How to Start an Online Food Delivery Services Business in 2024

A famous investment quote is perfect for this post “See Where Big Players are Investing, and You Will See The Future.” 

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Is there the same pill for every ill? No, we have created this guide to assist you in the right direction. Let us explore innovative ways to start an online food delivery business.

Food delivery apps like UberEats, GrubHub are market dominators. Investors worldwide are looking to replicate their success and develop their own food delivery apps. If you are also planning to develop your own food delivery app, we at RisingMax are happy to help you.

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Are you using third-party food delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, GrubHub for your restaurant business? Or a budding investor looking to replicate the success of these food market dominator app? Then, it’s high time to seriously think about developing a food delivery app for your business. Why?

According to Statista, the global online food delivery business will reach 2.7 million US Dollars in 2021. And by the year 2023, the business is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.51% and generate a revenue of approx $154 billion US Dollars.

With so much growth potential in the future, it’s time for you to invest in food delivery apps and take advantage of the trend. The next question is, where do you start? 

We take care of your food business while you take care of your guests satifactions. Our Complete Restaurant Management software solution is built just so right for your restaurant and enables you to provide a fine dining experience to your guests.

This is the reason why we have created this post. We aim to simplify things for anyone planning to create food delivery apps like Uber Eats, GrubHub. But before reading about how-to, let’s have a look at who should invest and benefit from food delivery apps.

Read About The Leading Players In The Food Delivery Business in 2023

Who Can Invest & Benefit from Food Delivery App Development?

So by now, you know that the food delivery business is the new trend and business is expected to soar up in the future. But the real question is, who can benefit from this new trend? To begin with, it all depends upon what type of food delivery apps a person is planning to create and invest in. Here are some of the food delivery app development types you might want to know:

Restaurant Owners - A restaurant or a shop owner is surely the one going to invest in developing a customized food delivery app to serve their customers better. With this application, they are getting multiple benefits like:

• Resource management
• Inventory management
• Recipe management
• A dynamic QR code system
• Online menu
• Analytics
• Billing software system
• Feedback system

Basically, the app allows them to manage every aspect of the business in one place without any hassle.

Budding Investors - The success of third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats, GrubHub offers a great investment opportunity for budding investors. With better commission for restaurant owners, couriers, and some cutting-edge features, they can be profitable too. As we all know, it is easier to swim along with the current than to go against it. So, why not invest in these apps when there is a massive growth opportunity in the future. However, as an investor looking to offer a third-party service to the restaurant business owner. It is vital to address the needs of all the parties involved and keep customer needs at the center during the development stages.

If you are either of the above, then it's the right time for you to move ahead fast from planning and jump to the development stages.

Why Are Food Delivery Apps Like Uber Eats, Grubhub So Popular? 

Convenience is one of the major factors why food delivery apps like Uber Eats, Grubhub are so popular. In this fast-paced world, people are switching over to these apps for the convenience they offer. Food delivery apps like Uber Eats, GrubHub have taken advantage of this, changing people's behavior. They provided users a platform to order food from their favorite restaurant with few mobile touches.

Ready to be a part of this trend? Then, creating a food delivery application for your business or as a third-party service provider is the right move. However, if you choose to ignore the advent of food delivery apps. Either you are missing a great investment opportunity or risk getting extraneous in the future.

So, before things start going down South, Connect Us Now! with our expert team.

Now, you know why food delivery apps are so popular and worthy of investment. Let us get ahead and know some crucial factors of this amazing business model.

Food Delivery Business Models To Choose From

The initial phase of developing a food delivery application involves determining a suitable business model that aligns with the specific requirements of your industry. There are mainly three types of business models:

Aggregator Business Model

This business model aims to bridge the gap between restaurants and their customers. The platform achieves this by establishing connections with a diverse range of restaurants. Customers will be able to access a diverse range of dining establishments within close proximity, eliminating the need for extensive travel. 

