[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Cab Booking Apps such as Uber, Ola and Gett have really revolutionized travel and these apps ensure the users that travel will no more be difficult or strenuous but comfortable, enjoyable and time-saving. Uber really achieved phenomenal success and since thousands of upcoming app developers took inspiration from the success story of Uber, Uber has now the credit of creating a new generation of mobile app developers. Innovation has become synonymous with app development. The tremendous success of Uber and the global popularity of the Uber app prompted the company to venture into other fields also. Uber identified the field of online food delivery as their next venue to perform. UberEATS, which is an on-demand app for online food delivery is now attracting users the world over. It is really amazing to see how the on-demand app for food delivery became the favorite of millions of people all over the world. Recent surveys which were conducted in the US revealed that more than 20% of Americans use food delivery apps at least for once in a week since the app enables them to get their favorite food items delivered at the doorstop, that too, from one of their favorite restaurants. Thus the latest app introduced by Uber – the UberEATS – enables the users to order for their favorite dishes from a wide variety of restaurants and receive the ordered items at their doorsteps with unbelievable fastness. Just as its taxi booking predecessor, UberEATS also is now popular all over the world and people in many countries the world over are using this Uber app to book their favorite food items.
Your preferred dishes delivered at your home within minutes
The great advantage of UberEATS is that the users of this app can get their favorite dishes at their home whenever they think about the same. They need not go all the way to the restaurant and they need not wait for the dishes at the restaurant. Hence, now they need not wait any more for their favorite dishes and no restaurant is now far away. Those who use UberEATS can order for dishes of any cuisine – Italian, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Mexican and the like. The users of the app can enjoy the meals at their home with all their preferred items. The restaurants all over the world are the other beneficiaries of this Uber app. As a result of many people starting to order their favorite items online, there has been a tremendous increase in the sales of the restaurants. The digital food delivery business is already increased by about 6% and it is expected that within the next 5 years it will go up by 11%.
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Order online and pay online
Uber has partnered with almost all the leading restaurants in various cities all over the world and these restaurants are known for their variety of delicious dishes. The users of this app may just go through the menu of the particular restaurant and place their orders online by mentioning the name of the item and the quantity required. The users can make the payment either through the payment gateway or by using their credit/debit cards.
The team of professionals
A team of skilled professionals are responsible for developing the online food delivery app. Depending on the platform – Android or iOS – there will be at least two app developers in the team. There will be two designers for developing the User Interface of the app and another two designers will be in charge of developing the UX of the app. The other professionals in the app development team include backend developers, app testers and quality assurance experts.
How to develop an app for online food delivery which will be similar to UberEATS or Food Panda?
An experienced app developer will be aware of the various aspects of the most popular as well as widely downloaded online food delivery apps like UberEATS which is developed on either of the most popular platforms – Android and iOS. The cost of the app varies according to the choice of platform. Those who take up the project to develop an app similar to UberEATS or Food Panda for online food delivery are required to concentrate basically on three different tasks:
- Designing and developing the customer side app
- Developing the Restaurant Dashboard
- Developing the Control Panel
How to make the customer side app efficient as well as attractive?
Creating an impressive and stylish customer page is a crucial part of the project. The user of the app will be using the customer page as the platform from where he can place his orders online. The app developers have to include various sub categories in the customer page of the app.
Registration/Log In
The customer begins his journey from the sign-in page and the first and foremost task of the app developing team is to develop the sign-in page. Once the user enters his or her name, email id, mobile number, user name and password he or she becomes eligible for availing the services offered by the app. This sign-in system will enable the owner of the restaurant to provide personalized service to the customers. Using the particulars entered by each customer on the sign-in page the restaurant manager can keep a track of all customers and establish a strong and long lasting business relationship with each customer. The app developers have to ensure that it is a highly user-friendly platform that enables the customers to log in easily just by entering their user name and password. In order to facilitate online payment the app developers may make it a point to provide a space for the customers exclusively for entering the particulars of their debit/credit cards. The developers can make the customer page more informative by including various personalized features. The customers can be asked to mention their most preferred cuisines and also their favorite restaurants.
