How to Build a Food Delivery app for Restaurant?

Developing one’s own restaurant delivery app has become popular among restaurant owners. But why create your own restaurant food delivery app with Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash in the market?

The number one reason is that with a third-party food ordering app, the commission can be as high as 25–30% (for Uber Eats). DoorDash charges 10–25%, while Grubhub takes 5–15%. This is why many restaurants choose to make a food delivery app and set up an in-house delivery team rather than pay a third party.

The number two reason is the absence of third-party delivery options. Even if a restaurant owner is ready to work with big players like Uber Eats, they may not provide service in the area.

The number three reason is that third-party delivery companies are often overloaded with orders, causing delays. Thus, customers can become dissatisfied and restaurants can start losing regular guests.

To satisfy customers, keep up with competitors, improve delivery speed, and ensure customer loyalty, restaurant owners choose to develop their own food delivery services. Check out the statistics below to learn how quickly online delivery is becoming one of the growing forces in the restaurant industry.

SOURCE: TABLE.SKIFT.COM

In this blog post, we’ll catch you up on all the latest types of online food delivery apps for restaurants. We’ll shed light on branded and third-party platforms. Moreover, we’ll give you tips on must-have features for a restaurant ordering application.

The best restaurant delivery apps for you

These are three options for restaurants that offer delivery and want to do so through a mobile app.

Branded mobile application

A restaurant can develop their own branded mobile app. A restaurant ordering app generally includes options for delivery and pickup/carry out.

There are three main reasons for creating a branded food delivery app for restaurants:

1. High demand. As GloriaFood states, 86% of consumers in the US use delivery services at least once a month. Online taxi ordering, car rentals, and hotel bookings are way less popular.
2. Wide customer base. Your potential customers are anyone with a mobile phone and a craving for pizza, wings, burgers, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, etc.
3. More revenue. According to Nation’s Restaurant News, orders placed via a mobile restaurant ordering system are an average of $4 higher compared to those placed in restaurants.
4. With an independent platform, restaurants can save the 15% to 30% commission that food ordering and delivery companies charge.

On the one hand, by entrusting delivery operations to an in-house team, you have greater control over the quality of food delivered and the delivery speed.

On the other hand, food delivery app development requires investment and technical expertise. We’re here to assist you with the technical part. We’re here to assist you with the technical part. We’ve addressed the cost of building a restaurant app in a previous article.

Examples of branded applications with a delivery option

Jimmy John’s, a popular sandwich chain, has their own in-house delivery team to provide the best customer service.

SOURCE: APPS.APPLE.COM

Jimmy John’s cares not only about the quality of food but also about the speed of delivery, which is why they deliver by bike. It’s generally not as fast as by car, but it cuts delivery times when traffic is heavy, making delivery times more predictable. If orders don’t arrive in 40 minutes, customers are encouraged to call the restaurant. Delayed orders come with free stuff — or even entirely for free.

The delivery fee varies depending on a customer’s location and is included in the total cost.

Domino’s also has its own online restaurant delivery service, and customers can use the Domino’s mobile app to place orders.

SOURCE: PLAY.GOOGLE.COM

The Domino’s chain has let customers track the pizza delivery process for some time. Now, it also allows customers to track their deliveries with GPS. The tracker shows a little car moving on a map till it gets to the customer’s house.

Also, Domino’s is about to use self-driving delivery vehicles. In 2017, Domino’s worked with Ford to test basic customer interactions with the service. Now, they’re making use of the automated driving tech startup Nuro. Domino’s customers in Houston can already place orders and wait for a fully autonomous electric vehicle to arrive.

For details, check out the video below.

Third-party platform

The second option is for a restaurant to work with a third-party delivery company.

There are three main reasons for choosing a third-party delivery platform:

1. Convenience of outsourcing logistics
2. Access to a potentially larger customer pool and increased sales
3. Lower costs, as there’s no need for setting up and maintaining a delivery team

When considering a third-party platform, keep in mind that there are two food delivery business models. One is the aggregator model. When you partner with an aggregator, it connects customers to your restaurant. Customers place orders via the aggregator platform and restaurants view those orders and fulfill them. Delivery is not handled by the aggregator.

SOURCE: STEELKIWI.COM

On the other hand, there are platforms with logistics support. When you partner with this type of platform, customers place an order on the platform. Then you accept the order and fulfill it while the platform sends a delivery partner to pick up the order and bring it to the customer.

SOURCE: STEELKIWI.COMExamples of successful third-party platforms

The present-day market leaders in this segment are:

• DoorDash. This app is available in 1,200 cities and includes 110,000 restaurants. It’s not big, but it offers unique features. The DoorDash Delight scoring system is one of them. DoorDash recommends the best restaurants by popularity, quality of food, customer satisfaction, etc. DoorDash partners with The Cheesecake Factory, Chipotle, Subway, and Chick-fil-A.
• Uber Eats. The Uber Eats app covers 1,000+ cities and connects hundreds of restaurants. Its homepage is easy to navigate, and users can simply scroll through options or search for a particular restaurant or cuisine. Buffalo Wild Wings works with Uber Eats.
• Grubhub. This web commerce platform helps users find and order restaurant food. It connects around 125,000 restaurants in 2,400 US cities. Upon entering their location, customers see restaurants in the area. They can then choose by menu items or cuisine. To speed up the ordering process, users can also save delivery locations. Grubhub is the official delivery partner for Yum! Brands (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC). Not so long ago, due to the purchase of LevelUp, Grubhub also got permission to create white-label platforms under a restaurant’s own name.

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