Delivery of goods and services to your door or office is a business that has constantly been growing for several years. The food industry is estimated to be worth billions, so no wonder restaurants were among the first to offer delivery services. The first delivery app was launched in 1995, and it still operates as Waiter.com. Since then, hundreds of delivery apps were released, and by 2020 the food delivery app revenue reached 26.5 billion only in the US. This market keeps increasing, and your food delivery startup has all the chances for success if you digitize it correctly.
Why Does Your Food Startup Need a Delivery App?
Food delivery has become a common thing nowadays. But customers are less likely to buy delivery services using a computer. Nearly all spheres of our life have flowed into applications: communication, shopping, banking, dating, taxi, and food delivery. Quarantine and social distancing moved even more customers online; with delivery service, they don’t have to uselessly interact with people when ordering food. Moreover, delivery service is not only a temporary solution but a great marketing tool for driving your business.
- If you run your own restaurant or café, you can order individual software and implement all the features you need from the start.
- You can launch a food delivery app even if you do not own a food business. In this case, you can start a regional aggregator for ordering food from many different catering establishments. The restaurants and cafes that do not have their own delivery service can become partners of your app. It will allow them to increase sales through delivery.
- You can develop an app to deliver food from supermarkets or small stores. People value their time now more than ever and often use a mobile application to preorder food with delivery at a convenient time.
Once you create on-demand delivery app, you will hit several targets in one go:
- You will get more new customers. The introduction of a convenient and easy-to-use mobile application will be a significant leap forward for your business. People love and appreciate comfort, and they usually willingly download and install the application and then actively use it, ordering what they need.
- You will get more orders. Having an application in their smartphones, more clients will make spontaneous purchases. It is a general observation by many companies that have already had the experience of interaction with their customers via an application.
- Your business will grow. With more orders and customers, a business is developing. A delivery app makes your reach wider as it makes your services available to a bigger audience.
What App Features Are Vital?
It may seem there is nothing difficult in creating a delivery app. But look around — among thousands of services, only a few manage to win the trust of customers. What is their secret? There is no magic here; you just need to focus on your client.
Make it easy. Convenient navigation is a key component of success. If the client gets food faster, then the service earns money faster. A complicated interface irritates users, and they leave the application. People often change their minds if the process is too long. Moreover, they will never use such an app again. The main idea is that your client must be busy thinking about what to order and not how to order. Make your app as intuitive as possible to help your users and keep them coming back.
Offer bonuses for using the app. You should create conditions for your customers to download and use your app. An attractive bonus system can become a persuasive factor for the user to register. You can offer small incentives for every order, which will allow customers to have a free snack from time to time. People love various bonuses, and this approach will drive your app’s popularity.
Consider alternative sources of income. Of course, food delivery will be your main channel of income. But this software solution has a much wider potential. You can cooperate with the businesses that have a direct relation to food. For example, you can advertise food packaging goods or healthy food store products. It will allow you to get additional profit and engage more users.
Inform clients of all promotions and offers. Everyone is looking for great deals, including current offers in nearby restaurants. Catering establishments regularly offer promotions to engage more customers. The app needs to monitor and display these offers so that everyone knows they will not miss any promotions with your app.
Do not underestimate visuals. While browsing the menu in the application, the customer should see delicious food and immediately want to taste it. Obviously, the delivery app should have eye-catching pictures of the food. They must be of high quality, large, bright, and appetizing. Some services do not attach any importance to this fact, and it is a big mistake.
Add online order tracking. Allow your customers to fully participate in the process. For this, you need to provide a real-time tracking feature. People are always impatient to know the status of their delivery. Both customers and restaurants must be able to get in touch with the courier and see their whereabouts. It is a surefire way to turn a customer into a regular customer. You will also be able to keep track of the time it takes for your program to organize food delivery to the recipient.
Key Takeaways
Starting a mobile food delivery app makes perfect sense. However, developing this type of application is a complicated process that requires significant investment and ongoing support. The main task is to satisfy the needs of the client and make the food ordering procedure quick and easy. If you pay attention to each of the above points, you will be able to create a convenient and hospitable service that can attract new customers and retain regular ones.