JustEat, Delivery Hero, and Talabat are notable applications that have successfully implemented this particular strategy. 

Order And Delivery Model

To guarantee punctual and dependable deliveries, restaurant proprietors employ a business model wherein they establish contractual agreements with a third-party delivery service. Determining delivery fees for food orders is under the purview of the third-party delivery service, as they are responsible for overseeing the delivery process.

Logistics companies such as Swiggy and Zomato can assist in managing and facilitating delivery operations. 

Full-Service Business Model

As the individual in charge, you are responsible for overseeing all facets of the business, encompassing the preparation of ingredients to the timely delivery of completed meals. The decision to handle all tasks internally will result in a significant allocation of resources. In this model, you possess full control over the process, potentially increasing profitability. 

Domino's and McDonald's, two prominent multinational fast-food chains, serve as prime examples of the triumph of this business model.

Key Features of Online Food Delivery Apps

To effectively develop a food delivery application, it is important to understand the trending features. Below are several crucial features that can be utilized to develop an exceptional mobile application for your restaurant.

Food Delivery App Features For Customers

1. Customer Login and Profile - Here, users can view information like previous orders, payment history, and track delivery. However, signing up doesn’t have to be necessary, and information like pick-up address and name are sufficient to complete the order.
2. App Screen - App screen or home screen is the first thing users are going to interact with. The app screen needs to be attractive, engaging, and user-friendly, making it easy to order food. 
3. Search Bar - The search bar on the ‘Home Screen’ allows users to find their favorite restaurants and dishes. This feature is not limited to the home screen and can be added to restaurant profiles for filtering and sorting functionality.
4. Menu Screen - Here, users will find information about what the app or the restaurant has to offer. Apart from the menu, other information about the restaurant such as location, phone number, rating and feedback, etc can be seen here.
5. Dish Screen - If the customer is interested in knowing more about a dish, they will find everything they need. Information such as ingredients, price, pictures, calories, etc., is displayed to customers here.
6. Check-Out Screen - This app screen has all the details about the order. Order information such as customer address, dish, quantity ordered overall payment ( including taxes, delivery charges, and others), delivery time, chats with a courier, and customer support service.
7. Payment Gateway - Integration with multiple payment gateways such as PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, etc makes it easy for customers to pay online.
8. Order Tracking - Adding an order tracking screen allows customers to track their orders in real-time and know when it is going to reach the location.
9. Push Notifications - This app feature comes in handy to provide users with important information such as order status, delivery time, order acceptance, and others.

Food Delivery App Features For Restaurants Owners

1. Menu Management  - For a restaurant owner, it is essential to easily manage and update their menu. Here restaurant owners can edit or remove menus, dishes/items, descriptions, pricing, edit photos and perform other changes to the restaurant menu using the user-friendly menu creator.
2. Order Tracking - The restaurant owners can view and manage all the orders on this app screen. They can see the completed, in-process, and canceled orders, along with other order details like customer number, address, and payment details.
3. Analytics - For every successful business, it is vital to analyze their business strategy and know what’s working and what’s not. Here they can track  - total sales, revenue generated, average cooking time, popular dishes, customer feedback and ratings, and other valuable customer data.
4. Resource management - Restaurant owners can manage all their resources all in one place on a single app screen. A lot of planning is involved in running a restaurant business, and with a friendly application, you can manage everything all in one place.
5. Inventory management  - Managing inventory is a child's play with these online food applications. Owners can get an approximate inventory idea, thus maintaining a surplus stock and being updated with the daily inventory stock.
6. Recipe management - This is a must-have app feature for restaurant chains or owners who are planning to expand. With this, restaurants can efficiently manage their recipes, eliminate errors due to manual processes, and improve overall management functionality.
7. Feedback system - Feedbacks are a great way to improve business efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction. On this app screen, the business can see what their customers are saying about them and find the areas for improvement.
8. Courier Management - On this screen, the restaurant owners can keep track of each courier. Here they can access courier basic details such as ratings, feedback, working hours, contact information, etc. 

