How Much Does it Cost to Make a Food Delivery App?

Food delivery applications have become one of the most successful and popular applications in the present era. Such applications usually increase the ease with which the food is distributed and increase business profits significantly. But when one tries to go on to build such an application for their own business, it can seem daunting. This is expected, as modern food delivery applications handle many tasks at once. This article explores the important aspects of a food delivery app, its market, and the technology that makes such apps possible. 

What is a Food Delivery App? 

A food delivery app is generally an application that runs on various devices like smartphones and tablets. They allow customers to remotely order food from their homes, while also helping the restaurants to manage large amounts of orders. They have become extremely popular, with many companies offering such delivery applications for independent restaurants. Some large restaurants also think of custom delivery applications.

Why Invest in Food Delivery App Development? 

It has become apparent that people enjoy food being delivered to them rather than eating at restaurants. This has been so much the case that there are multiple apps that offer food delivery services, like GrubHub, SkipTheDishes, UberEats and Foodora.

The popularity and importance of food delivery applications have soared even higher in the event of the pandemic. Following are some important reasons for investing in food delivery app development.

• In 2021, revenue from online food delivery was about 151,526 million US dollars.
• This value of revenue from food delivery apps is expected to grow at a rate of 9% per year.
• The restaurant to consumer delivery amounts to 71,918 million US dollars which are expected to increase to 85,463 million US dollars in 2024.

Even though there is a good amount of investment involved in developing applications, the revenue value and popularity is a good reason to invest in it.

Key Features of Successful Food Delivery Apps 

There are a number of features successful food delivery applications have in common. Food delivery applications actually perform a lot of important tasks, despite their simple look. Most delivery applications come with a customer panel, admin panel and a separate panel for delivery agents. In this section, we will see what the key features and benefits of food delivery apps are.

Customer Panel

• Search: the customer panel must be enabled with a search option so that the customers can search between many restaurants and compare their prices.
• Order: the customers must find it easy to order their favourite food. Bulk orders must also be considered.
• Real-time tracking: once the order is placed, food delivery apps must have a feature so that the customer can track their food order.
• In-app chat: most food delivery applications have a window where they can chat with the delivery agent directly.
• Online payment: most food delivery apps have online payment panels which accept multiple online payment services.
• Review: there is a review option for customers to review each of their orders.
• Coupons: many food delivery applications have this feature to maintain a loyal customer base.

Admin Panel

• Manage orders: the restaurant receives the order with details like order location, item name, payment details and time of delivery. The admin can then manage the order priority and schedule it appropriately.
• Manage deliveries: As an order is placed, it is assigned to delivery personnel. The admin can then keep an eye on the order and its real-time location. 
• Manage content: the restaurants update their content regularly on the app. This feature lets the admin manage the content appropriately.

Agent Panel

• Registration: a delivery agent must easily be able to sign up. Verification might also be done by connecting with popular services like Gmail and Facebook.
• Manage deliveries: the delivery agent can choose between many orders that are present. Once chosen, the agent can prioritize between different deliveries and manage them.
• Status updates: this is one of the most important features of the agent panel. The agent gets notifications whenever the order is cancelled.
• In-app chat: just like the customer panel, the agent panel also must have the in-app chat to chat seamlessly with customers.

How Much Investment is Required to Create a Good Food Delivery App?

Any restaurant or a startup that is planning on making a food delivery app must know how much it costs to develop such an application. This is a key part of the business strategy, as investing in a sub-par product is often worse than not investing in such a project. Time is also a valuable asset in the company, so a business must know how long it takes to develop their food delivery application before hiring a mobile app development company to create their product.

Price and Functionality Relationship

A good food delivery app can take anywhere around 15,000 to 25,000 US dollars to develop. The price increases as more functions are added. High-end food delivery applications are available for different platforms like iOS and Android. Web application functionalities and cloud services can also be integrated with food delivery apps. This is why the cost rises. 

