The Outbreak of the novel Coronavirus has led people to socially order and distance food online with a contactless home delivery option as the new normal. Having a ready-to-use food delivery app has become a need for all the restaurants to be in business. Thankfully, with the advent of the digital era, restaurants are going digital and making the lives of people easier, faster, and convenient.
So, if you’re a restaurant owner, about to develop your own food delivery app this is the correct time to begin. Always keeping in view the demand of on-line food delivery and current crisis, this is the time to have an easily personalized food delivery app which would help your consumers order food even more seamless, faster, and convenient.
Now that you have opted to create a food delivery app for your restaurant, the next thing to decide on is what essential features to put in it? Since it is your own brand app, you can include as many features as you want, but you shouldn’t compromise on some important features. Thus, we have compiled a list of the most important features for the food delivery app development.
Onboarding With OTP & True Caller Integration
Offer your consumers a seamless onboarding experience with a single-click login wherein a one Time Pin (OTP) is generated to enable and complete the user profile creation process.
You can also ensure a hassle-free first-time experience by offering your consumers an easier to verify and register procedure with a single click and eliminating any need for OTP verification. Truecaller is wide used and incorporates a pool of over one hundred fifty million users in India, with mobile numbers already verified. As presently because the client lands on the login screen, you’ll be able to invoke Verification via Truecaller, and onboard users within seconds in one tap.
GPS Based & Locality Based Store Selection
Thus, it is important to provide consumers easy access to find restaurants in the area using their GPS. Using GPS based or locality based store selection helps customers find the nearest outlet and making sure on-time delivery.
New Age Menu
Add unlimited products, categories, and options for toppings to give your customers a professional ordering experience. Every customer wants customization! You can offer them a customized menu with options in which they can search the menu by name and filter the menus by veg/non-veg filters. You can also display the review rating of individual items, which can be used as a deciding factor by the customer while placing the order.
A consumer is more likely to order from an app that shows a menu that includes photos of every dish. As per research, image-based menus on an online ordering system increase their sale rate by 25%, compared to text menu. Items that have images next to them, can change consumers’ intent to actually order the food, compared to those without. Ensure that each category and item have pictures displaying the same.
Options To Customize the Home Screen
As per your business need and marketing tactic the home screen of your Brand App should be intuitive, user-friendly, and showcase your brand vision. Your brand app should have the capability to incorporate industry-wide use cases to place and customize placement of your products, marketing banners, customized order status, trending items, featured items, one-click reordering feature, and other relevant widgets for better user experience and engagement. You can customize the outlet home with different layouts, various static and carousel banners, multiple widgets with different functionality, and much more.
Promo & Offer Management
Execute smart and effective mobile marketing strategies by offering promos and offers within the app. The mobile-only promos & offers can help drive app downloads and increase sales. Make sure these offers will only be found and used once ordering through the mobile app, therefore it encourages people to stay the app installed on their devices. you’ll be able to also personalize the offers supported demographics, order history, events, and more to encourage repeat sales and develop complete loyalty and engagement.
Simplify The Order Placement Process
Consumers prefer to order online because of convenience. GPS based address locator, saving past orders, saving multiple delivery addresses, partial payment details, and other relevant information in the control panel can quicken the on-line order processing.
Different Ordering Options
Add different types of ordering options to enhance the ordering experience. Consumers should be able to order their favorite meal by remote through your app, pay on-line, and select a delivery method – Home Delivery, Self Pick up/ Takeaway or In-Car Dine. You can also offer them contactless dining by setting up the ‘Scan-Order-Pay’ feature. Using this feature, consumers can easily place an order by scanning the QR code and pay online while maintaining social distancing.
Multiple Payment Options & Payment Gateway Integration
Provide customers the ease of payment by including multiple payment options like online payment through UPI, Payment Gateway, Credit/Debit Card, or Cash on delivery. Statista report that by 2022, the transaction value of mobile payment apps will reach close to $14 trillion. Thus, providing the flexibility to pay for their orders in advance using the on-line payment method takes consumer convenience one step ahead.
Also, for commercial mobile apps payment gateway is essential. So, you can use 3rd party mobile payment gateway service providers and integrate a payment gateway into your app via SDK (software development kit) as one of the existing in-app payment solutions to your app. The third-party mobile payment gateway providers will conduct all transactions with banks, secure consumer data, and be responsible for payment transactions.
Brand Loyalty Wallet: Cashback & Milestone Based
Value-seeking customers want to be rewarded for their loyalty to your service. Influence your customer’s lifecycle by rewarding them and developing a community of loyal members. Reward your customers with a loyalty wallet and cashback so that they keep coming back to you. You can set up specials to attract new customers, or offer rewards to frequent consumers, top-spending consumers, and more. You can also keep your customers hooked to your loyalty program with milestone-based rewards and personalized referral bonuses.
Consumer Feedback, Rating & Reviews
Consumers Feedback, rating, and reviews are the simplest and most efficient way of getting insights to improve your app. Customers should be able to rate and review the restaurant as well as each dish on the menu. Also, give them an option to search for the dishes using consumer feedback filter or top picks.
It is imperative to continuously review and make required changes in your app to always keep yourself up with the competing brands. And, who would be the best to review and suggest changes than the users on their own? When a consumer has received their order, send a thank you SMS with a link that lands him on feedback screen in your app wherein he can share his experience, recommendations, and review. It is the easiest way to improve your brand app and enhance user experience.
Real-Time Tracking The Order
After a successful order, the consumer should be able to track the order progress in real-time through the mobile app. The feature of displaying an approximated delivery time and the movement of the delivery rider will not only make the delivery process more streamlined but would also generate powerful consumer loyalty.
Conclusion
Whether you are a restaurant owner looking to create a brand existence, create revenue, and improve customer loyalty or you are a business owner investing in a venture of online food ordering– the above features are a must to include in your food delivery app.
With a team of experienced and highly talented people, Uengage offers a seamless experience and brilliantly designed interface for your customers. We can build a feature-rich mobile app for your restaurant/brand with an unmatched digital presence in a mobile-first world.
For Questions on Your Technology Needs
You can set up specials to attract new customers, or offer rewards to frequent consumers, top-spending consumers, and more. When a consumer has received their order, send a thank you SMS with a link that lands him on reviews screen in your app wherein he can share his experience, suggestions, and review. You can also leverage the power of OTP based delivery confirmation and provide regular updates to consumers regarding their order.