Discover crucial elements to create a successful food delivery app. From user experience to features, learn what makes an app stand out in a competitive market.
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18 Important Factors to Consider When Developing a Food Delivery App.pdf
1. 18 Important Factors to Consider When
Developing a Food Delivery App
Are you an ambitious startup, a visionary restaurant owner, or a
seasoned professional in the food business?
Have you observed the dominance of industry giants like UberEats and
DoorDash in food ordering and delivery applications?
If you are planning to develop a food delivery app like UberEats and
become the next big brand, there are critical factors you can't afford to
overlook.
The success in your industry is rooted in the consideration of these key
elements during food delivery app development.
Whether you are looking to create an app from scratch, refine an existing
one, or replace your current platform, your journey to success hinges on
these factors.
In this blog, you will explore the 18 core components that can make your
food delivery app the talk of the town.
Statistics that support your decision of food delivery app development
The global online food delivery services market is expected to
reach $192.16 billion in 2025.
The overall food delivery app industry is expected to reach a $165 billion
market size by 2029.
By 2027, the food delivery market in the USA is estimated to reach a 500-
million mark in US dollars.
The food delivery industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of
10.5% between 2021 and 2026.
2. The numbers themselves are speaking about how significant it is to go
online and make a food delivery app. These are the strong figures that
are enough to tell that you have made a great decision to develop a food
delivery app.
Now, you may be wondering what makes the app so powerful that drives
these magic growth figures. Well, below, you will explore every single
factor. Keep reading.
18 Important factors to consider while developing a food delivery app
1. Decide your business model
Remember, your business model is unique. Before you start the process
of on-demand food delivery app development, you need to identify what
model your business comes into.
Usually, there are two types of business models:
Restaurant to customers - In this model, Restaurants and customers
are directly connected from ordering to delivery. Customers order
directly from restaurants and restaurants offer a complete service from
accepting food orders to delivering hot meals on time to customers'
doorstep.
Platform to customers - Here, the customer orders food using a
platform like UberEats. The platform is responsible for serving the
customer including delivery.
2. User-friendly design of your app’s interface
How many apps have you downloaded and uninstalled just because of
the bad design, complex navigation and poor performance? Well, you
don’t remember or are many, right?
3. In the same way, if your app does not have a user-friendly interface, your
customers will uninstall it too. Having a user-friendly interface is one of
the most important factors you need to consider.
Your users prefer a simple and intuitive design with clear calls to action.
Research says that, on average, every $1 invested in UX brings $100 in
return. This is what you can get by providing a good UX with a simple yet
intuitive app interface and getting an ROI of a whopping 9,900%.
Vice versa, if your app has a bad design and customers are having bad
experiences, 70% of customers may abandon purchases from your app.
A well-crafted UI/UX covers these 4 factors that will help your users
come back for more.
4. 1. Intuitive and user-friendly app navigation
2. Clear and visually appealing food menu layout
3. Seamless order placement process
4. Easy payment options and checkout process
If you are covering all these core factors in your online food delivery
software and making your customer navigation super easy like a walk to
his drawing room from his bedroom, you will record a high ROI.
3. Real-time order tracking
For you and your customers, it is one of the most important features of
the food delivery app. This feature helps you ensure transparency to
your customers and also improves the overall experience.
5. UberEats, Zomato and other popular companies already have this feature
in their application.
With this feature, you can provide:
• Real-time order tracking for your customers
• Live status updates for order preparation and delivery
4. Push notifications
Customers want a double confirmation about their placed orders, order
pickup update, and delivery confirmation. When you provide these
updates to your customers, they feel valued and assured.
Another thing, your regular customers love to hear about your new
arrivals, offers, and discounts. When you send them a push notification
about these, it grabs their attention instantly. It further results in an
increased customer base and order.
You can use the push notification for order confirmation, delivery
updates, personalized promotions and more.
5. Ensure security in payment and data
In this digital era, hackers are the new thieves. Not just your customers
but we all worry about paying online. No one likes to share or reveal
their personal payment information like credit or debit card or another
mode of online payment.
6. In your app, you should have an iron-shield payment security for your
customers. Remember, ensuring robust payment and security measures
is the cornerstone of trust between customers and businesses.
Here is what you need to know about the security and what your app
should offer:
• Integrate only the secure payment gateways and encryption
• Ensure data privacy and compliance with regulations
6. Offer easy payment options
Along with the payment security, your customers expect an easy
checkout experience. Would you like to input your payment details on
7. the website or app every time you visit where you have made a purchase
once? No, right?
Nor would you like it if the app is offering only one or two types of
payment options. If the app does not have your choice of payment
option, you will leave the app and the app owner will lose you, which
means a customer and sale.
In the same way, your app should have multiple payment options. Your
app should be able to:
• Offer multiple payment options like (credit/debit cards, mobile
wallets, etc.)
• Saving payment information for quick and secure payment
transactions
7. Offer multiple ordering methods
The internet is free. Your customers are consuming it more than your
food. He is everywhere, on Android phones, iOS, websites and several
other channels.
Do not limit your app by making it compatible with only Android and
iOS. Instead, make it compatible with other channels like desktop apps
and highly responsive to all screens.
8. Decide your app development budget
Nothing is free in the economy. Your app too would need finance and will
have an amount. Budgeting is the first step and also the last step if you
are in a planning phase. Once you are done with the planning and have
defined successfully what you need and how you need it. You should
prepare a budget.
