Today, most individuals around the world use a food delivery app to order delicious dishes from their favorite restaurants while relaxing at home. However, even before the pandemic, many businesses struggled to obtain consumers. This significantly impacted the sector, and a number of new firms emerged to accommodate the increasing demand.
Since 2014, digital orders have increased at a 300% faster rate than traditional restaurant sales. In 2020, more than 111 million people will utilize food delivery apps. This indicates that an increasing number of customers choose the former when given the option of ordering meals online versus eating out or cooking at home.
Furthermore, digitalization has influenced every part of our lives, including how we purchase. People prefer online orders as they have a greater need or desire to stay at home. They may now quickly order and pay for their favorite foods with a few clicks of their credit card or e-wallet.
If you want to create a food delivery service comparable to UberEats, this article will explain the development process, trends, and price. As a result, you’ll gain a better understanding of the fundamentals.
A Brief Overview of the Food Delivery App Market.
UberEats became the world’s most popular meal delivery mobile app, with 66 million downloads in 2022. Because of the pandemic, demand for these goods has increased enormously, and if you are considering building such software, now is the ideal time.
Why did UberEats stand out? During COVID-19, the company implemented hygienic food delivery practices. Customers could also easily purchase their favorite meals online and have them delivered to their door. At the commencement of the lockdown, UberEats experienced a 30% surge in meal delivery signups. The number of restaurant contracts signed with UberEats climbed by 20% over the previous month in April.
Smaller companies that create apps, such as UberEats, took advantage of the lockout. Although big firms like DoorDash and others dominated the meal delivery industry, smaller startups like Glovo raised millions of dollars in funding, totaling $528 million. Meanwhile, Gorilla secured $290 million in funding despite its initial valuation of $1 billion.
The internet meal delivery market is predicted to grow to $1 trillion by 2023, up from $18.9 billion in 2020. Given this performance, the future of the delivery industry appears to be bright. Despite a seemingly saturated market, the statistics speak for themselves:
- In the United States, 60% of Americans order delivery or takeout at least once every week.
- Approximately 20% of consumers report spending more on non-restaurant orders than on regular restaurant trips.
- 57% of millennials say they order restaurant meals to watch movies and television shows at home.
How does Uber Eats make money?
Before starting with the food delivery app development process, let’s look at Uber Eats’ key revenue streams. The company makes income through four primary channels.
- Commission for orders. Restaurants and cafes pay UberEats a commission on each order, which can be up to 30%. This is one of UberEats’ primary sources of revenue.
- Delivery partner fees. UberEats charges up to 25% of the total delivery partner cost, which is divided into three categories: delivery, distance-based per mile, and pickup. For orders under $12, UberEats charges a “small order fee” of $2.
- Promotions. Well-known businesses, such as McDonald’s, frequently enter into exclusive advertising arrangements with UberEats, paying commissions and fees for the privilege. UberEats actively advertises these partner restaurants, which increases their revenue.
- Increased price. During peak hours, UberEats charges a “busy fee.” A dynamic pricing algorithm that considers factors like the number of orders placed at a specific location and the availability of delivery partners determines this cost.
5 Key Steps in Food Delivery App Development
If you want to compete in the competitive meal delivery market, simply copying the features of UberEats or other industry leaders will not suffice. Offer a solution that is unique to your target audience and allows you to stand out from the crowd.
Let’s take a look at the important steps in developing a comprehensive food delivery app.
Step 1: Conduct In-depth Market Research
First and foremost, conduct competitive research to determine industry trends and the best locations for your online meal delivery service. Furthermore, don’t forget to define the key features of your future app.
Step 2: Select the Right Food Delivery Model
Once the fundamentals are understood, you must select the proper model for designing apps such as UberEats. There are two models: order-only and order-and-deliver. Both allow you to take and manage orders, but they differ in terms of logistics support. In the order-only approach, revenue comes from restaurant commissions, whereas in the order-and-deliver model, delivery fees are payable.
Step 3: Implement Important Features Motivated by UberEats
Next, integrate popular features from successful apps such as UberEats into your meal delivery platform. These features are divided into four categories:
- Administrative panel. It provides extensive delivery and restaurant management services, as well as a variety of features, payment options, notifications, and statistics reports.
- Restaurant application. This software provides restaurants and other food and beverage suppliers with features for managing orders and menus, tracking payments and deliveries, providing customer service, receiving push notifications, and monitoring transactions.
- Customer application. This software includes user registration, real-time order monitoring, a comprehensive restaurant directory, ratings and reviews, a variety of payment choices, loyalty benefits, takeaway options, advanced search capability, and more.
- Delivery driver application. It allows for secure logins, effective delivery administration, real-time order tracking, simultaneous processing of numerous deliveries, and timely push notifications.
Step 4: Maximize the Potential of the Right Technology Stack.
During food delivery application development, integrate a carefully selected set of front-end and back-end technologies, frameworks, and libraries effortlessly. This is crucial for developing an app that operates smoothly and provides an exceptional user experience.
From user-friendly frontend frameworks like React or Flutter to powerful backend technologies like Node.js or Django, each component is critical to efficient order administration and real-time tracking. You’ll also need to include third-party APIs for geolocation, payment processing, and notification. This is how you can improve the usability and value of your software.
Step 5: Select a Viable App Development Route
During this step, choose the best meal delivery app development approach. Several possibilities include pre-made app solutions and assembling a qualified, devoted staff.
Innovation and strategic planning are critical for differentiating in today’s competitive industry. Going beyond your bounds and expressing your imagination will be the foundation of your app’s success.
How Much Does It Cost to Create an App Like UberEats?
Food delivery app creation is a difficult process that necessitates a lot of resources, knowledge, and creativity in order to make it intuitive, sleek, and unique. Functionality, size, design, platforms used, the number of people working on the project, and other factors all play a role in determining the overall cost.
Typically, the price becomes obvious during the initial product discovery phase. When you share your idea and vision for your future mobile app with the team of engineers and designers, they assist you in fine-tuning various components of the program and introducing the development process.
Our cost calculator can help you estimate the cost of your future food delivery app. Just complete a few easy questions to receive a free estimate.
Wrapping Up
Nowadays, when many individuals work and study from home, it is critical to have everything delivered to your home. Everyone wants tasty food, an easy ordering process, and the option to pay online. This suggests that new food delivery firms can flourish with a sound strategy and timely action while the market is still expanding.
To attract clients, user-friendly mobile app development is essential. That’s why hiring a software development company with experience creating food delivery apps is an excellent option. In this manner, you may create software that works effectively, looks well, and allows people to order and enjoy food easily.
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