How to Build A Food-Ordering App like GrubHub, DoorDash, etc.?

Published: 2019-11-25 06:41:24

Some people like one thing, some people like the other, but everyone loves food. And what's better than reading your favorite novel, or watching your favorite TV series, while being able to order food in the comfort of your own home? Several amazing restaurants right at your fingertips and all you need is a mobile app. 

The Food Delivery industry continues to grow, and trust me, it doesn’t even need an economist for you to realize that. Look around - you will see the food delivery transports all over the place. When you see food delivery apps like GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Eats, goPuff.

It all probably makes you feel that you’re too late, but you couldn’t be any more wrong! All you need is the right strategy, and find a company that offers app development services, and vola! You’ve done 90% of the work. Remember - quality always comes through. 

If you don’t believe me, then have a look at the forecast below, which clearly indicates how the food tech market has been on the rise and will continue to grow every year:-

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/g1amh3hib3ggctqai2zf.png)

                            <a href="https://miro.medium.com/max/753/0*inTLv0hIidOyML8M.jpg">(Image Source)</a>

<b>The Aggregator Business Model</b> 

The aggregator model is what has been popularly accepted by several popular food delivery app owners. The Company acts as a mediator between the customer and local restaurants and manage everything in between. They offer access to the user to browse through various cuisines. Mainly, the job of a food delivery app owner is to facilitate the order. 


<b>What Are the Key Features of Food Delivery App?</b>

One of the crafty things about food ordering app development is that you will get to create several products for all stakeholders to make the system work. Allow me to explain who these stakeholders are:

Well, you obviously need to create a customer application through which all the orders will be made.
Secondly, you need an Admin Panel (a Web-App) where you’ll manage and supervise all the requests.
Lastly, a courier app will be needed as long as your idea isn’t built around another solution.

It's better to foster 3 versions of your Food delivery app.

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/v3yyyg8fn5ssjckkou2e.png)

                             <a href="https://stormotion.io/blog/content/images/2017/06/3-types-of-delivery-app.jpg">(Image Source)</a>


<b>How To Make a Food Delivery App like Seamless?</b>

If you want to survive in this competitive market, you have to be smart enough to take the right decision at the right time. You have to show your presence to promote your business. I have tried to gather all the challenges that barricade the app development process for all startups:

<ul>
<li>You are not sure about how you can attract your audience or where your audience is.</li>
<li>You have no idea wherefrom you can <a href="https://www.resourcifi.com/hire-mobile-app-developer/">hire mobile app developer</a> for your app or how many versions you need for your app.</li>
<li>You are not sure about the features that should form your food delivery app like Seamless.</li>
<li>You don’t know how to even begin partnering with cafes, restaurants or other food delivery services.</li></ul>

You cannot really start your food delivery startup with a belief like – “everyone loves delicious food”,” food is our common ground or universal expression” or “ home delivery is very convenience”. Going ahead of the competition is not an easy task. To have a strong niche in the food delivery industry, you have to overcome these messes and take a fresh start. You should know how to make a food delivery app like Seamless! You should also <a href="https://www.resourcifi.com/hire-android-developer/">hire android app developer</a> who will help you accomplish the right food delivery app like <a href="https://www.grubhub.com/">Grubhub</a>. Let’s start with finding your crowd. 

<b>How To Find The Right Audience To Market your Food Delivery App?</b?

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ojrunpgykvvp1xhpq24i.png)

                                  <a href="https://engineerbabu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/food-ordering-app-engineerbabu4.png">(Image Sources)</a>

Defining the right audience for startups is way beyond just ‘tasty’ meals. You have to understand what sets up apart from the crowd and how that’s beneficial for you to attract a large audience. You can always think of creating your layout unique and yet appealing for the audience. For this, you should the right Food-ordering app development idea.

Nowadays, food delivery apps like Grubhub are used mostly by people with a busy lifestyle, such as working-class professionals, entrepreneurs, and students who spent most of their time studying. These should be the primary target of your app if you want to attract a large audience or boost your business. 

You have to define your audience zone as well. So if you are targeting busy professionals, you have to look for healthy food options and deliver freshly cooked food. On the other hand, If you have the USP to serve delicious fast food within minutes- then you can easily grab the attention of busy millennials who love to grab a pizza with a beer and enjoy Netflix. Diet is surely not a priority for them. They are not making a ‘healthy eating resolution’ on New Year’s Eve! They just want to eat delicious food.
 
<b>Everything That A Customer App Is Comprised Of</b>

While you are creating the customer app you should keep the UI very interactive. So, the user can easily access the nearest restaurants corners right from the navigation. For any user, let's find out what tempts him to place the order:

<b>Easy User Registration And Account Setup</b>
For any user, the journey with the app begins right at the sign-up. You must cut the crap and make sign-in easier for the user so that they can sing-in within seconds. You can also give them an option to log in quickly through their social media accounts.

<b>Moving On To Finding A Perfect Restaurant</b>
What will user’s do after a quick signup? Find good restaurants to order some delicious food. So, give users quick access to find nearby restaurants or cafes using their GPS right after their signup. You also provide a detailed list of restaurant information, cuisines list, prices, special combos, prices, and reviews.

