How to Create a Food Delivery App Like Uber Eats From Scratch?

The need for food delivery app development has exploded, according to the current market analysis of the food industry. This wouldn’t have been conceivable if a food company like Uber Eats had put out the effort to design a user experience that is convenient and aesthetically pleasing to food enthusiasts.

Uber Eats is the most commonly used meal delivery service, operating on six continents and ranking top or second in gross in the majority of nations, according to a report. It’s predicted that the market for meal delivery apps would grow to $320 billion by 2029.

Knowing the essentials of food delivery app development services is the first step to starting a successful food business since, based on this, we are confident that the market for the food sector will grow.

We thus intend to provide a comprehensive tutorial on how to build an Uber Eats-style food delivery service in this blog. Let’s jump right in!

Why is the market for food delivery apps always booming?

Convenience is the obvious driving force behind the ongoing development and demand for meal delivery apps. This is true for almost everything in life, including the television shows and movies we watch, the music we listen to, the video games we play, and yes, even the food we consume. The growth of meal delivery apps like Deliveroo Glovo and Uber Eats may be largely attributable to this.

As an illustration, when was the last time you saw a busy movie rental shop in your neighborhood? Well, the great majority of those companies went out of business once Netflix and other video streaming services came on the scene.

If you choose to ignore the emergence of mobile food delivery app services, your food business can experience the same unfortunate outcome, as harsh as it may seem.

Business Model for Uber Eats

The UberEats app functions in two separate ways as a restaurant aggregator and delivery service:

1. Using a single app to list partners’ restaurants, UberEats follows a conventional approach to meal delivery.
2. Deliveries from restaurants without a food order app development option are also handled by UberEats utilizing its own logistics network.

The following are some of the application’s standout attributes for meal delivery:

1. Recommendations
2. In-depth search
3. Order tracking 
4. Delivery information

Important Components of a Successful Food Delivery App

Important note the numerous components that go into curating an on-demand app development service before we get into the specifics of how to do so. The following three elements make up an UberEats app:

The Client Side

• New users can register using their email address or using third-party applications like Facebook and Google utilizing the signup capability.
• The option to pick a café or restaurant from a list of available local suppliers.
• The capability of placing food orders from the food delivery app development menu rapidly
• A system that processes payments and checks for promotional codes.
• Customers should have the fastest and most effective way to pay for their orders. You should offer as many payment alternatives as you can, including PayPal, Apple/Google Pay, COD, and credit card information.
• Tracking order progress, anticipated delivery date, and delivery site.
• The choice to store favorite foods, eateries, and coffee shops for future use.
• For updates and inquiries about their order, customers should be able to speak with the restaurant and the courier.

The Restaurant Side

• A restaurant signup page that would enable food businesses to join the food delivery platform. Such a page captures all pertinent information about the restaurant, including its business name, location, business hours, contact information, and the like.
• A comprehensive content management system that enables eateries to upload menus and photographs to the food delivery platform
• The capacity to run deals and provide clients with promo codes
• A function that allows restaurants to view incoming orders and inform clients of the status of their orders. The precise status of orders, including whether they have been canceled, finished, or are ready for delivery, should always be visible to all parties.
• Being able to locate the closest courier who can deliver orders. Once the order is picked up, the app should be able to follow the courier’s location until successful delivery.
• An app development company can add features that enable smooth cross-interface communication between the restaurant, the customer, and the courier.

As you may have guessed, the three factors above cooperate to make sure that information is provided and shared with all necessary parties. Observe how adding the UberEats API makes it simple for users to place and pay for orders on your food delivery app service. As a result, eateries can handle meal preparations efficiently and accept more orders (and revenues). The information that couriers require to complete deliveries is readily available to them.

Building a food delivery app for your business comes with a lot of advantages, know them all in the blog! 

How to build an app like Uber Eats 

You need more than just cloning UberEats’ features to create an app like it and gain popularity among consumers. We advise using the following techniques to assist you in outperforming UberEats:

Step 1. Track Food Delivery Industry Trends

The new delivery methods and other trends must be considered:

1. Social Networks

When it comes to food ordering and delivery, social media can be the biggest help in making your project stand out from the chosen niche. 

For instance, if you look at the history of how Domino’s Pizza became a highlight among customers just by leveraging its social media account wherein it enabled its customers to order food using its Twitter account. How great is that? 

To place a Domino’s Pizza order via Twitter, users must:

1. Create a “pizza profile” and list a favorite pizza.
2. Fill in the “default orders” section on Domino’s Pizza website
3. Link a pizza profile with a Twitter account. 