Food Delivery App Features For Courier Side

1. Courier Profile - Similar to customers, the courier needs to follow a registration process in order to land a working contact and start accepting orders. After reading and agreeing with the terms, couriers start providing their services.
2. Order Screen - Here on this app screen, the courier can see basic order details such as order number, description, pick up & drop location, recipient name, phone number, and other details.
3. GPS Navigator - An in-app GPS navigator makes it easy for couriers to find the best route and reach their destination on time. One added advantage of this functionality is that this can be used to provide an Estimated Time of Arrival to a customer.
4. Scheduling Availability - This app feature allows couriers to set their availability and working hours on their own. The application must be integrated with a calendar API like Google Calendar to enable this feature. With this, they can work at night/day shifts or even on holidays and earn extra money.

Food Delivery App Features For Admin

1. Restaurant Management: The admin can see all the listed restaurant business partners in one place on this app screen. With this feature, admins can manage their business partners efficiently. It doesn’t mean that they can control what they are selling or at what price. Restaurants management functionality allows admins to perform the following functions:

• Easy onboarding of new restaurant business partners.
• Review or Approve of changes that partner restaurant businesses are making, such as Menu and Dish screen.
• Add or Delete partner restaurants from the application.
• In-app chat feature with business partners.
• Regulatory documents such as partnership contacts in digital versions for business partners.
• Overview of all digital transitions and other financial documents depending upon the business model.

Courier Management

Managing couriers is another important aspect of a food delivery application. Admins can access personal details (name, contact number), their working contact, and client feedback for quality control from this app screen. Other functionality includes:

• Tracking the working hours and salary payout.
• Productivity tracking to award couriers with additional benefits for reaching a certain milestone.
• Chat and Tech support to assist couriers if they face any issue with the application.
• Keep track of available couriers, total orders completed, and other information related to order tracking.
• Managing the availability of the courier with integrated calendar API like Google Calendar.
• Assigning areas for new couriers in case there are already too many couriers in any particular area and integrating with popular deliver driver job listings pages to stay ahead of turnover.

Analytics

An analytical dashboard is an essential feature that allows admins to track the financial flow of the restaurant business partners. As an admin, you also set your own metrics to track and view them in a separate tab. Other tracking functionality includes:

• Total expenses, revenue generated, and net worth.
• Separate tabs for Income and expenses of platform and partners as well.
• Total number of orders received daily, weekly, monthly.
• Total revenue generated from the individual partnership.
• Salary and additional profits earned by each courier.
• Number of orders received from each restaurant business partner.

Food Delivery App Development Costs

There are a number of factors that affect the development cost of a food delivery application. Thus to get an app estimation, it is best to get in touch with a food delivery app development company like RisingMax to get an estimation about the same.

Here are some of the crucial factors that affect the development cost:

1. Features Complexity
2. UI/UX Design 
3. App Security 
4. App Platform - Android, iOS, or web.
5. Third-Party App Integration 
6. App Hosting - based on hosting service 
7. App Maintenance - update for the new version 
8. Technology Slacks - Blockchain, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence

While creating an app like Uber Eats & GrubHub, it is crucial to keep up with the current trend and add value that your competitors don’t have. Gather valuable insights from your target audiences and, based on the feedback, add features to the app during the second development stage.

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Wrapping Up

Food delivery apps like UberEats, GrubHub make it convenient for customers to order and receive their favorite food. These apps are bridging the gap that traditionally exists between restaurants and customers. Restaurants are managing their inventory, resources, menus, payment & feedback system and other business aspects efficiently. With so many benefits and future growth potential, it's the right time to invest and create your own food delivery app like UberEats, GrubHub.

With that being said, while developing an application, you must consider every minute detail and the needs of all parties involved. In case you have any doubt or are unsure about how to accomplish this, it is best to get in touch with our app development experts that have been in this business for more than a decade and provide solutions that fit your business needs.

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