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Restaurants have gone through a metamorphosis, unlike any other industry, especially in the past 10 years. 10 years ago, when we talked about restaurants, the only thing that our mind would conjure up was a visual of going to a restaurant, food delivery, and having the food on the premises. Today, however, there have been a lot of diversities like ordering food home and picking up food from restaurants.
Food ordering from restaurants can be considered one of the biggest positive changes to the restaurant industry. The restaurants were no longer confined by their real estate capacity but only by their production capacity. This concept has also given rise to a lot of cloud kitchens where there is no dining facility but only takeaways can be ordered.
The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a shot in the arm for the food ordering on-demand industry. With restaurants not being able to operate, and with people looking for some relaxation/distraction in terms of a hearty meal, food ordering through mobile apps from restaurants skyrocketed in terms of boat usage and revenue.
Although food ordering from restaurants has become an integral part of our lifestyles, it cannot be denied that the market is still wide and open to accommodate new players and that too, profitably. If you are one of those aspiring entrepreneurs who would like to launch a food delivery app like UberEats, then this one’s for you!
The skeleton
Ever since the on-demand business model was brought in by Uber, almost every service segment has started to use its framework. Uber came up with its own food delivery wing called UberEats. Unlike the taxi ecosystem where there are only two parties involved, the driver and the passenger, the food delivery ecosystem has three parties: the user, the restaurant, and the delivery executor. The entire app is managed and overseen by an administrator. There are dedicated applications for every segment of users.
Even with food delivery, there are different types of business models. Some restaurants choose to have their own fleet of delivery executives without depending on any third-party or independent gig workers. These restaurants generally have multiple branches spread across the city. Some food delivery apps take care only to facilitate the order and not deliver it. The responsibility of delivering the order falls on the restaurant. The third model is the most popular and the one used by big names like UberEats and Zomato.
The way it works
To understand the technical nuances of an app like UberEats, you will need to understand the way in which it works.
The user downloads their app and sets up their account by registering. When registering for the app, they are also requested to specify the location in which the food needs to be delivered, based on which the restaurants will be displayed. The user can select the restaurant and choose the items they want to add to the cart from the menu and based on the availability.
Once the order has been finalized, the user can check out and make a payment. As soon as the payment is confirmed, a notification is sent to the restaurant and they start preparing the food. Parallel to this, the delivery executives in the vicinity are also notified. One of the delivery executives accepts the order and proceeds to pick the order up from the restaurant.
Guided by GPS, mapping, and navigation, the delivery executive reaches the location of the customer and delivers the food. Based on the food and the delivery experience, the user can rate the restaurant and the delivery executive.
The different elements
- The onboarding/registration process should be made easy and simple for the restaurant, the customer, and the delivery executive. The customer should be able to register using existing login credentials like Google, Facebook, and Apple, in addition to using the usual email address and phone number combination.
- The delivery executive, in addition to the usual registration process, should also have an identity verification process in place. The registration should also include the Bank account details.
- The restaurant also should be able to quickly tie up with the business and should be able to easily upload their menu, input their bank account details, and also create discounts and offers if needed.
- The GPS can be considered the epicenter of the on-demand revolution. The GPS should not only help the delivery executive in reaching the location of the customer but also keep the customer updated on the status of their order.
- Digital payments garnish the on-demand business ecosystem. The app should be able to accept payments from multiple payment instruments like credit cards, debit cards, Internet banking, and wallets. For this purpose, the app should tie-up with a versatile payment gateway.
- The delivery executives are innocent, gig workers. They should be able to toggle their availability and also be given the freedom to reject requests.
The garnishes
There are certain features that can help distinguish your offerings from the competition. You can extend the utility of your app by providing table reservations and menu management options for the restaurant. Some apps, in the light of the recent demands, have capitalized on their delivery network and have started to offer grocery and parcel delivery services.
The best way to enhance your presence in the digital space is to engage in aggressive digital marketing including but not limited to social media and email marketing. Email marketing can help in pushing offers and discounts to your existing customers and social media can help in bringing new customers.
To top this all up, your business needs to be powerful in terms of customer service. The administrator, in most cases, is responsible for customer support but they can delegate customer support to a team if needed.
Conclusion
The market for food delivery on-demand apps is here to stay. Although it might seem like the market is saturated, it is quite wide and open for new players to make a mark and make some profit. In addition, there are also niche spaces like healthy food, geriatric food, party packing, and a lot more that you can look forward to capitalizing on.
While the operational aspect can be expected to be a challenge, the technical requirements can adequately be taken care of by white label solutions. If you would like to launch a food ordering app as you do, all you need to do is get in touch with a company that specializes in UberEats like app development. The white-label solution ensures that you can launch your business in the shortest possible time and that too, without worrying about any glitches that might interfere with the expected basic functions. This app will take care to deliver profit to you while you deliver food and delight to your customers!
