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Who are we? Foodies!
What do we want? Food!
How much do we love food? A lot!
A Food ordering app is today’s Tinder! The only difference is that there’s no swipe but a scroll, tap, and checkout!
That’s why only Tinder, Instagram during weekends has more cheesy platters than cheesy smiles. That much of a Foodie we are!
Talking about food, even the businesses cannot help but leverage the due advantage of this never-ending demand for food. Yes, we are talking about on-demand food ordering solution.
In recent times, Engineerbabu being a way-to-go for many of our clients across the world has witnessed a visible growth in the demand for developing food ordering mobile apps and that too similar to Zomato. However, not everybody can communicate his or her requirements because Zomato is a big stadium and all that we have seen so far is just from the bleachers.
So, for all my aspiring business buddies, Let me present you a complete guide for building such food ordering apps.
Image source : Dribbble — Alex (Guttenburger)
What should be the business model for building an app like Zomato?
The key stakeholders for an app like Zomato are:
The Restaurant Owners,
The Platform Owner,
And The Delivery Professionals.
The platform owners charge a certain amount of fee from the restaurateurs to get their restaurants listed on the mobile app. When the user places an order, a notification is sent to the restaurateur, the nearest delivery person, and the platform owner. By collaborating at every stage with a powerful algorithm, all the three stakeholders maintain the smooth functioning of the platform for the users.
Zomato does not own any restaurant or chain of delivery services. It coordinates with the third party to plan a supply for the demand that arises.
In order words, it is an on-demand business model for food. So, if you want to build an app like Zomato, you don’t need to have a chain of restaurants as you can create your own brand on such platform. That’s the business ease of building an app like Zomato.
What makes Zomato different from other Food Ordering Mobile Applications?
Most of the food ordering mobile app businesses that exist today are but the basic version of Zomato with a couple of nascent features.
While others are confined till date with just the placing of an order and delivering food, Zomato stands out with the following USP:
- Food ordering: Allowing the users to order their food on-the-go.
- Table Booking: Enabling the users to book a table at the restaurant of their choice with just a few taps and the wait time at the restaurant is eliminated!
- Explore Places: Offering the discovery and guide to the user for exploring nearby restaurants with pictures and map locations.
- Zomato Gold: The subscription model that offers an exclusive dine out and social drinking membership with special perks of its own.
What are the Important features to focus on for building a Mobile App like Zomato?
Zomato was once launched with the most simple functionality. It allowed the users to search for restaurants, look at the menu, and order their food. Later, it developed into a dedicated community for foodies that kept the users coming back to the app. This highly contributed to the engagement rate and ultimately, Zomato became the by-default food ordering app. Then it accelerated to expand with advanced features like booking tables.
All the stakeholders have their own application and the features of all these apps differ. If you want to plan the features for your Zomato-like mobile app, here is a list of features for the five categories of the app:
Features for Web Service
The web service is under the accountability of the platform owner. This means that if you develop a Zomato-like mobile app, you are in charge of handling the web service portal.
Admin Dashboard: To manage the overall functionality and different stakeholders, the admin dashboard has the capability to view the list of the restaurants, the number of users, and the delivery professionals. The admin can add and remove any stakeholder at any point of time using this control panel.
Analytics and Reporting: Data insights and metrics based on the bookings made is shown by generating reports from the app and analysis can be done about the usage times, total number of users on board, demographic data, total number of restaurant listed, number of delivery professionals, profit and loss calculation per week, month, and year, etc.
Image Source: Dribbble (Zomato)
For Delivery Professionals
This app is specifically used by the delivery men. They get a delivery request and as soon as they accept the request from the app, they are provided with the information of the order, restaurant details and the address of the customer.
Trip Information: The delivery man receives the restaurant’s pickup address and the drop details of the user.
Navigation: The app for the delivery men consists of GPS which is integrated into the app for easy navigation. It consists of the route and the total time estimated for the delivery.
Route Optimization: The map integrated with the app helps the delivery professionals with the best possible route where they can beat the traffic and make their deliveries as fast as possible.
Contact User/Restaurant: The app consists of a contact user/ restaurant feature that helps the driver call the concerned stakeholder without having to copy the number and dial it manually.
Start/End Trip: Once the delivery professional accepts the request and begin his trip towards the restaurant, his trip starts. Similarly, another trip begins on his way to make the delivery. This is the basis of the amount he earns per trip.
For User App
As the main source of revenue, it is important that the user app is rich in features. Some of the great features for a Zomato-like user app are:
Social media account integration: For an easy signup process, the users should be able to sign up with their social media accounts.
Search Option: With the help of the search module, the user is able to search for food on the basis of restaurants, cuisines, outlets, dishes, etc.
Call Restaurant/ Driver: By using the call feature, the user will be able to make a call directly to the restaurant/Driver in case of any specific instructions to give against their order.
Multiple Payment Options: The users should be able to make their payments using multiple options like Debit Card, Credit Card, Cash on delivery, Mobile wallets, etc.
Notifications: The user gets a push notification about their order, trending search, favorite restaurant, etc.
Track Driver: With the help of ‘track driver’ feature, the user is able to access the map integrated into the app and track the status of their food.
Show Veg Option: The user app has the option which will filter out the veg and non-veg dishes for the users.
Real-time Availability: The online reservation system of the app allows the user to check the availability of the tables in real-time and make the booking.
Social Community:
The app allows its users to integrate their social media handles for creating their profiles. The users can connect with each other, follow and make recommendations on cuisines, dishes, puns, restaurants, etc.
Pertaining to the ease provided by these features, many startups are pacing towards building an ace of a Zomato-like mobile app.
Disclaimer
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