The online food delivery market size is $0.91 trillion and by 2027 it will surpass more than 1.45 trillion. Undoubtedly, it is the right time to flourish a food delivery startup with an app.
There is no surprise behind its rapid growth as millions of users have adopted it to have their favorite food delivered instantly. With the current user penetration ( 37.2% ), the number of users will cross 2.64 billion after four years i.e., by 2027.
What else do you need to know about that why food delivery mobile apps are crucial for food or restaurant business owners?
But having an app is not enough; there are certain things that you need to take care of, and the most crucial is – Food app performance optimization.
If you want to know continue with the blog.
Before we jump on- how to optimize a restaurant mobile app performance it is necessary to know about the challenges with food delivery. It will help you to optimize your app to tackle challenges from both ways i.e., from the customer’s side and from the business side.
Let’s start with it.
Most of the businesses using food delivery apps are Ghost Kitchens and Delivery-only outlets. By 2025 this segment will be $192 billion. Although a separate portion of the restaurant business (with an estimated industry size of $1.7 trillion by 2027) is also associated with it. But the challenges are the same for all food-related businesses.
Here are the top challenges faced by online grocery and food delivery apps that you must know before optimizing your existing food delivery app. It will help you to address the perfect solutions to it that in turn will enhance user experience.
Nobody can predict when customers’ preferences changed. The best real-life example is – after COVID most online food delivery mobile app users preferred to have vegan or immunity-boosting diets.
So, it is the biggest challenge to meet the expectation especially when you are running a food business online with doorstep delivery. For customer retention, it became a necessity to available all types of foods for delivery.
Do you know what is the biggest reason for the failure of multiple food delivery apps? If not then it is logistic mismanagement that failed to deliver the food package in desired time.
It happens with most of the unoptimized food delivery apps where they do not have real-time route navigation, order scheduling capacity, location tracking, and order handling.
Due to inflation and unstable market conditions price of raw food is also unstable. The price of food ingredients is also high. So, the challenge for food delivery mobile app business owners is to maintain an optimized price so the customers must find it convenient to their pocket. It puts them under pressure to secure the margin to compete with other apps.
When a customer order food their expectation is an instant delivery and food must be hot as they get at the restaurant. In most of the worst cases, the food delivery is delayed and the original taste of the food is lost.
It is a challenge that almost all food delivery businesses face for at least a month. Here no need to mention what a customer review can do to the business.
All types of on-demand apps share a common feature which is multiple payment options and it is the existing need of all apps. Customers prefer only those apps that facilitate them to pay via multiple payment options.
If any food delivery apps offer limited payment options it becomes a challenge. Another challenge is supposed you have included all options but not working seamlessly. Then it may distract the users.
Already there are multiple food delivery apps in the market including some big players. So, there is little space for the new apps. It is one of the toughest challenges for any food delivery startup to make its own space among existing brands.
There are two faces of app development technology that we have different apps for different purposes. The dark face is apps having fewer security protocols can be hacked by hackers. So maintaining app security is also a big hurdle because, in case of information leakage, the consequences will be worst.
Technology is going advanced every day and food delivery apps are becoming smarter than their predecessors. It is creating a challenge for business owners to cope-up with the latest technology.
Here experienced delivery app developers can help to tackle it. The big challenge is for those who have not updated their app yet now.
Every customer in this world needs seamless customer service. They need instant answers to all their queries from food ordering to initiating a refund process or for any other motive. It is a big task for a business to handle requests on time.
Language and culture can also be a barrier in the absence of multi-linguistic food delivery apps. Most of the users are used to searching for their favorite dish in their native language. With a limited language option, you can only serve in a limited area.
All these mentioned challenges are needed to address and here food ordering app optimization can help you. The delivery app optimization can promise you multiple benefits. But still, if you figuring that what is the need then continue with this blog with the upcoming section.
