How to Develop An Food Delivery App like DoorDash – Step By Step Guide

Updated 14 Mar 2024
Published 01 Jun 2022
Satyam Chaturvedi 2618 Views
on demand food delivery app

Many people rely on their cell phones to get services delivered to their doorsteps quickly and reliably. The growing use of mobile devices has resulted in an increase in the demand for on-demand food delivery mobile app like DoorDash.

After the epidemic, many organizations, especially those in the food business, have had difficulty adjusting to the new normal standards. Some small firms have been forced to shut down their doors, but others have seen enormous growth in their industries.

As people fight to maintain social distance, it is vital that food service providers supply high-quality products and services in a timely manner. Smartphones have become the device of choice for almost everyone in the modern world.

DoorDash serves 7,000+ cities across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

According to a report by Reportlinker, the food delivery industry is expected to generate $196,258 million in 2022. By 2024, the market for on-demand food delivery apps is estimated to be worth $352,169 million, with an annual growth rate of 9.8%.

Food delivery is a large-scale industry that is taking over Asia and Europe. China is a leader in food delivery, and America is the second-largest market in the food industry. It is estimated that 59% of smartphone users will use food delivery apps by 2023.

Food Delivery App Users
Image Credit: insiderintelligence.com

Is it Worthy investing in a Food Delivery App like Doordash in 2024?

Potential for Growth in the Future

Technological innovation in the food industry may help it adapt to changing consumer preferences. It’s expected that the food industry will grow at a 9% CAGR over the next five years.

A surge in on-demand food delivery apps may be foreseen this way. Developing an app like DoorDash is a key approach for sustaining the digital domain in the future.

Mobile Food Delivery Apps are Growing in Popularity

The public is asked to abide by the government’s stringent regulations in light of the global pandemic’s implications. Everyday life is becoming much more dependent on digital gadgets, such as smartphones.

In the past few years, consumers have been more eager to buy goods and services online rather than merely browsing.

Entrepreneurs must now serve a wider range of customers than they did in the past. It’s clear that now is the best time to set up a mobile app for your foodservice business.

Food Delivery App like Doordash

Cloud Cuisine

Using apps like DoorDash, businesses can build partnerships with professional kitchens and market their virtual restaurants by connecting them with consumers.

The concept of a cloud kitchen has long been opposed by traditional kitchens. However, food companies are now considering alternatives, such as cloud kitchens, to enhance sales and profitability as a result of continuous technological advances.

Enhances Transparency

On a global scale, food delivery applications have already gained widespread acclaim and appeal. Technological advancements benefit the food sector by providing appropriate transparency to suppliers and customers.

Improved Customer Retention

A company’s most often-cited goal is to keep its current customers happy. Using a customized on-demand app like DoorDash, companies may increase the number of repeat customers while also building strong customer connections.

Food Delivery Applications: Types Of Models

Types of food delivery apps models

1. Aggregator Model

Delivery services based on aggregators have been offered for more than a decade. They serve as a vital link between guests and their favorite restaurants. These applications take orders from clients and send them to restaurants, which then deliver the food.

Restaurants are exclusively responsible for providing meals to consumers. These apps are ideal for large restaurants with an established delivery infrastructure.

2. Logistics Support Model

Along with the features stated above, this strategy incorporates delivery services. Food from recognized restaurants is picked up and delivered directly to the home of the client by a third-party delivery service.

Since these applications may be used by restaurants that don’t have their own delivery service, they have bigger market potential.

It’s safe to say that aggregator applications aren’t economically feasible any longer. Consequently, you should focus on this idea if you want to establish a profitable meal delivery service.

3. Restaurant-Specific Model

This sort of application adds value to the business. A renowned restaurant with a well-established meal distribution system is best suited for this approach to food ordering. When restaurant owners launch their own apps, they make it easier for their consumers to order their favorite foods.

Understanding the Business Model of Doordash

Entrepreneurs who want to start a food delivery business need to understand how they make money. Decide on your company’s approach using the model:

Business Model of Doordash

Commission On Every Order

DoorDash is a meal delivery service that brings restaurant cuisine right to your door. This is a significant source of revenue for the food industry. Restaurant owners pay DoorDash 15% to 30% commissions on every order.

Customers on the basic plan are charged higher delivery rates and are limited to a smaller region of service. The least expensive premium package ensures a minimum of 20 free deliveries per month for customers.

Restaurant Advertising

Everyone wants to be at the top of the search results list. Consequently, Doordash leverages the advantage of this race among other food suppliers. For advertising and promotion on the app, the meal delivery service charges a premium per month. It enables the restaurants to be at the top of the list and to offer large discounts.

Delivery Fees

Drivers, or “Dashers,” are employed by DoorDash to guarantee safe and timely meal delivery. Customers are charged delivery fees based on the distance traveled by Dashers. Delivery costs range from $5 to $8 for each order on average.