Search Menu
After taking our seat in a restaurant the first thing we do is to go through the menu card. Without a proper menu card it is difficult for the customers to select the items and place orders. Hence, for the online food delivery app also, it is all the more important to have a list of menu pertaining to each restaurant. So the app developing team has to ensure that a list of menu is created for a restaurant which is included in the app. Apart from mentioning the names of the dishes or the particular category of food, the list must contain names of cuisines, corresponding images and the prices of the dishes. The app developers can make the app more impressive as well as informative by providing the menu list under different sub headings like Chinese, Thai, Italian, Indian, etc. By categorizing the menu in this way the customers can be provided different options also. For example, those who go for the Indian cuisine can select from North Indian, South Indian, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, etc.
Reviews as well as ratings of the dishes also can be made available on the page. When the menu in the app contains the food category, the customers need not scroll down the long list of dishes. They just need to tap the search and type the name of the dish. This will make the ordering process faster as well as easier.
Separate menu lists based on the timings
While preparing the menu list for the customer page of the app, the app developers can provide separate lists for breakfast, meals and dinner. All breakfast items may be made available from 6 am to 10 am, meals from 12.00 hrs to 14.30 hrs and dinner from 7 pm to 11pm, etc. The evening snack items may be made available from 3 pm to 6 pm. For the full meals also, the different items may be displayed in the menu list.
Facility to order custom-made dishes
Most of the customers who order their dishes online are doing so mainly for pampering their taste buds. It is quite natural that they want the dishes with some minor changes or additions according to their tastes and preferences. They may like to have some changes in the normal pizza like adding more quantity of cheese or providing some cream as additional topping. The owner of the restaurant has to ensure that the items against such orders are prepared and served strictly as per specifications provided by the customers. The developer of the online food delivery app can make his new app smarter by providing a separate key for custom-made dishes. It will be a valuable new feature of the app.
Add to Cart
Once the customer has selected the dishes he can proceed towards the check-out process. Additional items can be included or number of items can be reduced by tapping plus or minus. The customer may add to cart all the chosen items before the payment process. Once the ordering process is over the customer receives the final bill. At that time the customer can make use of his discount coupons/promo codes and avail rebates. The online bill will show the final amount to be paid including all taxes. The customer will also receive the estimated delivery time so that he can calculate when the food will be delivered at his doorsteps. Informing the customer the time of delivery in real time is indeed an amazing feature and at that stage all the details are updated.
Effecting the payment
Once the customer has completed the ordering process he receives the bill. On finding that the bill is alright, his next step will be effecting the payment online. Among the various payment options provided in the app, the app developer may include the gateway option like PayPal also. The other options that are to be included are payment via debit/credit cards, net banking and mobile payments like Google Wallet or Apple. Cash on Delivery (COD) option also may be provided in the app.
Order tracking
After making the payment the customer may want to track his order until the items are delivered at his doorsteps. GPS technology enables the customers to track the orders. GPS is identified as a very effective tool and it helps the delivery boy also to find the exact location of the customer.
Reviews, Ratings
Customer reviews and product ratings are the other important features of the customer dashboard. The majority of customers have the practice of going through the reviews and ratings of the restaurant as well as the dishes offered by the restaurant prior to placing their order. The ratings and reviews show the most preferred restaurants in the city and also the cuisines for which the maximum number of orders are placed.
Help and Support
The users of the app must be provided all kinds of technical support. The app developer has to provide the online chat or email to enable them to contact.
Owner’s Dashboard
Once the development work of the Customer Page is completed the app developing team may start creating an amazing dashboard for the owner.
Log In by owner
The log in by owner is different from log in by the user. The owner can log in using his Smartphone and from his personal account. The owner can receive orders directly and manage them. The owner can make adjustments to the orders when required.
Menu List Management
Able management of the menu list is very important for the owners. Proper display of the cuisine with the wide variety of dishes must be ensured. The descriptions about each item must be clear as well as informative. When the picture or the description is not proper, the customer may have difficulty in selecting the dishes and he may even give up the idea of placing the order.