Delivery is one of the crucial sources of revenue for any food business either a restaurant or a ghost kitchen or a food truck. So, here you need to keep an eye on all details from preparing a package to delivering it to the customers.
The Delivery App Optimization can help you to handle all the orders seamlessly and make better strategic decisions for user experience.
After COVID online food ordering got a hike and apps like Grubhub experienced a 20%-40% rise in online ordering compared to the previous years. There is no surprise that over 3 billion people globally are using some sort of online food ordering & delivery facilities. It makes every business owner stay optimized with their delivery apps to cater to the demand of customers.
The delivery app is necessary for the restaurant business because it makes life easy for a customer but if it is not optimized then it can make it more difficult for restaurant admins to manage.
The optimized delivery app can bring more revenue to your business as these can help you to create the best experience for online ordering and make customers’ journey from paying to getting delivery enjoyable.
Conclusively, it can be said that the need for DAO is for two reasons one is – streamlining the online ordering process and taking control over day-to-day delivery operations.
Read more: Top Food Delivery App Development Companies
Most food delivery apps fail in the absence of optimization there is ample need to improve the app performance for better service delivery. Technology is evolving and conversely creating pressure on restaurateurs to adopt the new mechanism.
At the moment, it is very tough to switch technology but there are certain steps that you can take to stay updated with your existing food delivery app.
Here is how you can optimize your food delivery mobile app performance.
It is also called split testing where randomized experiments take place between two app versions to determine the performance of individual apps. Here you can compare your app with its older and current versions to extend its functionality and performance.
It will eliminate almost all challenges with the app. Once you find the flaws eliminate these with the help of experienced delivery app developers.
Features can’t be ignored in any case, if an app is a body then features are its soul. So, be careful about it. Streamlining the features of your food delivery app can save you from any type of challenges with food delivery apps.
If you include some state-of-the-art features in your food delivery apps it will increase customer satisfaction & retention, enhance service quality, and helps in business growth.
The customer journey starts with the app from the onboarding. When a customer registers on the app it is the first impression of the app on them. Try to test the onboarding functionality multiple times while developing the app and even after the app goes fully functional. It will help you to create the process more smooth with time.
Have you noticed the search panel of any top successful food delivery apps? One thing you find common in all is search options with filters. It is one of the crucial requirements to produce a better user experience and engagement.
Here you can implement these in two steps one is to load the app with a pre-decided filter, and the other one is to suggest the auto-fill keywords searched by other users. It will help the customers to get the desired result instantly.
The key activity of any food delivery mobile app in this world is online ordering so there is no chance of ignorance when it comes to updating or optimizing the food delivery app’s performance.
First of all, developing the app with the help of a food delivery app development company ensures an easy ordering process. Still, if it is missing then do it now. The customer must find it effortless to order their food.
Although payment is the last step but as important as onboarding the users. If there is any issue with the payment process the customer can cancel the order and switch to another app. If the issue remains long you may lose the customers.
Regarding payment flow, first, check the existing payment process for issues and then include multiple payment options that you have never implemented earlier.
Food delivery apps are known for providing ease to customers with their food requirements. Once the customer placed the order they want to know every minute status of their delivery.
Most modern apps display ETA that you can also follow for your app. The order tracking feature must work by providing every minute detail to the customers. While getting the delivery you can engage the customers by suggesting recipes they can try at their homes.
Do your app user-friendly? Or has it had options for customer support? If yes then optimize it more but if not then provide multiple options for customer support via your app. The users must find it smooth to approach help whenever they need it. You can include in-app calls and chat functionality.
One of the best advantages of a food delivery app is – a user can view the menu with a click. But there is an issue that most of us ignore. There are certain food items that can be enjoyed at the dine-in facility they can’t be sustainable from one restaurant to the customer’s location.
So what you can do is display a separate menu on the app and connect it with table booking automation. So, with a click a person can order a dish and book a table at a restaurant.