App Development Time and Development Phases

A good food delivery application takes about 12 to 16 weeks for the development phase. But it is necessary for good marketing techniques to be incorporated in the mobile application for it to be successful. Analytics are also used to take customer data and improve the application features

Technology Used to Build Food Delivery App

There are lots of technologies that go into building a sophisticated food delivery application. This is because such applications must collect user and product data, make payments, track the orders and do it seamlessly and securely. Fortunately, many large companies provide technology stacks that can be embedded in a new food delivery application. Following are the technologies that are used in mobile app development for restaurants and other similar businesses.

• Registration: for the user, restaurant, and delivery agent registration many technologies are available. Usually, it is done by taking the user data and making the respective account by the use of credentials. Login SDK, google Sign-in, Facebook sign-in can also be used. 
• Maps: for live order tracking, maps are necessary./ google maps, OpenStreetMaps, Mapkit JS etc can be used for this purpose.
• Payments: Paypal, Stripe, amazon payments and WePay are used for payment technologies.
• Restaurant listings: Many APIs are available that help in a restaurant listing Foursquare API, GrubHub API, and yelp fusion API are some examples.
• Analytics: Finally, google analytics, Localytics and apple analytics help in data analysis for food delivery companies.

7 Trends that will Change the World of Online Food Delivery

There are many trends that are ongoing in the food and delivery industry. For one thing, the culture itself is shifting towards an increased online ordering community. On the other hand, new delivery mechanisms include technology that allows for a better customer experience. Here are 7 trends that are currently taking place in the food delivery industry.

• Millennial culture: Millenials are the primary age group who order food online. They dislike going to restaurants and would rather have their food delivered to them. It has been reported that 3 out of every 5 orders are placed by this age group.
• Big data: food and delivery companies have the opportunity to gain user data, and as such make use of it to create a better customer experience.
• New niches: new niches have sprung up which the food and delivery companies can make use of to gain more revenue and sales. Online food delivery for pets, unsold dish sales with discounts and virtual kitchen concepts are some examples of newly developed niches in online food delivery.
• Cryptocurrency: cryptocurrency has become a trend lately, and food delivery applications can make use of this new currency to gain more revenue. It is also more secure and valuable than traditional forms of payment.
• AR and VR: Augmented Reality and Virtual reality are two more technologies that are spreading and can be used in the online food and delivery industry. They are used in various marketing campaigns, virtual training and increasing sales.
• Modern delivery methods: there are delivery options where drones and other specialized machines deliver the order safely and fast.
• Other new technology: The customers suggest that food and delivery companies must incorporate new technologies in their applications. They want their apps connected to virtual assistants like Siri and Google assistant. Food ordering app development companies may further include features like buying food directly from connected social media as well. 

Measures to Achieve Safer Online Delivery During Coronavirus Pandemic 

2019 and the following two years, in particular, have been very difficult for restaurants. Food delivery applications have helped lots of restaurants foster. The pandemic still brings its own set of rules which must be followed to keep customers safe. Thus many food delivery agents are starting to incorporate ethical measures for safe delivery practices. Following are some measures that help in healthy food delivery.

Contactless Drop-offs

The delivery agents can pursue contactless drop-offs where they leave the packages at the door. Since people must maintain social distancing and hygiene, this is the best option for battling the pandemic.

Eliminating Delivery Charges

To encourage more people to use delivery services, restaurants and companies must eliminate delivery charges. Cash on delivery must be discouraged as it can spread the virus further

Checking the Packaging

The delivery agent should pick up the order only after carefully checking its packaging. For proof, they can use the in-app camera and show it to the benefit of customers.

Scheduled Meal Kits

The food delivery company should bring appropriate meal kits for their consumers while considering some of them might order regularly. This is also incredibly helpful during the pandemic as the kit serves as an extra inventory to keep the disease at bay.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

When a business tries to build a food delivery app, it can be beneficial to know how to build such an application in the most cost-effective manner. By knowing the common challenges that come in building such an app, user-friendliness and business profitability can both be increased considerably.

Nextbrain Technologies is one of the best mobile app development companies, which has offices in Toronto, Canada. It has developed various mobile applications in various different platforms like Android and Ios. cross-platform and native applications are also developed by the company.