Since the COVID pandemic, more and more people are becoming mobile dependent. From shopping online to ordering food online, everything has become a habit now. In such a scenario, there is a huge scope of online food delivery applications. In this article, we will discuss the market size of the food delivery industry, the challenges, the process to develop a food delivery app, some of the key features, and the cost of developing such an app.
Why is the market still open for new food delivery apps?
Food delivery is a huge and growing industry. The market is currently worth $75 billion, and it’s expected to grow. The Hastings Group, research, and the advisory firm predict that the food delivery market will be worth $365 billion by 2030.
There are a few reasons for this growth. First, more people are ordering food online. In fact, 78% of consumers say they’ve ordered food online in the past year. And that number is only going to increase as more and more people become comfortable with ordering food online.
Second, there’s been a rise in the number of restaurants that offer food delivery. This is due both to the growth of the food delivery industry and to the rise of “to-go” dining.
Key challenges that you have to deal with to survive in the competitive food delivery market.
Wavering customer loyalty
The food delivery industry is a competitive market with strong competitors. One of the crucial factors impacting customer loyalty is the service received from the app or website that delivers food. In order to maintain customer loyalty, it’s important to address the key challenges that exist in this industry.
Failing to provide accurate information about delivery times and prices can lead customers to abandon their orders midway and switch to a different app. Another challenge is poor-quality products or services. Quality is a subjective topic but it can be objectively measured through customer feedback and reviews about the food, packaging, and wait times.
Inconsistency in food quality
One of the major challenges for food delivery apps is the inconsistent quality of different restaurants. For example, some may have low-quality food ingredients while other restaurants may provide great-tasting food. There are many reasons why this happens, but it all boils down to the fact that the customers equate the quality of food directly to the quality of delivery. This means that the restaurant you partner with for your food delivery also matters as it directly impacts the performance of your app. If you are a restaurant owner yourself, it is important for you to level up your food quality.
Inability to cope with the volume
Food delivery apps face a lot of challenges, but one of these challenges is that they cannot cope with demand. This is mainly because they have to manage the drivers as well as the customer service. In this case, AI can help by taking care of demand forecasting and customer service needs.
These are just some of the challenges of food delivery app user experience that can be addressed through improvements of an app’s design, navigation, user interface, etc., in order to provide better service for customers.
Steps to develop a food delivery app.
Conduct Market Research
The first step for a food delivery app to develop is conducting market research. The research will help you know the marketplace and your competitors. It gives you a good idea about the market size and competition level as well as the potential customer base.
This step will also help you to come up with a clearer idea about why customers prefer your brand over others, and what makes your brand special. This information will help you customize your product and bring it to the customer’s doorstep in an effective way. Also, this step allows you to set clear expectations.
Choose the right business model
A business model is a way in which an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. It can be thought of as a recipe that has to be followed in order to create value for the organization. The success of an application hinges on the type of business model it employs. The most popular models are free-to-play, freemium, advertising, and subscriptions. For a food delivery app, there are several business models. Below we have mentioned some of the business models that work best for most app owners:
- The order-only model: In this type of model the food delivery app takes the order from the customer and notifies it to the restaurant. This eliminates the old-fashioned call the restaurant system.
- The Order and Delivery Model: In this business model the food delivery app takes the order from the customer, notifies it to the restaurant. After the preparation of food, the delivery boys of the app deliver it to the address of the customer.
- Meal Kit Delivery Model: This model is gaining traction in the food delivery market serving customers who want to cook as per their recommendation but have a lack of ingredients and resources. Under this model, restaurants provide hand-curated ingredients and recipes to consumers.
Promoting your app
Once you have done your research, prepared a business model, and completed the development of the app, it is important to focus on the promotion of the app. The better you promote your application, the more customers will come to try your app. Please note that promotion can help you get clients to your platform. How long they stay, depends on the features of your app and the quality of services.
Top features that make your app successful.
Some of the top features that make your food delivery app successful are:
- A user-friendly interface.
- The ability to see the ratings of restaurants before ordering food.
- The availability of push notifications for order updates.
- A tracking system for orders placed.
Cost of developing a food delivery app:
Achieving the goal of getting customers to order their food from your restaurant with just a few clicks, can seem daunting. But, if you’ve got the budget and the tech-savvy it may be worth it.
Trying to find a development team is one of the most costly parts of creating an app. Even if you’re outsourcing it will still consume a large chunk of your budget. If you’re looking for a mid-sized app featuring 50 restaurants, that would cost $1,00,000 (USD). However, a more complex application will cost you more than that. It depends on the complexity of the app, the time it requires to be developed, etc.
Wrapping it up:
A mobile application that will allow customers to order food from restaurants by using their phone, is worth investing in. Customers are looking for an easier way to get their favorite dishes without having the hassle of going out.
I am Akash Rout working as a technical content writer with 4 Way Technologies. I am passionate about reading and writing content for Web application development, Mobile application development, SMART TV app development, and DevOps. I am also fond of creating applications (small) using the latest Javascript library. I am having close to 5years of experience in a blogger avatar. You can reach out to me to discuss emerging technology trends and their impact.