The online business of buying goods and services with the ease of delivery to your office or home has been growing for several years, and at the time of pandemics like COVID-19, it accelerated its growth at times. Food delivery services have become a beacon of hope for restaurants amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
At the time of the serious pandemic, when people were terrified to dine at restaurants or other crowded places, food delivery applications enabled restaurants and other food businesses to offer their services. Having food delivered to your home has become a hassle-free, quick, and, most importantly, safe means of eating one’s favorite food.
Some research shows that after the terror-stricken pandemic, the world has seen a marked increase in the choice of takeaways, and online ordering, over restaurant dining. By seeing this increasing demand entrepreneurs come with some new amazing food delivery app features for the ease of customer.
Food ordering and delivery services have become very common over the years. Now, people prefer ordering food online more than dining in restaurants. Although pandemics have played a role in increasing the demand for food delivery apps, one of the main reasons is the ease that food delivery apps provide their customers. The high reliability and ease of use are also reasons why the online food delivery market is drastically growing.
As per the Statista report, the food delivery app market is expected to generate revenue of $449,292 million by 2025. Due to such figures, it is no surprise that restaurant owners are trying their best to develop an application that helps them shine in the digital world.
If you are a restaurant owner and are seeking to build a promising food delivery app. In that case, this article will give you a brief overview of the necessary features that you should add to your application.
Features of a Food Delivery App That Every Restaurant App Should Have
Due to the high demand for food delivery applications, restaurant owners are starting to perceive the value of a professional food delivery app and the impact it can have on their business. The food delivery service app is an excellent tool for launching campaigns and informing your customers about special events, discounts, and offers, as well as your restaurant’s new menu.
But what features should you add to your application that help your business attract new customers, retain old ones, and boost your business revenue? Here we guide you through all the essential features you should adopt for your food delivery app.
1. Push Notification On Food Delivery App
With the occurrence of the digital era, every business owner is trying to stay in the competition of online business. Food delivery services are one of those competitors. With the growing demand for online food ordering systems, it is quite understandable that customers have multiple food delivery applications on their phones.
Sending a push notification to your customers is the best way to gain attention and remain one step ahead of your competitors. It helps business owners stay in touch with their customers. The push notification on your app can be used to send various types of information, like special offers, discounts, and location-based order drop messages.
But one thing that needs your attention is that the push notification on your food ordering application must provide value to customers rather than just be a sales pitch. Try to manage push notifications in a way that aids the considerable growth of your business app.
Send notifications to your customers about the latest deals, discounts, and loyalty programs. By implementing this strategy, you can immediately attract customers’ attention and engage them in this way.
2. Build a Relationship With a Loyalty Program
Customers are the core value of every business; there would be no one to buy your products and services without customers. Businesses with a customer-oriented approach must treat their loyal customers and make them feel special.
Here we are not talking about any kind of expensive awards, but a well-planned loyalty program that can boost the customer’s engagement in your application and increase their transactions. You can choose a loyalty program that perfectly fits your business needs. Offering special prices, coupons, and discounts are some of the most effective ways you can use to attract new users.
3. Real-Time GPS Tracking
Nowadays, customers want eased access to everything. With the arrival of high-tech networks like 4G and 5G, they want everything with ease and without patience. Many online businesses have started featuring GMP in their applications to deal with today’s impatient customers.
Because it allows customers to easily track their orders. The same goes for the food delivery application. Customers can easily track the location of their food by using real-time GPS, which is one of the essential features of the food delivery app.
The goal of featuring GPS in the food delivery app is to provide two-way tracking and operation. It helps users simply follow the delivery person’s status and movements once the order is confirmed.
4. Ordering
Statistics show that more than 112 million Americans use food delivery services, and the online food delivery industry generates more than $26.5 billion. It has been estimated that by the year 2024, online food delivery services will be a $32 billion industry.
As said earlier, today, convenience is increasingly important to customers, especially among younger generations, who are becoming a larger portion of the consumer population. Youngsters prefer to order their favorite foods wherever they want and order and pay for them with the click of a button.
With this increasing demand for food delivery applications, it is necessary to have the entire menu listed in the mobile app so that customers can see what you have on your menu and what they can order. It is even better to display some images of all the dishes to attract users’ attention.
5. Easy Payment Methods Through Digital Wallet/Mobile Payments
Payments play a crucial role in enhancing the user experience of your food delivery app. Give options for your potential customers to pay directly from their phones and let them enjoy the meal without wallets.
In 2021, the global mobile payments market volume will amount to $1,326 billion (as opposed to $ 1,100 billion in 2020).
Its growth is because of the security and convenience it provides to customers for smartphone payment. You can use any accessible payment gateways or mobile wallet software services, like Google Wallet, iOS Paypal account, Apple Pay, Mastercard, Debit/Credit cards, internet banking, and cash on delivery options.
6. Search Filters
Customers always choose applications that are easy to use and save them time. So, adding a search filter to your application is a great option as customers always appreciate the ease that a sophisticated search feature with numerous criteria may provide.
You can categorize your food items and add a search filter so customers can easily find what they are craving to eat. For instance, you can make a different category for baked items, sweets, starters, veg and non-veg, etc.
Final Words
There is no doubt that food delivery apps have made dining hassle-free for customers. Now they can order food in the comfort of their homes and avoid flocking to crowded restaurants. By adding above food delivery app features to applications, restaurant owners or other food delivery businesses can increase their sales and grow their annual revenue by a huge margin.
If you also own a restaurant chain, or are thinking of starting one, you should give a short to digitize your business by building a mobile app. You can take the help of a professional mobile app development team and share your requirements with them so they can advise the best for your business.