When you are looking to improve the performance of a food delivery mobile app you can’t ignore reviews and ratings. Develop a process in your app where users can rate & review your app and also can provide their feedback about the app experience. Based on it prepare a plan and maintain your app accordingly.
Here are additional elements that you can include in your app while optimizing it. These will provide an extra edge to the app for having a strong presence in the market.
contactless payment is in the trend since the pandemic and it will continue forever with timely advancements. The POS integration fills the gap between apps and conventional restaurants. It makes the payment process simplified.
The market scenario is totally changed. Most of the brands are leveraging technologies like AR/VR, and Chatbots to provide an interactive experience with the app. For example, 24/7 availability of support services by Chatboat which guides the users to have solutions.
Implementing push notification functionality is the best way to let users updated about any changes in services, offers, deals, and discounts. Overall it also helps in engaging the customers.
For better customer engagement you can run loyalty programs via an app. It will encourage the users to use the app more as everyone like discounts. Loyalty programs are also the best for customer retention.
Social media is helping businesses to derive more sales and revenue boosts. With the help of social media tools, you can run a campaign on different platforms and connect with more customers.
Food app performance optimization is beneficial in all terms from retaining customers to business growth and from providing the best service experience to streamlining the process.
Let’s have a look at the advantages of app optimization.
One of the biggest benefits of food delivery optimization is a streamlined delivery process. Centralizing delivery management helps you to keep track of all deliveries in a single place. On the other hand, it offers better services to the customers.
With an optimized food app you can connect with more customers. The best example is the working of the Doordash app. Out of the total US users, 94% prefer this app for food ordering and delivery.
As per the trends, 69% of consumers order food online for at least a month and the percentage is rising. So, via an optimized food ordering app with the right features you can connect with more customers.
The direct advantage of app optimization is improved app performance that can make an app lightning-fast so the users can enjoy it anytime-anywhere. Most of the users preferred fast speed apps so if you have it in your app then there are more chances of growth.
With app optimization, you can boost your app’s online visibility also. What you can do is while optimizing include some third-party promotion tools and then optimize the app again for better results. Without any overhead cost, you can promote your app.
The brands serve as per the expectations of customers and always remain on the top so the same is applied to the top food delivery apps. If you want to stay ahead of the competition it can be done via app optimization how?
When you do it, your services will be better to approach and the customers will easily take advantage of it. It works like better services, leading to more customers, and revenue.
Read Also: How to Develop a Food Delivery Mobile App?
We as Arka Softwares – a food delivery app development service provider have a team of talented professionals. They are experienced in providing modern on-demand solutions to diverse industries and assisted multiple global brands with their app development needs.
If you want to optimize the existing app then we can ensure you the best services at our level best. Or if you have an idea for food ordering app development then we would be happy to assist you in transformation.
Having an app that helps you to meet customers’ expectations, boosts business growth, and revenue generation, and offers a seamless experience requires too much effort.
Suppose, you have an app but it lags then the better idea is to optimize the app with the help of experienced food delivery app developers. It will help you to offer the services in the best way.
So, whenever you need to optimize the app and want to know how to do it then you can refer to this blog.
FAQs Related to Optimizing a Food Delivery App
These are the key mobile app performance metrics that you need to track in your food delivery app:
● Number of downloads
● Percentage of app launches after download
● Retention
● Engagement
● Uninstalls
● Drop Offs
● Reachability
The cost to develop a food delivery app depends on several factors and a major factor is the technology and hiring cost of the developers. The approx cost to develop a basic food delivery app is $20k-$30k initially but if your business demands an advanced app then it may cost $50k or more.
The top 10 worldwide food delivery apps are:
● Zomato
● UberEats
● FoodPanda
● Swiggy
● GrubHub
● Deliveroo
● Domino’s Pizza
● Just Eat Takeaway
● DoorDash
● Postmates
The existing market size value of food delivery is $254.52 billion which is projected to reach $505.50 billion by 2030. If you are looking to develop an app for your food business it is the right time to do it.