How can I create a food delivery app from scratch?

The food delivery industry has evolved over the years. With the introduction of mobile apps, this industry has become more customer-oriented. Food delivery apps provide much-needed convenience and choices to the customers. It allows the customers to book any food dish from various restaurants and eateries. The food items get delivered to their doorstep with few touches on the screen at a great pace.

To develop a food delivery app, various aspects need to be considered. It also determines the development cost of such an app. In order to understand these factors, let’s take a look.

1. The first task to develop such an app is to make it more attractive to the customer. The UI/UX of the app and its design play a key role. A good platform facilitates the user to place the order online without any issues.
2. The log in or registration is the first step of any such app. It must be developed with great care as it is the first and front feature of the app. It should have all the important details embedded in it. It should ask for name, phone number, email id along with username and password. Filling these and completing the process, the user can begin to avail of the services. It also businesses to keep track of their customers and provide more personalized services.
3. Search Menu, as well as Food Category, is the next important thing. It includes all the food items offered by the restaurant just like the physical menu printed. An app should have all the listed menu items of the restaurant. It should be properly categorized according to cuisines with specific images as well as prices. The mobile app for the restaurant should contain all the food item details.
4. Adding food order to the cart is the next step. It allows the users to manage their orders and check out their orders without any issues along with bill payment. The user should be allowed to add and remove the items too. After this, the user should get the final bill for payment of the order. In case there are any offers or discounts in place, then it should allow the users to enter the promo codes. This allows the user to get rebates on their order. The online generated bill contains all-inclusive costs as well as taxes. The customer should also get an estimated time of delivery to reach his doorstep.
5. After placement of the order, the customer should be provided with a variety of payment options. PayPal, Credit/Debit Cards, Netbanking and Cash on Delivery, etc. can be added as the payment method. Such gateways should be secure and efficient.
6. The status of the order from receiving the order and preparation of the order should be provided. It is swiftly becoming an important aspect of online food ordering. It should be available to both customer and service provider. With the growing use of GPS technology, the customer should be allowed to track the location of the order. It also facilitates the restaurant owner to keep track of the delivery person. It should also provide the exact location of delivery to the delivery person.
7. Ratings, as well as Reviews, can be added to the customer end of the app. It allows other prospective customers to know about the services of the restaurant or eatery. It also allows the current customers to rate the services of the restaurant which also helps in the brand building of the restaurant. This feature should definitely be asked to include by the food business owners, in their app.
8. Customer support services and help should be included in the app. It should provide technical and order related support through various modes. These modes can be online chat or through email.

Cost of Development

• In general, the app development companies charges on per hour basis, and the charges may vary from location to location. It can be different for various countries.
• In general, US-based developers charges between $200 to $300 while European developers charge at $100 to $200. In the case of India based developers, the charges are between $20 and $100.
• The initial technical documentation and designing process requires around 50 work hours.
• The Front-end and Back-end development process requires nearly 300 work hours.
• Testing and bug-fixture can require nearly 100 work hours.

This means the total work hours required is nearly 300-400 hours. Let’s consider the app development cost per hour of around $50 to $100. The cost of the food delivery app can be between $15,000 to $30,000.

Additional features along with a choice of platform, i.e., iOS or Android, the cost can vary accordingly. It is essential to hire a restaurant app developer who can develop the app within the budget.

Food delivery apps have changes in the food industry. Most restaurants, bakeries, and a variety of eateries use these apps. It provides the necessary flexibility and convenience to the customers. Customers can easily choose from a variety of food items. It also helps the customers and business owners to keep track of the order and build a brand. It boosts the online visibility of the business. Ratings and reviews attract more customers to the restaurants. Better customer service enables customer retention. All these factors make an investment in food delivery apps, a worthy one.

