The year 2020 made an intense growth for the delivery market. Analysts predict that in 2021 this sphere will grow almost twice (by 47%), and the catering market will shrink by 21.3%. During the pandemic, users have developed a habit of using delivery services, and restaurateurs have been able to take advantage of the situation and incorporate online delivery into their business strategy. By some accounts, 74.7% of restaurants offered delivery to their customers in September 2020 — a 29.91% increase over the same period in 2019.
It may seem like the market is already filled with big companies, but you always have the option of build app whether to order groceries from big basket or to get a part-time job. This article tells you how to develop and build app delivery, and most importantly, where to start.
Conduct Analytics
Not sure what goes into building an on-demand delivery app? Before developing, you need to conduct analytics and find answers to the following issues:
What Format Will You Be Working In?
You can deliver food from your establishment, or you can work with partners, collecting orders from your base. In any case, you will need to build app with staff and provide quality delivery for users.
How Will You Work With Customers?
Think in advance about how you will take orders, solve organizational issues and controversial situations.
Who Will Do the Delivery?
You can hire your team of couriers or use third-party services. The business model and functionality of your future app will depend on your answers. You may need to create several products at once: applications for clients, administrators, and couriers.
Figure it Out: Who is Your Target Audience?
Research how old your potential users are, their income level, where and who they work for, their hobbies, and what lifestyle they lead. The most desirable audience is millennials aged 25-30: they are more likely to use new products.
Draw up a rough portrait of your audience and think of features that will fully meet their needs.
How to Make a Difference?
When you enter the market, you will find yourself in the same space as large and well-known players — they have more resources and influence, but that does not mean that small businesses cannot succeed. Think about what is unique that you will offer your audience. It could be free grocery delivery, a wide variety of items from beverages to appliances, 24-hour customer service, or donations to a charity with every purchase.
What Is the App Appearance?
The app should be straightforward to use for people to stick with you and recommend you to friends. Here are a few parameters to apply:
Quick and Easy Interface
Ideally, a user should complete order in a couple of steps, so make the interface intuitive and functional. Please don’t make people have to open pages multiple times to figure out how they work.
Pleasant Visuals
Even if your app is as user-friendly as possible, a disharmonious color scheme and poor-quality photos can put people off — no one wants to traumatize their retina and sense of beauty with a bad picture.
Secure Payment
Protect your users’ data and show that every transaction goes smoothly.
Loyalty System
Give personal discounts and promo codes for loyalty, offer special offers in case of errors, and allow earning points.
Reviews and Ratings
It’s important to us before choosing an item that doesn’t disappoint us, so sorting establishments by rating will make it easier to choose.
Real-time Order Tracking
Seeing where the courier is will give you another advantage — it will help you plan your time and get your order on time.
Convenient Filters
Another way to make customers’ lives more accessible (especially when it comes to food delivery) is to add the ability to select dishes by café location, cuisine, cooking method, and ingredients.
Push Notifications
Tell people about the status of their orders, promotions, discounts, and updates. It keeps the user from forgetting about you and from missing the opportunity to order delivery profitably.
Comprehensible Content
Try to use literate and readable text and images that will make it easier to perceive the information. If it is supposed to be multi-regional delivery, this is a reason to implement the user’s location. Such a feature will help to show him available places to order, current prices, menu, and contact information.
Think About The Structure of the Interface
In delivery projects, you may need applications at once for customers, couriers, and administrators. Therefore, each of these blocks should be clear and user-friendly.
Customers
- Registration function via mail, phone number, or social networks.
- A selection of establishments and suppliers is available in the user’s area of residence.
- Quick order payment.
- Tracking.
- Communication in a chat.
- Possibility to save in favorites.
Administrators
- Content management.
- Launch promotions and promo codes.
- Tracking and informing customers.
- Searching and tracking location courier.
- Chat directly with users.
- Couriers
- Registration page to sign up for your app.
- Booking orders online and viewing details.
- Chat to communicate with restaurants and customers.
- Viewing the delivery history of a specific customer.
Main Stages of Work
Let’s consider more closely some pinpoints of the working process. It includes several stages.
How to Build App: Drafting Terms of Reference & Contracting
The terms of reference usually specify the purpose and requirements of the project, usage scenarios, approximate screen sketches, and platform requirements. The contract specifies specific dates, terms, costs, conditions, and a list of work to be performed by each team member.
Creating the Prototype
A user path map is developed before you build app, block diagrams are made, and a rough screen design is completed. The prototype allows you to test the functionality early on and quickly make edits if necessary.
Design
To build app, UX/UI designers think through the look and colors of pages, taking into account the peculiarities of functionality and the requirements of iOS and Android platforms.
Programming
At this stage, developers write code to build app work and look as planned.
Testing
During the build app, everything is tested for bugs and crashes and the stability of the work on different devices.
Launch and Maintenance
After the final tests, you can publish the app to the sites, but the build app does not end there. The help of the development team will need to optimize, add new features, and update the app.
How Much Money do I Need to Invest in Building An App?
To build app is always an individual process. Consider that you will need a user app for two platforms, a courier app for two platforms, an advanced admin panel, and back-end development.
Specific integration cases significantly influence the cost, such as Bitrix, implementation of a bonus system, complexity, etc.
The market and audience needs can change quickly. If you want to launch a product and not spend your budget on features you’re not entirely sure are profitable, consider developing a minimal version of the application (MVP). It will be faster and cheaper than creating all the features and gradually improve the already working application based on the users’ behavior.
It’s better to turn to professional developers who develop client and in-house projects. They understand that proper estimation of resources and continuous testing will allow for appropriate allocation of finances and successful project monetization.
Samuel Njoroge
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