Online Food Ordering, a three-letter word but generating billions in revenue. Some years back, there are fewer internet users, the e-commerce industry is not that big, mobile data was expensive as compared to now and people used to go out for shopping and dining. There were some apps that deliver goods online and some food apps also. Talking about Zomato, they started as a review portal for restaurants. People used it to know which restaurant is good, which provides quality food and which has the best-rated cuisine. But then a sudden change happened. In not more than 2-3 years, a sudden boom occurred in the e-commerce industry. Now everyone got a Smartphone, some have more than one. The internet availability, online payment methods, all these features made the internet and mobile app industry so much big that now people used to perform almost every task on their Smartphones. Online Food Ordering is one of them. Some Mobile apps providing abundant of features to the customer sitting at home such that he/she can now order food from home in just 2-3 taps. Apps like Swiggy,Zomato, GrubHub, UberEats started delivering food online and then there is no looking back. Stats says, in 2018 only, online food ordering generated billions in revenue and this will only increase in the near future. But what made these apps so much big. Of course, the customers and restaurants, but the features they are providing play a crucial role.
Today we will discuss the must-have features for online food ordering mobile app. If you are a restaurant owner, then you are probably thinking of having an online food ordering app for your restaurant. And why not! If execution is done right, you can grow your sale up to ten times. The more features you provide to the user, the more they will engage and the fewer efforts they need to put in. These successful apps made it so much easy for the user to order the food they love. We are describing all the must-have features for an Online Food Delivery App below.
PERSONALIZED MENU OPTIONS:
What if you want to order a Chinese cuisine and the app keep on showing the Italian and Thai dishes. You are pure vegetarian and there are more non-vegetarian options displaying in your menu. You will get frustrated in no time and even may uninstall the app. That’s where the companies like UberEats and other dominating. They provide user personalized menu option such that if he wants to order Chinese, only Chinese dishes will come. This is the personalization everyone wants. You can put filters like cuisine type, rating wise menu, price range and so on. This way, you can make loyal customers who will stick to your app no matter what.
PUSH NOTIFICATIONS:
Well, push notifications are like sugar. Tastes amazing if used in limited quantity and if used too much, can ruin the taste. Same with the push notifications feature in your Online Food Ordering App. It is a must-have feature as it can do miracles. Just use it wisely. Don’t send a notification every time, the customer will be fed up and will result in uninstalling the app. Instead, use technologies such that when the user interacts most with the app, it will send the notification. Ask user if he/she wants to get notifications in the form of text messages, emails or push notifications. Sending creative push notifications rather being boring can help you convert your window shoppers to actual buyers.
LOCATION TRACKING IN REAL TIME:
You have an amazing menu full of dishes of all kinds. The user came, ordered. That’s it! Nothing else. If you are thinking the same, you should rethink. After ordering, the user gets more excited and wants to know everything about his/her order. Whether the restaurant has accepted the order or not, it is prepared or preparing. Then came this cool feature almost every giant food delivery app company is using. Location Tracking. You don’t need to tell the user about the location. This feature will show the user everything like when the delivery boy reached the restaurant, when he left, where he is now, how much time will he take to reach your location. The location tracking feature is a must have because it will give the user the ease in ordering. When you see the live tracking, you don’t need to be curious. Just track and even do some pending tasks in the meantime.
KITCHEN MANAGEMENT:
Kitchen Management is a backend feature but as important as the front end features. The Chef and the waiters can communicate or coordinate more effectively through this feature. The inventory can be managed properly. Waiters can coordinate with chefs very well such that there are fewer chances of miscommunication and more chances of orders being executed in a better way.
DEALS, OFFERS AND LOYALTY POINTS:
Who doesn’t like offers and coupons? If you are developing an online food Ordering service app, then you must consider this feature. Deal and offers are a way to attract more customers and generate more revenue. The customers after getting discounts and loyalty points will become happy and then they do marketing by mouth. Yes, that’s most effective and the best part is, it’s totally free. You can generate different types of coupons based upon location, festive season, etc. A loyalty program can be initiated where customers will get reward points when they order something from the app. It results in more income and more profits. And moreover, the customers will come back to redeem those points. So, a must-have feature like this must not be missed in a food ordering app.
PAYMENT OPTIONS AND INTEGRATION:
Food ordering online has now a craze. People went crazy when payments went online. At the initial phase, there were very few users paying online to e-commerce websites but the time has changed completely. With ample of mobile wallet services and apps, its lot more easy to send and receive payments online. That’s why this payment integration feature can’t be missed here. You have to provide flexibility to the user so that he/she can pay for the order as per his/her choice. There should be every possible payment method implemented. Whether it be by card, via internet banking, through mobile wallets or by cash. Just make the customer feel comfortable and then see the results.
CONCLUSION:
After considering all the ways, we came to the conclusion that an Online Food Ordering Mobile App can do miracles to a small business if the important features listed above are implemented accurately. It may look a little difficult to execute this plan and develop an Online Food Delivery Service app or we can say, an On Demand App for Food Ordering Online. But the long term results are fascinating. There are a lot more features which are important too. We have listed here the most important that a food delivery app must have. We, at Meander Software Private Limited, develop high-quality apps loaded with features. If you are looking to scale your business digitally, consider us and we promise we will never let you down. Contact Us for any Query at hi@meander.software
