Imagine you want to eat an icecream or drink a milkshake instantly from your favorite restaurant. But, the condition is that you do not want to go out. Your first option would be using an online food ordering app like Zomato & Swiggy. With millions of users actively using these applications, some entrepreneurs are targeting building such applications. However, they do want to know important information before developing the app.

What is an online food ordering app?

In the world of smartphones where users love performing their majority of activities on it, on-demand online food delivery applications are popular. With these applications, users are able to order their desired food items anytime from anywhere. And, once the order is made, it is delivered to the users right on their doorsteps. A food delivery application brings convenience and flexibility to the users. To build such applications entrepreneurs have to consult a food ordering mobile app development agency and discuss their idea to build a robust application.

Little bit history about online food delivery

Have you heard the name Pizza Hut? It is one of the oldest and most popular names in the food & restaurant department. The company started online food ordering in 1994. Later with the penetration of smartphones, major pizza chains built their own mobile applications. More entrepreneurs are targeting the food industry by hiring the best online food delivery app development company to launch their food ordering app. Today applications like Zomato and Swiggy have acquired a large portion of the market. 

About Zomato and Swiggy food ordering apps

For over a decade Zomato has been empowering customers in discovering new tastes and experiences across India. The application connects restaurants, customers and delivery partners serving all their needs. With the app users order food from nearby restaurants or choice of their restaurants and delivery partners deliver the food items right on customer’s doorsteps.

The business model is the same with Swiggy. It was launched in 2013 after Zomato.  Today the application has 20 million monthly active users and the app has 100 million + downloads with 4.5 ratings on play store.

How to build apps like Zomato and Swiggy with Key features?

While building an app like Zomato and Swiggy you have to consider key features. The below list is a blend of features and steps that are important to add while building an online food ordering app.

• Market research: You must know what your audience needs as an online food delivery application. This will strengthen your mission and vision.
• Login and Signup: It is the first screen that all your entities will view when they open the app for the first time. Your application must have a straightforward process for login and registration. Letting users login through phone numbers by adding the option to auto read the verification codes brings a great user experience. Login and signup should not take more than 30 seconds for the users.
• Restaurant listing: Now another important functionality that you have to focus on is the listing of restaurants. Users should be able to browse through the restaurants near them or search their favorite restaurant easily with auto suggestions coming as they type. Reviews and ratings should be available with every restaurant.
• Profile: This feature lets users save restaurants and access order history. It also shows the payment history for the users for further connivence.
• Navigation: Where is the delivery partner and how long will it take to deliver the food? These are some stats that users want to view. Navigation should be accurate. 
• Menu: Users view items in physical restaurants through the menu. Online food delivery apps should show a menu which is up to date and clear to read without any confusions. Photos and other visual elements make the user experience better and better.
• Payment: Credit cards, debit cards, and wallets are some of the major modes of payments for the users. Ensure that you offer strong security to the users with respect to payments.
• Push notifications: What is new in the menus? Or what is  in the discounted rates? Zomato has excelled the push notifications marketing and you must embed this feature in your application to use it as a marketing tool.

Key pointers to consider while building your online food delivery application

While building an application like Zomato and Swiggy there are some key pointers that you can keep in mind. However, the first key consideration always remains finding an expert restaurant mobile app developers in India to build a leading product.

1. Build a great user experience if you want to match the zomato and swiggy standards. From design to ease of user, everything should be picked by you with thorough research.
2. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are some of the social media platforms that you must integrate letting users showcase their delighted meals.
3. Attract the audience by building some unique features that make you stand apart from swiggy and zomato apps.
4. Embed an effective marketing strategy. Hiring a marketing team is always a bonus since the more your product reaches audiences, the more revenue you generate.

Costing and Timeframe considerations

What about the costing and timeframe? App development costing depends upon multiple factors. These include the location of your app development partner, the experts they are deploying in your project, your requirements of features and more. An online food delivering application will cost you from $40,000 to $100,00 or more.

Regarding the timeframe, it highly depends upon your requirements. Because a food ordering mobile app development agency asks you the timeframe. If it is close enough they will deploy more resources on your project. However, do not accept that your application will be ready in 3 months.

So making clear discussions about the costing and time frame becomes prominent while building an app like Zomato and Swiggy. Also, extensively describe and understand your key features because an understanding would result in developing better applications. So, go for it! Build your app since it’s a sustainable app idea.

Meta Description: While building an app like Zomato and Swiggy you have to consider key features. In this blog, we have shared eatures and steps that are important to add while building an online food ordering app.