On-Demand Food Delivery App Development: Must-Have Features and Cost Estimation

People have always been fascinated by technology, but more than putting humans on the moon, the technology that fascinates them is something that gets them food when they order it from their mobile! Technology has literally brought food from all your favorite restaurants in the vicinity to your fingertips both by process and by access.

Know more: Top Reasons Which Explain the Importance of Having Mobile App for Your Food Delivery Business

It might not be an exaggeration to say that UberEats Clone food delivery has become an integral part of the restaurant ecosystem. The COVID-19 crisis has only gone on to intensify the relevance of food delivery applications these days.

The imposition of social distancing and minimizing human contact would mean that restaurants cannot function to the fullest capacity in their dine-in dimension, at least in the near future.

The Advantages of Food Delivery Apps

• Food delivery applications present a plethora of advantages to all the parties involved in the ecosystem.
• For the user, it presents a convenient option where users can order and enjoy food from their favorite restaurants with the comfort and confines of their homes. This comes in as a big advantage when people are asked by governments to minimize going out and stay at their homes.
• From a restaurant’s perspective, it opens up the business of the restaurant beyond people who have been visiting the restaurant – the main source of income for restaurants until recently.
• It also helps them promote new dishes and offer discounts as there is no better place for them to promote than an UberEats Clone food delivery app.
• For the delivery executives, it presents an alternate source of income. There are a lot of people who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, and food delivery comes in as a big bliss for those.
• It also helps students in earning extra income to support their studies, and people who have been looking for additional income by facilitating part-time employment.
• Since the entire ecosystem is based on a gig economy, people do not have to commit themselves to an entire workday but can choose to work only when they find it convenient.
• Although it is natural that the earnings depend on the hours of work, the added flexibility is surely a greater advantage.
• With these many benefits, the business itself is not an exception to making a profit. There are a lot of revenue generation channels for the app business.
• They can make money by charging a commission from restaurants. They act as facilitators or almost like affiliate programs where they bring more business to restaurants and take a commission from it. They can also earn from sponsorships that they can charge from restaurants.
• Some restaurants might be new, and they might want to elevate their visibility. These restaurants can approach the food delivery app and ask them to be listed on the top, so people notice and order from there.
• In addition, there are also advertisement programs provided by platform facilitators like Google and Apple, and they can make use of the ad revenue programs.

To sum it all up, the food delivery business is a win-win-win-win ecosystem where every entity involved in this process gets to gain an advantage, either in terms of convenience or in terms of money.

Building an App like UberEats

Any food delivery app is a grand culmination of a lot of aspects put together. It involves technical documentation, intuitive, interactive, and impeccable design, a front-end development process to reflect the idea into an interface, a robust back-end to take care of all the data with quick processing and retrieval, a stringent quality control and testing process, and fixing of any bugs and glitches that might arise during the testing.

In all of this, we have not even touched the business aspects of the app, which deserve a different section of attention altogether.

Any UberEats Clone food delivery app should have certain features in place, so the entire process happens without any hassle. Building a food delivery app is a cumbersome and daunting process.

You can either choose to build the app from scratch by hiring your own team. You can also consider partnering with a food delivery app development company to get the entire development done without going through the trouble of recruitment.

Another effective and easy way out is to purchase white label clones of existing food delivery apps. An UberEats clone is extremely easy to customize, is cost-effective, and can also help you launch your business in the shortest possible time. 

Know more: Make Your Business Vast By Giving Online Delivery

We have composed this article, keeping in mind the aspiring entrepreneurs who would go for UberEats clones in their endeavor to launch a food delivery business. Even when you go for white label solutions, it is to be ensured that the features given below are in place.

The Features of a Customer Panel

The customer should be able to log in and sign up using simple bits of information like the email address and phone number. Given the growing popularity of social media, they should also be able to use the credentials of Facebook or Google to create their account.

The information needs to be stored on a database aiding in authenticating users whenever they log in.

Once the login has been successful, a profile should be created for each user. The profile should have information like the entire order history, the frequently ordered dishes and favorite restaurants, and the list of usual delivery addresses. If possible, the profile should also be able to list a default payment method.

It might not be an exaggeration to say that GPS is the epicenter of the on-demand revolution. It has made it possible for companies to know the exact location of a user who wants service.

In the context of a food delivery app, the location and GPS combination should help users track the delivery of their food in real-time. There are a lot of mapping service providers in the market.

Of them, Google Maps and Apple Maps are the most preferred considering the fact that they have been created by the owners of the two biggest mobile operating systems – iOS and Android.

