How to Develop Zomato Like Apps

Have you ever felt so tempted to look at the pictures in a food delivery app that you ended up ordering food? We all have, right, multiple times. One application that most of us are guilty of using is a food app.

Food is the basic necessity of a man's existence. With changing times, people are so busy with their jobs and busy lives that they are barely left with time to cook; the simplest option is to order food online. Food delivery applications like Zomato are the best solution, every day you can try different cuisines or different restaurants to order from and never get bored of restaurant food.

The rise of Zomato:

The first food delivery application that hit the Indian market was Zomato, launched in 2008. Its exclusive services gained a lot of attention amongst the people. Customers can access all the information about a restaurant that they need right from ratings, food prices, customer reviews, menus, timings, etc. Even though there are a lot of food apps in the country today, Zomato stands out thanks to these exclusive features. All those budding businessmen who are in awe with the success of food delivery apps like Zomato and are thinking of getting into the pool of food delivery, we are here to help you guide through the complete process of food delivery. 

Firstly let’s start with some of the exceptional features offered by Zomato:

• Explore Restaurants: Users can see all the features of a restaurant: ratings, reviews, timings, menu, and food prices. 
• Table Bookings: Not only can you order food, but you can also make a table booking via Zomato
• Zomato Gold: This feature provides great offers on dining out as well as delivery to its members. 

The working of a Food Delivery App:

The customer browses through the app, chooses a restaurant, and views the menu of the particular restaurant. He decides on the food he wants to order, completes the payment enters his details and orders food. The restaurant gets a notification for the order, they accept or reject it. Simultaneously, when the customer places an order, the system sends a notification to the delivery person of the order; they can accept or reject the order. The customer tracks the order status in real-time through the app. 

Let's move on to the complete guide on-demand food delivery app development:

Zero in on an idea

Evaluating your idea is the most important step. A basic analysis of the food delivery application is required. Many questions like: for whom, who is the target, and what will be their approach will surely pop up in your mind. Also, competitor study has to be carried out properly.

Complete Market Study

This stage is important to have a vague idea of whether or not your app will hit the target audience. The foremost step in a market study is a detailed competitor analysis. This will help you gather information about competitor apps, like their features, their target audience, and the demand for such apps in the market. After you get a picture of all these things you can think of unique features for your app.

Business Analysis

At this stage, you will have an idea of what you are looking for in your food delivery application. The next most important element is the monetary aspect. Estimating the cost of the application is the next significant step.

The key stakeholders for a food app like Zomato are:

1. The Restaurant Owners who list their restaurants to promote and deliver
2. The Delivery Partners who accept orders of customers and deliver it to them. They will get the location of the customers as well as the restaurants. 
3. And most importantly, the Customers who are going to order food through the app.

The platform owner charges a fee from the restaurants to list a restaurant in the application. When the user places an order, a notification is sent to the restaurant, the platform admin, and the nearest delivery person. In most cases the food delivery platform doesn't own any restaurant, it coordinates with the listed restaurants for the smooth working of the application. 

Going with the Flow

Food apps follow one thing in common, they follow the same pattern. To stay in the competition you will have to keep a close watch on the competitors, especially on their new features. Some of the common features are:

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a trend in mobile app development these days. Using it in your food delivery app means you can add multiple features like:

Mobile payments

In-app payment options are the biggest highlight in today’s on-demand services market. We all prefer a cashless transaction. Proving an in-app payment option will be more convenient, not only to your customers but also for your business.

Push notifications

Push notifications are the simplest form to intimate someone about the information that you need to pass. For eg, when a person orders food to his workplace, he might not always be available to pick up calls from the delivery boy, it is simpler for the delivery boy to send push notifications. Push notifications are also a great way to protect customers phone numbers and names. Another benefit of push notifications is to let customers know about any promo campaigns or discounts, which are always appreciated.

Some other Features of an On-Demand Food Delivery App. Make sure you keep your food delivery system simple. Your customers should be able to complete their orders in no time and minimum steps. 

You will need three applications for this to work well: the customer one, the restaurant one, and the delivery person. If anyone doesn't work well, the complete process might be disturbed.

Customer Application

The first thing that the customer does while opening the application is login or register. It will help you know more about your customer. Provide an option to log in using social networks making it easier for the customer. The registration process should be simple; nobody is interested in waiting for lengthy procedures. Signup shouldn't be forced, let them explore through the app. Once logged in, the customer starts searching for restaurants or food items. He will view the restaurant menu, prices, and offers. The search feature should be systematic. The user will add his preferred food items to the cart. Once done with selecting, the customer will move forward to the payment process, a faster mode to complete the payment would be preferred with high security provided. Equip users with various payment options like cash on delivery, card payments, or online wallets. After the delivery, the next major step is a review, asking the customer about their experience will help the connection with the customers grow strong. You can ask the customers to rate the food as well as the delivery experience. Some other things that should be brought in are order history, live tracking of the order, delivery time estimate, etc.

Delivery Partners

The first step for a delivery partner is to register and complete his verification process. 

After the registration is completed delivery partner has access to the app. He can accept the order pickup requests. He will get the restaurant details as well as the customer details. The delivery partner's step-by-step actions has to be updated on the app so that the customer knows the status of his order. For eg. when he 'accepts', 'picks up' or  'delivers' the order. Apart from this, the live tracking of the delivery agent is another great feature that can be added. 

Restaurant 

The first thing is the registration process, which includes creating an account, set up id, and password. 

Once customer requests for an order to be delivered, the restaurant will accept the order, and a delivery partner will be assigned to deliver that order. Throughout this, customers will know about the current process of food like cooking, food ready, picked up by the delivery agent, etc. Once the order has been reached the customer, the process is complete. 

Conclusion

The need for a food application is rising in time, which is also the reason for its continuous development and updation. People are trying to offer versatile features in their app so that their application stands out among others. We hope that our try to simplify the process of developing a food delivery application has helped you.