Order management
The owner of the app has to keep a track of the orders received from various customers to the different restaurants. All the information pertaining to the orders such as the items, quantity and other details are to be checked thoroughly. The details pertaining to the orders including the items, quantity, name of restaurant, and address of the customer are to be passed on to the delivery boy. The owner of the app should make it a point to inform the customer the time required to deliver the items at his doorsteps. The app owner should also maintain proper records of all expenses incurred including salary paid to the delivery boy, incentives or any other extra payments made to him, transportation expenses and other miscellaneous expenses. All records must be updated regularly.
Go through the reviews regularly
From the customer reviews and ratings one can easily identify the restaurants that are leading and the cuisines that are preferred by majority of customers.
Provide Push Notifications
Push Notification is one among the prominent features of the on-demand food delivery apps. The push notification provides the customer the information regarding arrival of the items ordered by him and those who make cash payment at the time of delivery can keep the cash ready on receiving the push notification.
Admin Panel
The admin panel is a significant part of the online food delivery app and the app developer should ensure that the admin panel is provided.
Control Panel
Control Panel is the platform from where the admin controls the various activities and the entire operation of the food delivery app. The admin manages the restaurants as well as delivery boys through the control panel and a sub admin can be included if required by the admin.
Inclusion and removal of restaurants
Admin is the controller of the app and admin can add new restaurants to the app after entering into an agreement with them. In case the admin finds that a particular restaurant fails to get good rating and positive reviews from the customers, he can remove that restaurant from the list.
Managing the mobile app
The mobile app for online food delivery is managed exclusively by the admin. Admin has the right to add or remove members, block or edit any user, delivery boy and restaurant from the database of the app. Only the admin has the right to view the site banner.
Payment Management
While developing the food delivery app, the app developers must provide the admin with a separate dashboard so that he can know about the payment received against each order and the source of each payment.
Special Discounts and Coupons
It is the duty of the admin to send special notifications to all the users about special discounts and coupons and inviting all the users to take advantage of the coupons and special discounts. Admin has also the power to extend the validity of the coupons and also to cancel the same.
Technical Assistance
The users can approach the restaurant owners whenever they have problems. However, the admin has to provide technical assistance to the users whenever required. Apart from sending the updates to the user to upgrade his app, the admin has to assist to solve the problems related to the software.
Acquire the best technology
The app developer should ensure to make the food delivery app more attractive and smarter for which a wide range of advanced tools are now available. The designing methods are entirely different for Android and iOS platforms. The tools provided by Google and iOS for tracking the orders are different. While iOS users can use the Core Location Framework, Android users can go for the API which is Google based. The iOS users can use MapKit for finding out the location whereas Android users can use Google Maps API. In the same way the app developer can select the best software, tools and techniques to make the app Smart and to ensure seamless functioning of the app. For addition of new restaurants into the list FourSquare’s API is one of the best tools and a social media page just like Facebook SDK can be used to log in.
UI and UX
Only an attractive as well as appealing UI can bring more traffic to the app and the app will be attractive if it has the UI of a sleek and thin design. As far as the on-demand food delivery app is concerned, its UI and UX are the most significant aspects.
Cost of developing the online food delivery app
It is very difficult to estimate the exact cost of developing a food delivery app similar to UberEATS. The various app development companies charge their clients on per hour basis and the hourly charges vary from country to country. In the US one has to pay $100 – $200 per hour to develop the app whereas it will be in the range of $50 – $150 in Europe. The app development companies from India offer the most affordable rates in the range $25 – $50. Though the approximate cost of developing the food delivery app depends on various factors, the predominant factors are the type of the app and the features that are to be included in the app. The approximate cost will be in the range $17000 – $25000. Of course, these figures may change. Those who want to know the cost of developing the online food delivery app can get free quotations from a few app development companies.
Conclusion
The food delivery apps such as UberEATS, Food Panda and Dineout have successfully established in the market and these apps are of great demand these days. Those who want to be on par with them can give priority to the on-demand apps. Those who want to develop new food delivery app must be prepared for an extensive research. During the research one will come to know about the cuisines that are ordered by maximum number of people and also which are the restaurants that attract maximum number of customers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
