Food Delivery – This is one of the words with which everyone is familiar nowadays. It is one of the thriving industries which is growing at a fast rate and is making our everyday necessity easier to access food whenever we want and wherever we want. This is one of the markets which anyone would like to invest and would probably dream to make a brand name in it.
However, competing with brands like Uber Eats, Postmates, Doordash, and GrubHub for the top positions is fierce and challenging. One needs to know all the small nifty things which make that business successful. Don’t worry today we will discuss everything you need to know to get your food delivery business started.
Main Challenges-
The menu should be diverse as the market is huge and people are from different cultures and they have a different set of taste buds. So from local recipes to Thai, Chinese, and Swedish, you have to make it as diverse as possible so that you can become one sports hub for multiple things and target the maximum audience.
Apps like Postmates target the professional who wants healthier and upscaled grocery. Some deliver raw grocery to home while some of them deliver cooked meals. So you need to cater to your business in that manner on your plate of interest.
One thing which must be consistent is the delivery and courier service. This is the thing that makes Postmates different from many no matter whatever the product is. If the order is a cheap dishwasher they will still deliver that on time and keep their business moving. So getting a good and 24/7 courier service is the first and very crucial part.
Partnering with Restaurants and Building Relationships-
There are many restaurants locally that do not take online orders. One has to target them and make sure they get noticed in the market. If the mobile app development has a wide variety then this network helps to reach out to more number of people. You can offer a good deal for commission sales and cut off their delivery costs.
Choosing the right business model for having drivers-
You have two options in this situation one is you can hire and make your own fleet of drivers or you can contact freelancers as Uber does. But it mostly depends on the location or the industrial area as there you will get people working as part-time but to have 24/7 courier service you also need to have some permanent drivers who will work at a stipulated time. You can also provide free medical insurance to the drivers at the time of working hours as this can act as a perk and will be more appealing.
The APP-
This is the way of making money. If you mess it here everything will collapse. You can make three sides of the food app solution one of the restaurants one for the customer and one for the delivery team.
Customer Version-
The usual login/registration should be there at first after that get the details of the users’ cards for transactions and automatic one-tap payment. The UI where all the restaurants will be shown should be sleek and minimal. There also should be filters and sorting and search functionality for the users’ needs and requirements.
Multiple images should be shown for each product with options to give custom orders. Get the map location of the restaurant for which the user finalized the order and show in a map the live tracking of the food order delivery. Also, keep a tab for showing past orders and give users some promotional offers or discounts from time to time to be in the business.
Courier Version-
The courier version of the app is much simpler. After the registration part, the courier bid for the order and then set the delivery status accepted or rejected or picked up.
Restaurant Version-
This version controls the admin panel of the restaurants. The users can track all the orders places and courier’s current location and the order status on the admin panel. The restaurant can also send push notifications to the couriers when any order is made and also can send a notification for a successful payment to the customers.
Things to keep in mind to get things going in the right direction-
- Start by categorizing and defining your target audience and customers and their service needs.
- Make sure you have a wider reach for the customers by keeping all options from non-veg, veg, and gluten-free
- Keep good relationships going with the restaurant owners and it will help you maintain a good reputation in the market and will also help in building trust.
- Take the services of full-time employees along with the part-time/freelancers. So that the courier service stays up no matter how high the rush is and you don’t get complaints or order cancellations for late delivery.
- Keep options like bill sharing before payment and ordering things in a chat may increase the uniqueness of the app which will leave a positive impact.
So before jumping into any final decision make a blueprint and choose things according to your resources and then jump into the venture.