DoorDash Revenue

DoorDash Overview

Launch date July 2013
HQ San Francisco, California
People Tony Xu (CEO), Andy Fang (CTO), Parbir Adarkar (CFO), Christopher Payne (COO)
Business type Private
Industry Food delivery

DoorDash Annual Revenue

Year Revenue
2017 $0.11 billion
2018 $0.55 billion
2019 $0.85 billion
2020 $2.88 billion
2021 $4.88 billion

DoorDash Profit

Year Revenue
2018 ($204 million)
2019 ($667 million)
2020 ($461 million)
2021 ($468 million)

DoorDash Users

Year Revenue
2018 4 million
2019 10 million
2020 20 million
2021 25 million

DashPass Subscribers

Year Revenue
2019 0.8 million
2020 1.5 million
2021 5 million

DoorDash Restaurants

Year Revenue
2017 59,000
2018 100,000
2019 258,000
2020 340,000
2021 390,000

Step-By-Step Development Process of Doordash App

Mobile app development requires a great deal of research and preparation. If you want to create an effective app, you need to understand each phase of development.

Here is a step-by-step guide to building a meal delivery app:

Development Process of Doordash App

Here is a step-by-step guide to building a meal delivery app:

1.  Examine and Analyze the Market to the Extent Possible

To begin, devote time and resources to learning about the industry and gathering relevant data. This may be accomplished by looking up information on the web or by having access to publicly available records.

It must be thorough and accurate in order to make the most use of resources. You may begin by gaining an understanding of your competition, the demographics of your target market, and the location of the supermarkets.

  • Choose a market for the product’s launch.
  • Become familiar with the whole market size and delivery executives in the industry.
  • A good way to figure out the worth of marketplaces is to track how much money each transaction costs your customers.
  • Consider which food delivery segments can benefit from the adoption of digital technology.
  • Finally, focus on the appropriate approach to building the application.

2. Choose a Company Strategy and a P/E Ratio

You must first develop a business strategy for your concept before publishing an app similar to DoorDash. Differentiating value propositions, focusing on functionality first, and coming up with a revenue model are all critical.

Promotions, membership programs, selling eCommerce items, or collecting a service charge are all ways to make money.

3. Choosing a Reputable Mobile App Development Company

As the most important step, you should look for a reputable mobile app development company. Development work may be delegated to an IT firm that specializes in developing such mobile apps, or you can use freelancers.

Evaluate the agency’s performance and price with respect to the paradigm they offer in the early stages of the process.

Select the best food delivery mobile app development services for your needs and your budget. Your food delivery app’s design, implementation, testing, and maintenance should be handled by a trustworthy company.

4. Initiate the Development Phase

At this time, your food app ideas are open to shift and evolve on their own accord. Each step has its own set of time, effort, and financial implications.

Budgeting is critical, and you must stick to it at all times. Focus on user experience, customer satisfaction, and secured app development instead of introducing features that are not needed.

5. Choose a Visually Appealing App Design

If you want your customers to quit your competition, you’ll need an eye-catching design template. It must be simple but effective, grab attention, and respond to the demands of the end-user in order to succeed in food industry. It must also appear well on any mobile device.

6. Perform the Appropriate Product Testing

After the food ordering app development and design phases have been finished, look for flaws in the app. Quality assurance must evaluate each functionality to ensure it works properly. A bug-free application is a must-have before it can be released to the public.

7. Market the Food Delivery Application

It’s necessary that you use all of the appropriate marketing channels to get the app’s final version discovered. It is possible to get help from food firms to sell your products by working with influencers and running social media campaigns with them.

The major objective is to build a relationship with the target audience and increase the number of users.

8. Have Scope For Future Maintenance

Every day, technology advances at a breakneck pace. It is critical to maintaining accuracy and efficiency. Selecting a mobile app development agency should include a commitment to ongoing assistance even after the app is out to the market. Keep your app up to date with the most recent changes in your sector if you want to remain relevant.

Features for a Food Delivery App like Doordash

The first step in creating an exceptional online meal delivery app is to become well-versed in the essential features that will direct your work.

The following are just some of the most critical aspects that must be included:

Features of Food Delivery Application

Customize Push Notifications to Deliver Your Own Content

With the rapid growth of online delivery services, mobile phone users are inherently equipped with a wide range of food delivery apps.

Push notifications are the best way to ensure that your brand is seen by as many people as possible. It keeps your company in touch with customers. So make sure that your app alerts are valuable to your customers and not just a sales pitch.

Deals and discount coupons are the most effective strategies to improve relationships with customers. 60% of app users are searching for savings, while 40% are only wanting to accumulate loyalty points.