When most businesses were struggling to survive during the first 6 months of the pandemic, the food delivery business remained one of the few to have seen a surge instead. Pandemic or not, the world today wants convenience at its doorstep. Naturally then, more and more businesses are jumping the bandwagon to build their own food delivery apps. Although any type of software development is an elaborate process, here’s brief information on the important steps involved in building a food delivery business from scratch.

Step 1: Craft a buyer persona of your ideal buyer

If you want your food delivery app to succeed, it’s vital that you understand whom you are building the app for.

• Start with the demographics - how old are your ideal buyers? Do they live in tier 1 or tier2/3 cities? How much do they earn and how much do they spend on online food ordering? 
• Then move on to their preferences and dislikes - How proficient are they with using a feature-rich app? Do they like aesthetically rich designs or something more minimalistic? Do they trust third-party apps more or do they like to avail delivery from the restaurant app itself?

Once you know who and where your buyer is, how much they can spend on food ordering etc, you can build a solution that the target audience can easily try out.

Step 2: Conduct a thorough competitor analysis

The wisest thing to do before building your own food delivery app is to study what others have done so far. 

Competitor analysis gives insights into the following aspects:

• What kind of features have been liked/disliked by different kinds of audiences
• Is there a gap in the market demand and the current supply that you can aim to fill-in?
• How can you pick up the best features of the apps and make them even better?

You don’t have to experiment with all those things yourself, you just have to analyze what works and what doesn’t.

Step 3: Prioritize the features for your food delivery app and scope its technical requirements

Feature prioritization is a decisive strategy for the success of your app. Based on the insights gathered in steps 1 and 2, determine the core features your food delivery app should have. 

The desired features will directly impact the technical requirements of your app. At this point, it’s ideal to consult both an industry business expert and an expert app developer to zero in on the following requirements:

• Programming languages
• Front-end and back-end frameworks
• Third-party libraries
• UI-UX designs

Without finalizing the above aspects, you can’t determine the cost of development and what kind of experts to hire for building your food delivery app from scratch.

Step 4: Hire a team of designers, developers, testers and marketing experts

Having figured out everything in theory, it’s time to put things into action. Your technical requirements should guide you on what kind of developers you should hire for your food delivery app development. 

To ensure maximum ROI, study all the aspects of software outsourcing very carefully. I’d suggest you compose a Request For Proposal document with all the details about your project. An effective RFP will help you get the right kind of bids from the right kind of vendors.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, building a food delivery app from scratch requires you to have a thorough understanding of both market research and development technologies. Always begin by identifying your ideal buyer so that you build what they want. Finally, ensure that the performance of your app is not compromised at all so hire experts who can guide you with the technical aspects of your app development.

Hey there! 

The steps involved in building a food delivery app is pretty simple and straightforward. They include, 

Step 1: Gathering ideas and market research 

You cannot build a food delivery app like an UberEats or DoorDash without proper visions and clarity. Your ideas can transform into USPs in the future. After brainstorming ideas, conduct extensive market research. This research will help you identify areas of improvement and analyze your market conditions. 

Step 2: Working on the app design 

App design inevitably involves creating wireframes and prototypes. Ensure that your food delivery app’s design is simple, intuitive, and minimalistic. Upon completing this step, you will have an outline of how your delivery app will shape into. 

Step 3: Loading features into your food delivery app 

Front-end involves the app’s features and functionalities that customers use to order food via the platform. It is wise to develop a separate app for Android & iOS as you cannot run the risk of missing out on potential customers. 

Step 4: Focusing on the platform’s back-end 

After completing your front-end development, you develop a back-end which invariably constitutes servers and databases. Encrypting servers is crucial to protect user details, and databases play a vital role in sustaining app traffic. 

Step 5: Testing the app for bugs and defects 

No customer expects an app full of glitches and defects. Run your app through a litany of tests to eliminate bugs and defects, if any. 

Step 6: Launching the app 

The final step involves launching the app across the Android & iOS platforms. 

Now, this is the traditional 6-step method to develop and launch a food delivery app. You can bypass all these steps by opting for an UberEats clone and launching it right away.