The home screen should be designed in such a way that it highlights the offers and promotions available. The home screen is the first point of contact for customers, and it needs to be made sure that the interface is interactive and does not confuse customers.

There might be a lot of restaurants that a user can select from for the delivery location. They should be able to easily search and filter the restaurants that they want.

The sorting options should be available by rating, average order size, and the time taken for an UberEats Clone delivery. They should also be able to isolate restaurants by cuisine or by the choices of vegetarian or non-vegetarian food.

The menu shows the list of items available for ordering in a certain restaurant. The menu should be properly grouped and if possible, should also display images of the dishes.

Users should be able to easily add items from the menu to the food cart. The checkout process should be made simple and straightforward.

Once the cart is finalized, users should be able to make their payments using multiple digital payment methods, including but not limited to credit cards, debit cards, Internet banking, wallets, and UPI.

For this purpose, the app should be integrated with a versatile payment gateway. Using a native wallet will make it easy for the app to process refunds if needed.

As soon as the order is accepted by a delivery executive and a restaurant, the customers should be kept notified of every stage of progress like the restaurant packing the food and the delivery executive leaving the restaurant premises. Push notifications should also be used for promotional activities.

To keep the entire food delivery ecosystem democratic, users should have an option to rate their experience with the restaurant and the delivery. This will help in creating a review and rating system, which can be used by other users to select the restaurant.

Features of the Restaurant Panel

The restaurant should be provided with a dashboard that shows analytical data like the current orders, the overall sales facilitated through the app, the average estimated time to complete an order, and the total revenue earned by the restaurant for a set timeframe.

The restaurant should be able to manage orders effectively using the app. They can depend on the availability of resources, accept or reject orders.

It is important for the business, both the restaurant and the app, to comply with timelines. If a restaurant is aware that they cannot process an order before the promised time, they can choose to decline the order.

The restaurant should be able to manage their account, which includes the images of the restaurant, the images of the food items, the menu items, the working hours, the minimum order value, and the estimated time for delivery.

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They should also be able to create discounts and offers specific to the restaurant.

At the end of the day, it is to be remembered that a restaurant is looking for food delivery applications only because it offers an additional avenue for revenue.

Considering this factor, restaurants need to be able to set up their bank account details to receive payments from the app.

It should also be noted that the faster the processing of payments is for the restaurant, the more likely they are to trust the app as a valid platform of profit.

Features of the Delivery Executive Panel

The delivery executives form the most important link of the entire food delivery ecosystem.

Just like customers, the delivery executives should also be able to easily login and set up accounts.

In addition, however, there might be a few processes like the verification of authenticity and identity that might slow down the process a little bit.

The profile created as a result should contain information about all the orders they have executed and the bank account to which the payments need to be made.

The delivery executives are, in essence, gig workers, and they do not have to comply with norms like being available for the whole eight hours.

Instead, they should have the flexibility to choose their working hours, while being fully aware that their earnings depend on the number of hours and the number of deliveries.

The availability of new UberEats Clone  delivery requests should be sent through a push notification, and the delivery executive has the right to either accept or reject the delivery request.

The GPS should assist these delivery executives in reaching the location of the customer without any hassle. The combination of GPS, mapping, and navigation should make the task of delivery extremely easy for the executive.

In case of any confusion, they should be able to contact the customer either via phone or chat. They should also be able to access a support system that will help them ensure proper deliveries.

The delivery executives should be regularly paid either on a weekly or monthly basis. They can either get the payments directly credited to their bank account or in a wallet that resides within the app.

Features of the Administrative Panel

The administrator functions like an all-seeing eye for all the activities that happen over the app. They should have quick access to the vital statistics on a dedicated dashboard.

The dashboard should provide real-time analytics of the total number of active delivery executives, the total number of orders, and the total revenue generated for either the day or the week or the month.

They should be given the power to enable or disable users, delivery executives, and restaurants based on their behavior. They are responsible for keeping up the sanctity of the app.

See more: Powerful Social Media Strategy For Your Online Food Delivery Business

They should also be given the facility to edit the contents of the app. The administrators should manage promotions and discounts, and push notifications for all parties involved.

Conclusion:

It is quite a given that food delivery is bound to be one of the most successful businesses in the future, and app-based food delivery solutions are all set to rule the roost of profit.

If you’re one of those aspiring entrepreneurs who would like to create a business using these food delivery applications, all you need to do is invest in the development of an app like UberEats.

As we have seen before, rather than building your UberEats Clone app from scratch, going for a white label UberEats clone makes the job easier for you. You can get in touch with companies that specialize in this service, and you are all set to deliver delight to your customers and profit to your business!