Nowadays, we have tools for optimizing housekeeping: our contemporaries are getting used to online ordering of meals and beverages or booking tables in their favorite places. Some accumulate scores in the discount/loyalty programs to change them on the free meals. Many catering establishments use apps for optimizing their workflows: juggling orders, communicating with vendors or promoting new services/goods. The wide intervention of technology influences people's lifestyles.
The global food-tech segment is expanding by leaps and bounds, and analysts forecast it to exceed $1.45tn by 2027. So, if you feel a deep interest in making people happy with innovative services honed to ease their everyday routine, examining the particularities of restaurant mobile app development will be useful. The Purrweb team are the experts who launched hundreds of products in the market, and they will give you practical support in the issues concerning inventing programs on the crest of the wave of a trend.
Since almost 70% of US citizens can't imagine their life without online ordering tools, the restaurant mobile app runs the risk of being a promising business perspective under the circumstances. The projected increasing market volume serves as a signal for the space to raise a trendy startup.
Multi-restaurant apps: hidden benefits
A single-restaurant app can be felt as a burden if the entrepreneur can't invest enough into the project or doesn't have the desire to be tied to a certain business.
Multi-restaurant apps work as an intermediary when connecting miscellaneous food places with lovers to eat out, couriers-drivers, or suppliers. When it comes to selecting the type of app to create, such a variant seems to be the most promising: the more participants will join the service, the more skyrocketed growth of shows. If you're planning to learn more about solutions of that type, focus on researching Wolt, Bolt Food, GrubHub, and other similar solutions.
Let's give into the issue and figure out which particularities can distinguish the platforms from each other.
First of all, define who and why will use the product: drivers and couriers to track the orders and manage logistics, or vendors who supply the restaurants with stockpiles of provisions.
The highly sought-after alternative of that restaurant mobile app is a software product honed for getting meals and beverages from restaurants. Have you ever had an experience of exploiting a service to order pizza/drinks to your place? One of the nationally recognized services for juggling food orders is DoorDash. Ten years ago it was performed as an MVP connecting sweets shops with the audience. The growth was unexpectedly bursting. Focusing on minimalism in impressive design and very fast navigation, the platform won the competition among other services since it gained 57% of the market volume in the USA.
"Ingredients": how to select them for a startup
What's the receipt of a restaurant mobile app adored by people? Eye-pleasing design paired with sought-after functionality and creative marketing strategy. The average customer-addressed restaurant mobile app usually includes the next set of functions.
Welcome page
This is an invitation into the service: so create it teasing and intriguing. And let customers know at first glance what your offer is about.
Registration form
Take into account that there are several groups of users for a restaurant mobile app. The function will be tailored differently for various addressees: restaurant representatives, couriers, and customers.
Customer profile
The inner space where the client can see all the information related to his orders: about his location, payment status of orders, and so on.
Restaurant catalog/Menu
The showcase of the institution where the customer can filter what he exactly wants.
It should include an ordering functionality that depicts the items that the customer is planning to acquire, and the other side of the service is the panel where the courier can see the turn of orders with their details (cost, destination, etc).
Favorites system
Sometimes a customer isn't ready to place an order instantly but he wants to save the selected positions for the future orders. In such a case the favorites list is an opportunity for effortless ordering when the time comes.
In-app payment service
Though payments with credit/debit cards is the widespread approach, consider also Apple Pay/Google Pay/cash options. If the law in your country allows and you want to build an advanced service, oversee cryptocurrency payment.
Loyalty program
People who often prefer your product hope for rewarding options. Let customers accumulate scores for orders that can be exchanged later on free meals and customized gifts. Loyalty programs are a simple way to increase the competitiveness of your service.
Push notifications
They let customers to track their orders as well as inform them about auctions and discounts that the service can offer. For boosting customers retention in the
restaurant mobile app and improving their level of satisfaction, include the functionality in the list.
5 steps towards creating a product
Planning a restaurant mobile app, try to articulate exactly who will use it, how, and why. When you have a solid vision of the product, quote its estimation in the agency you've selected from a variety of companies.
Project estimation
You should be aware of how much time and how much money the project will take. As a rule, the preliminary evaluation is free. If the contractor is determined, and the budget and timeframe fit you, get over to the prototyping.
Devising UI UX design
All the ideas should be structured and organized into a set of wireframes. The design team will draw the screens with all the required elements: slides, buttons, fonts, icons, and disposition of the elements as well as colors and styles. When the concept is agreed upon, the team creates and hands you a UI kit for an app that will be irreplaceable for scaling in the future.
Preparing an MVP
The development team will fledge the core functionality into a working solution. Two-week sprints will lead the team to the goal by presenting results at every step.
When all the tasks are completed, you'll see the fully functional product.
QA services
Never try to introduce a sloppy product to the public since there's no chance to impress people twice. QA engineers are the ones who prevent potential bugs and drawbacks before the user faces them. Just when all the problems are solved, the app can be presented to the audience.
Post-launch support
Regular updates are a mandatory part of the life cycle of product development. Make sure that your team is ready to support and polish the result of mutual work: after gathering feedback, it can turn out that the restaurant mobile app requires some alterations or adding/changing some features like new languages/locations for scaling.
Monetization strategies
How to organize a restaurant mobile app in a way that leads to profit growth?
The spectrum of monetization schemes can include:
In-app purchases – let customers acquire specific branded housekeeping goods, recipe books, candies, species, or something else.
Subscription plans or per-order fees – hungry customers are willing to pay for timely deliveries and even tips for high-fidelity services. Consider the subscription model for regular deliveries or charge per order.
Club cards – the membership can captivate them with personalized discounts or conditions of delivery like fifteen-minute delivery, free-of-charge bonus delivery, etc.
Charging fees from restaurants – per joining the platform, per setting the listings or per order processing. Plugging into the platform new clients, charge them for the presented opportunities. What's more interesting: the percentage for each deal or subscription plan including a specific package of services you can figure out with A/B testing.
Third-party advertising – offers access to the audience to the merchants who are interested in the promotion of their goods/services. Prefer the businesses which are complementary and non-competitive to your own enterprise.
This overview depicts not an entire picture of the opportunities related to the restaurant mobile app. You can transfer your experience from other niches or combine several ideas in order to deliver a fully innovative solution attracting the attention of the public.