2. Virtual Assistant

Custom software development services integrate the Chabot option for ordering through messengers and making meal requests with a single word:

Domino’s Pizza has created Dom, a chatbot that enables ordering over Facebook and Twitter messengers and provides information about promotions.

The virtual assistant Alexa from Amazon has been incorporated into Grubhub’s system, enabling consumers to repurchase any of their last three orders.

To stay contemporary, Just Eat has chosen to incorporate Alexa into its ordering process. Just Eat users place orders by voice and track the whereabouts of the delivery thanks to new Amazon hardware, the Echo Show.

3. Smartwatch 

Wearable technology is commonly used by food delivery services:

Domino’s was a pioneer in developing easy-to-use meal-ordering software for Android watches.

OrderUp introduced its latest app for the Apple Watch. OrderUp customers can place orders, track delivery statuses, and see when the courier will arrive.

Step 2. Research target market

Knowing your target market is essential for developing great food delivery software. It is simple to create an app that perfectly satisfies the demands of the target consumers if you have an understanding of who will use the food delivery app service.

The target market may be specific, like raw gluten-free vegans, or general, like pizza aficionados.

Utilizing demographic parameters, develop a target customer profile by outlining the following details in order to generate a clear image of the target audience:

1. Social traits such as age, gender, nationality, and income
2. What possible client issue may your project address?
3. What emotions will users of your application experience?
4. Why should users choose this platform over rivals?

You will have a clear understanding of the target market once you have clarified each of these issues.

Step 3. Choose the main features of UberEats-like food delivery services

When thinking of mobile app development services such as Uber Eats for food delivery, consider the following features: 

• The app’s login feature enables the use of an email address or social network identity.
• Search offers meal, filter, and food category options. Pictures of the dishes, a description of the preparation, and menu templates should all be included in this part.
• Meals can be added to the cart after placing an order.
• Development of food ordering apps The order total and all selected dishes are displayed at checkout.
• Users have the option of paying for their orders via the built-in payment gateway. Our recommendation is to incorporate a number of payment processors, including PayPal, Stripe, and MangoPay. This approach was used in the creation of a personalized marketplace.
• Users are notified via push notifications and SMS about the order status.
• Order tracking uses the Google Location API for Android apps and the CoreLocation framework for iOS apps to display real-time order tracking. Additionally, Google Maps and Mapkits will assist couriers in determining the best path to the customer’s location.

Users of the app may rank and review restaurants through user reviews.

Step 4. Select the Technology Stack of Food Delivery App Development

Depending on the business model of a food delivery startup, a website development company might need different technologies. Therefore, we have gathered an essential tech stack for Uber-like apps in the table below:

Restaurant listing

• Grubhub API
• FourSquare API
• Payment gateway
• Square API
• Braintree
• Stripe
• PayPal

Push notifications

• Amazon SNS
• Urban Airship
• Firebase Cloud Messaging

Find user location

• Core Location Framework
• Google Places API
• Google Maps

How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Food Delivery App?

The cost of a mobile app is determined by a variety of factors, such as the number of platforms, feature set, number of integrations, etc.

Only following the discovery (inception) phase will the team providing website development services provide a comprehensive app estimation. Why does this matter?

The first step you and the development team take to lay a strong foundation for app development is the discovery (inception) phase. This stage consists of a number of elements, including:

Specification of the function

• Design for UX/UI
• Aesthetic prototypes

You may benefit from the product discovery phase by:

• Specifying the work to be done
• Making the project’s road map
• establishing a reasonable MVP budget
• arranging materials
• Trying out the app MVP that has a specific audience
• constructing a strong investment pitch

So, what is the price of the food delivery app?

We need 50+ hours to create the UI/UX design, 66+ hours to build the app’s back end, and, according to past experience, 120+ hours to develop custom software for each platform.

Keep an eye on the most recent trends in the food ordering market to make your app, like UberEats, stand out. Don’t forget to provide your customers with extra benefits that your rivals don’t offer.

Either an order-only or an order-and-delivery model can be used for a food delivery app. With the app MVP, you can learn more about the intended user base and incorporate additional features in the later stages of development.

Final Thought!

Mobile food ordering is a profitable trend that is simply too beneficial for any restaurant or café to ignore. Food delivery applications like UberEats are expected to have even more strategic significance as the underlying technology (Internet and mobile) develops. That being said, every aspect of creating such an app must be taken into account, as must the demands of all parties.

It would be best to talk about this with experts who provide mobile app development solutions tailored to your company if you’re unsure of how to go about doing the latter.

Being a leading website development company, DianApps is popular for its app development skills as we have encountered and helped our clients create authentic and feature-rich food delivery applications and Uber Eats is one of them. For more food delivery app services concerns feel free to contact the experts and get started with your app development business today!