<b>Ordering the Food</b>
Now, the menu is all set and the user must be ready to order by this step. Provide your users with an option to add the dishes or meals in their cart. And don't forget to add a delete button to erase a mistake!

<b>Okay, So Where Is The Food?</b>
Waiting for food can be really difficult. How to make the wait for food look better? With real-time order tracking! The main idea of food ordering app development is to make them wait seem smaller. Your user can be anywhere. So, make it convenient and fun with GPS real-time tracking.

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/y9njfg4apare4fqcylru.png)

Don't forget to update the food Status. After an order is accepted, the courier can update the status so that the customer can get information about the order. There are basically 3 main types of statuses:
<ul>
<li>Accepted/rejected.</li>
<li>Picked up.</li>
<li>Delivered.</li></ul>

Once the courier updates status to “delivered” and gets a confirmation from the customer, you will receive the payment. And the job is done!

<b>A Secure Payment Gateway is a Must</b>
A secure payment system not only builds the user's trust but also avoids the chances of fraud in the future. Make the payment safe, secure and fast. Choose the popular payment gateway solution.

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/x218jf1o8hs0ta59czy4.png)
                                     
                               <a href="https://stormotion.io/blog/">(Image Source)</a>

Ok. But How Does The App Owner Gets Control Over Their Own App?
There is a major prerequisite that could’ve probably slipped your mind had it not been for this article. I’m talking about the Admin Panel. The app owner needs an admin panel to manage a range of things from accepting, updating all sorts of information, setting prices, to managing customers and courier bases. 

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/xnmro5ejzd7tl3y2fxsa.png)

                                <a href="https://www.innofied.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/restaurant-web-admin-image.jpg">(Image Source)</a>

<b>3 Important Steps For The Restaurants</b>

<b>Register Your Restaurant</b>
The first feature is the same for the users as well as the restaurant owners. It’s always better to have as much information about the restaurant as possible for a number of reasons. It helps keep things organized for you and they get to have their unique IDs so as to minimize any kinds of errors. 

<b>Fill Up Your Relevant Details For the Consumer</b>
Display content with information about the food menu, the prices, the contact details, the offers, and everything else that may help a consumer to drive customers to your restaurant. Be creative by adding attractive images of the food item, offer competitive prices and obviously, have a variety of food items to offer, every little effort helps you improve your conversion rate. 

<b>Specify Your Parameters</b>
Maybe you allow cash on delivery or you only accept payments via specific modes only. Maybe you only deliver food to a particular radius and not beyond that. You have to realize that you have complete control over all these parameters. So all you need to do is specify them, doing which will help you reach out to your target audience easily.

![Alt Text](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/5kd7zj56hrzn1ldeems6.png)

                                 <a href="https://dribbble.com/shots/2204213-List-of-orders-for-Restaurant-Owner">(Image Source )</a>

<b>How to Choose The Right App Development Company For This?</b>

The trickiest thing is to find not just any app development company, but the right food ordering app development company. You’ll get many of them over the internet, but it's important to judge them right. So, to find the right company to support your food delivery app like a seamless idea, ask a few questions like:

<b>Company’s Experience</b>
I’m not saying that a company that hasn’t existed long enough doesn’t deserve a chance. In fact, you can get cheaper services from them as the price is the only USP they have in their initial stages. However, if you wanna make sure that the app development company delivers a great quality product, you have to take this rule of thumb to the core. Have a look at their testimonials, check out their reviews on the internet, you get the idea. 

<b>Do They Follow The Agile Food Ordering App Development Process?</b>
This is a very crucial part of any project. The agile process helps in keeping a tab over the latest project milestones and the problems during the progress at every step. Agile app process helps in understanding your requirements better and help you with the project completion in the best possible way. 

<b>Do The Developers Follow The Standard Coding And Utilize The Latest Frameworks? </b>
Any app development company you choose, must provide you with the best development service. Considering it all involves business analysis, lean app development, quality assurance by continuous testing, and launch of the app, there must be a standard coding and latest framework that they follow. 

<b>What Technologies Are Developers Following?</b>
For a more reliant, secured and performance efficient food delivery app like Grubhub and Seamless, native platforms like Android and iOS provide great payment gateway integration SDKs. To get detailed information about the restaurants and food corners, <a href="https://www.resourcifi.com/hire-ios-developer/">hire iOS developer</a> that will explain you the same in great detail.

To make business processes more flexible, you can use JavaScript on both frontend and backend. MERN Stack commonly comprises of Mongo, Express, <a href="https://www.resourcifi.com/hire-reactjs-developer/">React</a> and Node are the most widely used tech stack today for better performance, single page application creation, scalability and a lot more. 

<b>Conclusion</b>

In short – you should stop second guessing and start planning to make a food delivery app right away. From recruiting employees, contacting restaurants, to advertising and most importantly – developing the food delivery app right, there’s a lot of work to do. Just take the leap of faith, hire app developer, and things will work out.