How to Create a Food Delivery App for Entrepreneurs

Uber Eats, Glove, Postmates, and other industry titans' explosive success speaks for itself: by 2020, Uber Eats will have produced over $4.8 billion in sales, with 66 million customers globally and availability in 6,000 cities.

So, how do you go about creating your meal delivery app? To assist you, we've produced a thorough step-by-step tutorial on how to build a food delivery app from the ground up.

Why make a meal delivery app?

Food delivery app development has never been more popular. Take a look at these figures:

In 2021, the worldwide online meal delivery business was valued at $200.81 billion, with a projected increase to $442.50 billion by 2030. From 2023 to 2030, the market is estimated to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3%.

In a few years, the worldwide Internet meal delivery business is expected to be worth $770 billion. The grocery delivery market produced $460 billion, while the meal delivery segment generated $300 billion.

The number of users will also skyrocket, reaching roughly 2,897 by 2025.1 million people will utilize on-demand meal delivery services.

The key factors that contributed to this new market segment were the coronavirus and quarantine. The new reality necessitates the development of new items. And, yeah, the competition is heating up. However, supply has not yet equaled demand. So your opportunity has arrived.

How to make Food Delivery App: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step #1 - Investigate and analyze your specialty

To answer the issue, 'How can I design my food delivery app?' begin by studying and analyzing your industry. Examine your rivals' strengths and shortcomings. Learn from their errors. In-depth market research allows you to make the app better, faster, and smarter. If you lack the necessary experience to undertake an analysis on your own, assemble a team of experts to assist you.

Step #2 - Select a business model.

To create a food delivery app like Uber Eats, Glove, or Postmates, you must not only plan your food app development but also define your future startup's business strategy. Consider the following three alternatives for Internet meal delivery:

Using your transportation. It takes time to construct, requires more investments, and carries greater responsibility.

Using a cab service or outside couriers. With this option, your app acts as a hub for three agents: clients, drivers, and eateries.

The food service itself handles delivery. In this situation, all you need to do is link clients with eateries. This strategy provides less control over the process and requires less input.

Step #3 -  Make money through your app.

Startups that are unable to commercialize themselves fail. So, carefully consider your monetization plan. Let us return to the excellent UberEats example. 

The firm has three primary app monetization strategies:

Delivery fee: Before 2018, UberEats maintained a consistent $4.99 delivery price. The firm has now shifted to a price calculator (the delivery order cost is calculated based on the distance between clients and food locations).

Food industry revenue sharing: The platform deducts a fee from each UberEats order.

Advertising: Restaurants pay to be promoted in-app searches.

Step #4 - Select your app's functionality.

Before you begin developing an on-demand food delivery service, you should understand what features and APIs it will provide. Begin with the basics by asking yourself what three things you would want to see on Glovo, Uber, or Postmate. Then, go into even more detail by considering three major agents engaged in the process:

• USER, the person who places an order;
• RESTAURANT, which takes the order;
• COURIER, is someone who delivers an order.

User App 

• Begin using the sign-up function. Customers should be able to establish an account, follow the status of their orders, and offer comments. Don't forget to include permission via email or social media platforms.
• Clients can pick from restaurant lists, ratings, and reviews.
• Calls and chats are available within the app. Allow your customers to communicate with restaurants and couriers as well as check on the status of their orders.
• Integration of the app payment mechanism. The simpler it is to pay, the better. Include as many payment methods as possible, such as PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and credit cards.
• The ability to place orders directly from the restaurant menu. It appears to be a little element, yet it is critical for providing a customer-friendly service.

Restaurants App

• Sign Up Page. Create the meal delivery app capability so that food companies may participate. The profile of a restaurant should at the very least include its name, location, menu, business hours, and contact information.
• Tracking the next available courier to deliver orders. Also, ensure that your app's functionality includes courier tracking at all stages of delivery.
• Communication between the restaurant, the courier, and the client.
• The order status is being tracked. Restaurants should be able to view incoming orders, orders in process, and orders that have already been delivered.
• Option to update restaurant profiles' content.

Delivery Boy App

• Sign up. Personal information (location, language, vehicle) as well as rating and feedback elements should be included in the courier's profile.
• Order management and order status updates once delivery is complete.
• Allow couriers to communicate with restaurants and customers to resolve some real-time concerns and deliver order progress updates.
• Account history may be used to highlight the courier's experience.