8. However, the delivery app development cost varies based on your
requirements. It depends on:
• Choice of technology
• Experts you hire
• Frameworks you select
• The time it takes to develop
• And several other factors
Hence, before collaborating with a food delivery mobile app
development company, you should prepare your budget keenly.
9. Choose the suitable framework
No matter if you are looking to develop a food delivery app like UberEats
or Zomato, you must choose a suitable framework for your app based on
your business model and requirements.
The most popular frameworks are:
• Android
9. • iOS
• Harmony OS
• Windows
Choose based on your customer's preferences. There are more users of
Android than iOS. Windows is usually preferred for the web. Harmony is
the leading OS with fewer users. If you are looking to go with native
development, choose precisely.
However, there are other options for you. That is “Hybrid app
development.” and “readymade food delivery software.” Choose a
technology like Flutter or Xamarin or SaaS software that is used to build
an app for both platforms (Android and iOS).
With one-time coding and less time and money, you can have your food
delivery application ready that will be capable of working across the OS
and screens.
10. Performance and scalability
Performance and scalability are the twin pillars that determine the
success of your food delivery app. Performance refers to how quickly and
efficiently your app is processing tasks and data.
Scalability is how you adapt your app to handle increased demand and
growth. If your app is optimized for performance and scalability, you can
deliver a seamless experience that will keep your customers coming back
for more. They may also do mouth publicity for your app.
11. Legal and regulatory considerations
There are crucial legal and regulatory aspects that your food delivery
software for restaurants must adhere to. If your business fails to comply
with these regulations, you may have to face some severe consequences
like legal liabilities, fines, and reputational damage.
10. 12. Testing and quality assurance
Launching your app without testing and doing quality assurance may
lead to losing the trust of your customers.
Hence, never launch your app without testing and quality checks. The
testing process involves testing your app functionality, usability, quality,
and identifying and fixing bugs.
It could be both manual and automated. When your food delivery
management software is tested from all aspects and quality is assured
that it is top-notch, the app will help you to build trust with your
customers, improve their experience, and ensure the success of your
food delivery app.
13. Offers and rewards
Every customer on the earth is looking for enticing offers and rewards.
Apps like UberEats and DoorDash come up with exciting offers for their
customers to attract new customers and retain the existing ones.
11. So, when you are building a food delivery app for your brand, make sure
you ask your developers to create this unique feature. With it, you will be
able to customize offers as per your needs and can promote them to
customers easily.
14. Know your customers with analytics
UberEats, DoorDash and other popular brands make their business
decisions based on their customer behavior. They know who their
customers are, what they are doing, what often they order, how often
they order, what is their favorite dish, and other information.
They get all this information with the “Analytic feature”. With this
information, they organize data well, analyze it and use it to make
12. informed decisions. And this is how they are the favorite of their
customers. Which ultimately leads them to earn massive profits.
In the same way, when you plan to develop a food delivery app, make
sure your app has this feature called “Analytics.” This will help you do all
that popular brands are doing. You will also be able to know your
customers from close. And will become capable of making result-driven
decisions.
Read More: Readymade vs custom-built software: which is better for
your business?
15. Have a strong USP
Remember: Your customers won’t buy, without a strong “why”. So it is
highly significant for you to come up with a strong “why” that can make
you stand apart from all your online and offline competitors.
To succeed in this digital era, your app should have at least one or two
unique features or advantages that can attract customers to your app.
16. Build your website
Limiting your online presence to just a mobile app is not enough.
Remember, the internet is free and your customers are consuming it
more than the food. They are also using a big screen - A laptop or
desktop.
Hence, you cannot afford to lose those customers too. To attract this
traffic, you must create a website reflecting your brand's taste.
Accessible to all your big screen-using customers. Make sure your
website is mobile-friendly as the majority of your customers will view
websites via their mobile phones.
Create a website that is unique, niche-based, and easy to use for foodies.
13. 17. Start growing online locally
Let your local customers know first that you are online. Become a brand
in your locality. Slowly and gradually, see what they are saying about you
and your online presence. Get maximum feedback from your local
customers, analyze them, continue doing what is good as per your
customers and improve what is bad.
Once you have expanded your reach locally and have got 80 to 90%
positive feedback, you can expand your reach. You can use this positive
feedback as wings and fly out of your locality to expand your customer
base across the borders.
18. Social media and SEO-friendly app
Customers are everywhere. Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
Pinterest and other social media channels. Not every person under the
sun will know your business or your app.
Your app should be such that if anyone types your name or any food item
near your business locality, Google or other search engines can show
your business or app details to your customer's query.
In the same way, your app should allow you to integrate your choice of
social media channels. If your app is connected to these channels, you
can drive traffic and direct orders easily.
This will help you grow at a consistent pace. In addition, you will be on
the road to becoming a brand earlier than your local competitors.
How Yelowsoft can help you with on-demand food delivery software?
Yelowsoft offers comprehensive on-demand food delivery software for
restaurants that cater to the unique needs of your food delivery business.
With a range of powerful features and benefits, Yelowsoft's software
streamlines your operations, enhances your customer experience, and
boosts your business growth.
14. Conclusion
In conclusion, developing a food delivery app requires careful attention
to user-friendly features like real-time tracking secure payments and
more discussed above. If you are looking for rapid growth at a low cost,
choosing ready-made SaaS-based food delivery software is the smarter
option.
Recent stats show that SaaS solutions lead to a 63% reduction in
operational costs and a 55% faster time-to-market. "Time is money," and
white label software saves both. It offers tailored solutions which allow
you to focus on customers and core operations. By investing wisely
in white label SaaS software, you can conquer the competitive food
delivery market efficiently and speedily.