Discounts, promotions, and loyalty programs should be advertised often to attract new clients. You’ll be able to swiftly grab a customer’s attention using this tactic.

Food Delivery GPS Tracking in Real-Time

For food delivery businesses, the ability for clients to track their food in real-time using GPS is essential. Two-way tracking and management are the primary goals of GPS.

It facilitates the delivery of meals by determining the user’s location. Furthermore, when the location has been confirmed, the customer will be able to follow the delivery person’s progress and activities.

Several Payment Options

For a business owner, timely payments are essential. If customers face any complications during this final stage of the payment procedure, they will never attempt it again. When it comes to making payments, customers should be able to choose from a broad variety of choices.

You can utilize any of the several payment gateways or digital wallets available in the marketplace to take payments. As an alternative, you may provide customers with coupon codes that they can use to save money on future purchases.

Social Media Integration

As expected, social media has become a significant aspect of digital marketing in recent years, which isn’t surprising. It’s critical to keep things simple while trying to make better purchasing decisions.

Customers should be able to easily share images and videos of their favorite meals with friends and family via social media integration. Using social media to spread the word about your app might also help you gain more users.

If customers utilize social media wisely, they may get the most out of it. Promoting client referrals and earning rewards and incentives through social media may be accomplished through loyalty programs. Attracting new clients and converting existing ones into regulars is a fantastic approach.

Reviews and Ratings

As the lifeblood of any business, customers are a top priority for every business. We believe the same is true for you, too.

Feedback from customers helps you better understand the application’s weaknesses. Customer ratings and evaluations are based on what they have recognized as their favourite meals at other restaurants.

By employing this method, organizations may examine how their app functions from the perspective of the end-user. Many users will opt to use your app over your competitors if it has a high rating.

Incorporating an online feedback system gives you access to real-time data that can be utilized to improve the overall consumer experience of your app.

Processing Orders More Efficiently

Most consumers prefer to purchase or order food online since it is fast and handy. The design of a food delivery app must be excellent. User interface (UI) plays a key role in how clients interact with and order items from an app.

build an app like DoorDash

It is critical for users to be able to swiftly and easily find the information they are looking for. The customer experience is negatively impacted when the UI takes too long to load.

In-App Phone Calls

Once an order is placed, customers can reach their assigned delivery person for free to get more information about the delivery’s location and other specifics using the mobile app.

Chatting in the App

It’s easier for customers and delivery workers to stay in touch via in-app chat. Anyone who has a query concerning meal customization or food delivery can get in touch with the restaurant or administration.

Related: How Food Delivery Apps helping in COVID-19 Pandemic?

Development Cost for Food Delivery App like Doordash

The cost for an on-demand food delivery app is neither fixed nor absolute; rather, it changes depending on a wide range of variables that we will analyze. After combining various top-level variables, the overall app development cost is calculated.

The Application’s Complexity

The complexity of a food delivery app development is the primary determinant of its cost. The more complex the application, the more costly it will be to develop.

In many cases, the complexity is pushed by the introduction of new technologies like AR, AI, and ML. Other than technology, the complexity and expense of an app are increased by the app’s numerous features and functionalities.

The Feature Count

How many features you add to an app determines how much it costs. The features are crucial in deciding the price since more functionality means more money spent, and less features mean less money spent.

To further complicate the issue of feature overloading, people are always searching for features that make it easier for them to get what they want, but too many features might make it harder for them to choose from a large number of options.

As a result, the application’s core should consist of only the most necessary functionalities.

The Platform for the Development of Applications

You have the option of launching your app on Android and iOS, or both. It is still cheaper to design iOS software than an Android app because there are more devices to choose from for Android.

It is more important to build the app in such a way that it fits snuggly on smartphones as the number of devices grows.

When developing cross-platform software, you’ll be able to target both sets of clients more effectively. In terms of pros and cons, each platform has its own unique blend.

Location of Application Development

In the United States and Great Britain, food delivery app developers charge between $85 and $290 an hour. Eastern European programmers charge between $60 and $180 an hour.

Indian developers, on the other hand, charge between $25 and $80 an hour for their services. As a result, India is the most cost-effective option when it comes to food delivery application development.

Experts in App Development

To attain the optimum result, you’ll need the help of experts who can take an app idea and turn it into something meaningful. Therefore, your project’s professionals will demand a higher rate of pay than novices or less-experienced employees.

Conclusion 

There is nothing new about the idea of an online food delivery service. Ordering tasty fast-food meals over the phone and having them delivered to one’s home or place of business used to be a common occurrence.

However, with the prevalence of smartphones and affordable internet connectivity, ordering food has never been easier using food delivery apps.

Satyam Chaturvedi

Satyam Chaturvedi is a Digital Marketing Manager at Arka Softwares, a leading app development company dealing in modern and futuristic solutions. He loves to spend his time studying the latest market insights.

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