Last Updated: 30 Sep 2020 | 5 min read
Food ordering websites and mobile apps are exceptionally convenient to the modern people of today who are always in a hurry. These apps and websites are here to save time, allow customers to choose from long lists of restaurants and pay for the food easily and swiftly. If you’re planning to join the bandwagon of the food delivery business, then this topic would be of use to you. Here you’ll learn a few things that you must know before you develop a website or an app for your business.
The business of online food delivery is incredible, to say the least. First of all, it frees the busy schedules of people. Everyone is aware of the fact that people all over the world lead fast-past lives. They always have more than enough on their plate and they simply can’t find enough time to accommodate another chore into their list. For such people, on-demand food delivery app development services are beneficial to expand their business quickly & safely. Secondly, online food delivery is an affordable backdoor that people who hate cooking can use.
According to researchers[1], the food delivery market will grow over $104 billion by 2023 and this report appeared much before the global lockdown caused by COVID-19 and the resulting surge in the popularity of on-demand delivery services.
The global situation is gradually improving as many countries are already lifting quarantine restrictions. This event gave a massive push to the on-demand delivery market. It’s safe to say that starting a food delivery business would prove to be beneficial to you. However, when it comes to designing a website or an app for this purpose, most people make mistakes. If you want to avoid them, then you should listen to what the specialists of on-demand food delivery app development have to say.
For Websites:
(1) Customized vs. readymade: First of all, you need to decide whether to go with a customized or readymade website. If you look at it from a realistic point of view, then you’ll realize that choosing a readymade website would be a mistake. Customers desire originality, convenience, speed, and robust features. You can’t achieve these things if you don’t invest in custom website development.
(2) Defining the target audience: How to ensure that a food delivery website won’t fail? You can do it only by defining your targeted audience. For that purpose, you can choose from three target audiences among busy people – students, parents and working professionals. Students tend to aim for fast food parents want something healthy for their kids, and working professionals prefer well-cooked meals. As you can see, each group requires something different.
(3) Incredible UI/UX: When it comes to designing a food ordering website, you need to pay attention to the platform’s design. Customers love surfing websites that are simple and clean. Make sure that you don’t include anything that can distract their attention from the main action. High-quality UI/UX design should do the trick, but the designer has to be proficient at the task. The specialist must divide the process into several stages to understand what is mandatory in achieving an effortless user experience.
(4) Tuning SEO and social media: Search engine optimization or SEO shouldn’t be new to you. You need to ensure that your site has every SEO element that it needs, including user-friendly URLs, manageable Meta tags, image alt tags, etc. Therefore, you have to be selective in choosing a web development service provider. Apart from that, you also need to add social media to the mix. It’s one of the most crucial marketing channels of today. Just like every other business company, you need to be active on social media to get the attention of users.
For Mobile Applications:
(1) User-friendly interface: If you hope to create an app like Uber Eats, Zomato, Swiggy or others, then you need to ensure that your application has a user-friendly interface. It’s an indescribably vital aspect of an on-demand food ordering application. You don’t want to confuse your customers, but to win their hearts with what you have to offer. Without a user-friendly interface, they won’t be able to connect with your app instantly and leave once and for all.
(2) Secure payment systems: Do you want to create an app like Uber Eats, Zomato, Swiggy and other similar applications? Then you must pay attention to the payment systems. Nobody would feel safe in making the payment if they don’t see a secure payment gateway that doesn’t reveal the client’s payment details, including credit/debit card numbers and other classified credentials. Online security is a big concern that you must cater to by establishing a secure payment gateway.
(3) Live-tracking: Don’t forget to ask your food delivery app developer to add a live order tracking system. It’s important to customers because they want to know how long it would take for the food to reach them. You can’t win the trust of your customers only by claiming that you can deliver anything within thirty minutes or so. This system will let you as well as your client track the cooking progress, delivery pickup time, and the route chosen by the delivery personnel.
(4) Push notifications: Unlike websites, push notifications are part of almost every mobile app. Ask your food delivery app developer to include push notification systems if you wish to inform your customers about new arrivals, exclusive deals, discounts or gift coupons. When it comes to making announcements, push notifications will never fail you.
Final considerations
Of course, there’s much more for you to look into, whether you choose to design a website, an app, or both for your food delivery business. Nevertheless, this topic would be a good place to start.
