Now, before we move on to start working on how to develop a food ordering and delivery app, let’s understand what exactly this app is all about.
Food delivery apps like Swiggy or any other are called the on-demand apps.
What are the on-demand apps?
Here is a clear-cut definition to what an on-demand app means–
Let’s even understand when we use such kind of on-demand apps:
Looking at the above situations, you can easily make out that the food delivery apps is an on-demand app.
Now, let’s begin to discuss how you should perfectly plan and build a food delivery app developed:
Build a Successful On Demand Food Delivery App like Swiggy
1. Know your audience
Though you know that you are one of those customers enjoying the apps like Swiggy, you need to understand every aspect of your customers’ need.
You need to follow the entire process to understand the audience of your food delivery app. In fact, not just that, when thinking of an online food ordering and delivery app, there are four apps that need to be developed,
- For You (Platform Owner)
- For the Restaurant Owners
- For the Delivery Boys
- For the Order Placing Customers
So, you need to understand the audience of all the three app users:
- Who is your audience?
- What is their age group?
- Where do they like to spend most of their time?
- What are the challenges do they find?
- Why would they want to use your app?
- And, much more.
Once, you understand your audience well, it becomes easy for you to plan your entire business effectively.
2. Prepare a business model
Now, let’s prepare a business model for a food delivery app like Swiggy and others.
Your ideal business model should be like this-
And, here it is explained very nicely about how you can prepare a business model-
Here, there are four main stakeholders that play an important role for the app like Zomato:
- The Owner of the Business
- The Restaurant Owner
- The Delivery Staff
- The Customer
Let’s understand how the entire process takes place within this on-demand food ordering and delivery business model-
You are the owner of the apps. And, you need to get the restaurant owners to list their restaurants on your new online delivery app developed. The restaurant owners have to pay a certain amount for you to get their restaurant listed on your delivery app.
When a customer places an order for the delivery app, you, the restauranteur, and the nearest delivery professional get a notification on their respective mobile apps.
Then, the restaurant owner or their staff accepts the order and the delivery professional reaches to the restaurant to collect the order. There is no transaction taking place between the restauranteur and the delivery professionals.
The delivery professional takes the customers’ ready order from the restaurant and get it delivered to the customer. And, the restaurant and even the customer can track the orders on their mobile apps.
If you want to build an app like Swiggy, Zomato or UberEats, you need to collaborate with the third parties that help you with the delivery staff as and when there is an order.
So, create or get a ready business model template and start adding answers within each of these business model sections for the on-demand food delivery apps.
3. Study top food delivery apps
You’ve got your business model ready and now, it’s time to do market research and analysis of your well-settled competitors. You need to analyze all of the following three popular online food ordering and delivery apps:
- Swiggy
- Zomato
- UberEats
Now, what do you need to research and analyze in all of the above food delivery mobile apps?
- Understand how they’ve designed the entire theme of their food delivery apps
- Check out how they’ve designed the UI/UX (Here are the UX design guidelines for a successful on-demand app)
- Make a list of how the navigation takes place within the app
- They have their subscription-based services and if you want to plan the same, you need to study it in detail (Check out how these subscription-based models will benefit you)
- Check out in detail on how they’ve worked on customer service and experience
- Ensure to also look for all the features and functionalities that can ease the browsing and placing an order for the customers
- Also, check how deeper they’ve gone to personalize the on-demand food delivery app dashboard for the customers
Don’t just research and analyze, document everything for the better decision making.
4. Document the key features
Now, you have the overall business idea of your competitors which you need to enhance to make a successful food delivery app.
It’s time to find out the features and functionalities that the competitors already have and even you need to have it in a better way. Let’s plan and document the key features you need to have in all of the mobile apps:
A. Mobile App Features for the Platform Owner (YOU)
You are the platform owner and hence, your mobile app would be very much different from what the customers, the restaurant owners, and the delivery staff would have.
For your better view, you can have a web portal and even a mobile app to have the access to-
- Dashboard
- Payments
- Serving Countries and Cities
- Account Settings
- Stores
- Map View
- Restaurants
- Service Types
- Delivery Professionals
- Analytics & Reporting
- APIs configured
- Customers
- And, anything that you need for decision making purpose
B. Mobile App Features for the Restaurant Owner
- Admin Dashboard
- Registration
- Managing content for the restaurant such as restaurant info, menu, photos, opening and closing hours, etc.
- Order management that includes receiving orders, processing orders, and tracking the orders
- Receiving the payments once the consumer receives the order
C. Mobile App Features for the Delivery Professionals
- Registration of each delivery professional
- Their personal profile
- Order management that includes receiving, approving, rejecting the orders, the order pickup and drop locations, order size, etc.
- Updating the status of the order delivery which will be shared to you (platform owner), the restaurant owner, and most importantly, the customer
- GPS system in order to locate the pickup and drop locations
D. Mobile App Features for the Customers
- Registration through emails
- Social Media sign-ups and logins
- Search Restaurant options based on restaurant names, nearby restaurants, locations, cuisines, etc.
- Call feature for restaurant and even delivery professionals
- Personalized dashboard
- Push notifications
- Tracking the food and delivery professionals
- Review and rating the restaurant as well as the delivery staff
- Various payment options such as COD, credit card, debit card, digital wallets, etc.
- Showcasing veg or non-veg options
- Integrating social media accounts of the restaurants and even your food ordering and delivery app brand in order to receive fan following
These features are the main features that you need to have. On the top of these, you need to figure out what different you can offer to your restaurant partners, customers, and even the delivery staff.
Consider discussing with the experts on how you can enhance the existing mobile app features to outperform the competition easily.
5. Choose the right app development company
Your next step towards building a food delivery app like Zomato and many others is to choose the right app development partner. This will decide your growth and success in this new business plan.
There is a step-by-step process to find the right app development company. Use this process to find a list of amazing on-demand mobile app development companies.
The company that you choose should be able to set the right priority of developing all the apps. This means whether to develop the app on Android or iOS first and which app version to develop first.
Now, here are a few things to consider while choosing the right on-demand app development company:
- Find out the companies that have the experience of developing the on-demand mobile apps
- Look for the companies who have an in-depth knowledge of how the entire business model of the on-demand apps work
- Check out their blogs showcasing information regarding on-demand apps
- Have a look at their portfolio and see how effectively, they design UI/UX
This is the most important step in building an app like UberEats or so because even the minutest flaw can break your entire business plan.
6. Keep your app maintained and upgraded
The task is not over yet. Your new venture of on-demand food delivery app is a long-term project and to keep up with the competition, the apps need to be regularly maintained and upgraded.
The on-demand apps have the highest store traffic during lunch and dinner timings and especially on the weekends. So, any hiccups in any of the apps can reduce a huge amount of conversions.
That’s the reason why a team needs to be on their toes to see your app is working perfectly in any condition.
Also, looking at the technology revolution, your app would need to be upgraded at the regular intervals in order to improve the customer experience constantly and consistently.
Get Your Online Food Delivery App Now
Nowadays, the online food ordering and delivery is trending and restaurants are looking to expand their reach to the customers. So, this is the time you gear up for your on-demand food delivery app idea and get started to become successful.
Follow all the above steps to build a highly successful food delivery app like Swiggy and similar ones. And, if you want to develop an on-demand food delivery app with a difference, connect with our experts to help you plan, guide, develop, market, and grow your business at the lightning speed.