Step #5 - Begin developing a meal delivery app.

After you've decided on app needs, it's time to put them into action. Find an expert meal delivery app development business to assist you with this. Don't forget about the general stages of app development:

• Prototyping. A skilled team develops user flow logic and application displays based on your specifications.
• Design of the UI/UX. This stage includes the food app development interface and the integration of its functions.
• Development. The method through which developers put everything together and construct the final result
• Testing and publication. After the product is developed, it must be reviewed and tested. The quality assurance team examines the app's functioning to ensure that it is fault-tolerant. This step is critical for ensuring that everything is running smoothly.

Step #6 - Choose a technology stack for your project.

The stack you require is entirely dependent on the functionality of your project. However, having a general familiarity with the subject is beneficial. Let's look at the product we created, FoodTrucks, which is a cross-platform mobile application for truck owners, sellers, and end users.

Step #7 - Calculate your development expenses.

It is difficult to anticipate the exact cost of your software. To begin, the cost is generally determined by the firm that undertakes development. You could also think about outsourcing your product development because it may be more cost-effective and less expensive in terms of vendor services.

Furthermore, the functionality of your software will have a big impact on its pricing. The arithmetic is straightforward: the more complicated the program, the more expensive it will be. You may use our app prices calculator to see how much your food delivery software would cost.

Additional Suggestions: How to Save Money and Time

It takes a significant amount of effort and money to create a meal delivery app. Don't worry if you can't afford to invest extensively in food delivery software development; there's always a method to keep within your budget. How? Using pre-existing APIs. 

They can act as the foundation for your software. We've gathered a few of them for you:

Uber Eats API 

Let's begin with the most basic and obvious food delivery API. If you own a restaurant and want to get into mobile meal delivery, you should begin with the Uber Eats API. It aids with the management of menus and orders on the Uber Eats Platform. All you have to do now is link it with your restaurant's POS system. And Uber Eats has already handled logistics. The Uber Eats API has a revenue-sharing arrangement with merchants. It ranges from 15% to 40% depending on the order.

Google Maps API

What exactly is the Places API? It is a Google service that gives information on businesses, geographical places, and popular tourist attractions. Cost: The costs are reasonable. Google charges $2 to $14 per 1000 inquiries, with a daily limit of 100,000 queries. Furthermore, you may earn $200 in free credit each month.

OneSignal API 

Push notifications may be added to your app using the OneSignal API. Their primary responsibility is to notify consumers about upgrades and news via your app. Cost: The API is free; it only provides limited assistance if you have fewer than 30,000 members. Access to the OneSignal API will otherwise cost you $99 per month.

Foursquare API

Your clients will be able to receive personalized suggestions on places to visit or activities to do in the specified location using the Foursquare API. Cost: Its starting price is $599. Despite the steep pricing, the Foursquare API is well worth the investment.

Google Matrix

Google Matrix is another helpful meal delivery API. It allows you to calculate the trip distance and time required by your courier to reach the location. You may also use it in conjunction with the Google Maps API. Cost: The API starts at $4, and you can obtain the same $200 free credit as with Google Places API.

GrubHub API

If you want to conduct business in the United States, you should use the GrubHub developer API. It retrieves data on over 115,000 eateries in the United States. The GrubHub team provides a semi-public API and is eager to collaborate with new partners. The cost of its revenue-sharing approach is between 10% and 30%.

Mapbox API 

You get access to a service with bespoke maps when you use the Mapbox API. The Mapbox APIs provide several web services, but you only need two of them to construct a food delivery app: the Mapbox navigation API and the Mapbox geocoding API. The API is free for the first 25,000 monthly active users.

Final Step: Delegate authority to specialists.

Several food delivery app development businesses have already produced profitable and market-fit products. They also know how to get started with yours. The specialists will identify potential hazards, analyze the market, and create a meal delivery service that will capture the hearts of customers.

Conclusion

Lilac Infotech is a one-stop shop for all of your business needs. Performance, speed, and quality are highly valued, and we are dedicated to a process-based development strategy. And we have top app developers to increase your app's success among rivals.