Craving Thai food in Manhattan? From Queens to Boston and Miami, food delivery apps have got you covered. Today, a food delivering app like Seamless is no less than Tinder! It is easy to use, satisfies your thirst and is accessible at any place on any given day. Except that there’s no swipe but a single scroll, tap, and checkout!

Talking about on-demand food ordering solutions… it is something that has transformed our lifestyle and eating habits entirely. Social media platforms have more cheesy platters than cheesy smiles. But that’s not it.

• Hungry but it’s raining outside? Seamless.
• Feeling sick but can’t get out of bed for meals? Seamless.
• Need to order a cake for your SO’s birthday who lives miles away? Seamless.

Lately, EngineerBabu has witnessed a visible growth in the demand for developing food delivering mobile apps similar to Seamless. Although, not everyone can communicate their requirements with Seamless being a huge platform.

So, for all budding entrepreneurs out there who wish to create something as the likes of Seamless, Grubhub, UberEats and Deliveroo… here is a complete guide for building food delivery apps a.k.a Seamless clone!

What is the business model for building a food delivery app like Seamless?

If you’ve done your research prior-hand, you might be aware about the foolproof profit-making business model. It’s a profitable venture that can even go as far as deciding which restaurants stay put in business.

You do not need to have your own chain of restaurants. With calculated algorithms to every individual/group involved in the process, a smooth functionality is facilitated. Thus, with a marginal amount of investment, you can rise to become a unicorn company like Zomato & Swiggy.

Coordination with the third party is made to plan a supply for the demand that arises. The only 3 key stakeholders for a food delivery app like Seamless or a Seamless clone are:

1. Platform Owner
2. Restaurant Owners
3. Delivery Professionals

To get the restaurants listed on the specific mobile application, a certain amount of fee is levied on the restaurateurs. It’s the same case with any given platform, be it DoorDash, JustEat or Postmates.  All three stakeholders receive a notification whenever the end user aka a foodie places an order.

The business ease of building an app like Seamless is driving so many entrepreneurs in the industry. But how do you make sure that yours would stand out from the rest with the same business model?

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What makes Seamless different from other Food Ordering Mobile Applications?

It was thought that Seamless would gradually deteriorate in the US market after a merger with GrubHub. Instead, Seamless has maintained its status as one of the top 5 food deliveries in the USA. Seamless is based in New York and has partnered with a number of restaurant chains in the USA. Well known for fast deliveries, it has a wide variety of menu to choose from.

Unlike other food delivery applications, Seamless comes with a feature to search for food within your price range! Also, you can leave certain special requests based on your preferences. Customers can browse by food or location to have their grub delivered at work or home. They can also arrange to have their meals ready for pickup.

Along with that, features like Seamless Gift Card make it stand out from others. Seamless provides gift cards which can be used to order online without making any payment. After having bought, these can be presented to your neighbours or friends. They are available in both forms: digital and physical cards.

The 4 Important Features of Seamless:

1. Allow Users to Easily Navigate Through Nearby Food Restaurants

Food delivery market has become extremely competitive. The very first essential feature of an on-demand app like Uber for food delivery is to allowing the end-users to find nearby food restaurants. Users can choose from a variety of local food restaurants. Although a feature quite common in food delivery apps, it’s an essential one.

A user-friendly experience while ordering food helps in making hassle-free decisions. Ofcourse, ordering online has evolved to become the easiest platform for consumers. Thus, a user-friendly platform for your users to easily login and search for their favourite dishes is a must-have feature.

2. Enables Users to Pre Order or Re-order Their Favourites

The next important feature is quite unique. It enables the app users to pre-order and reorder their favourite meals. The app displays top five favourites and gives users the option to reorder items from their order history itself.

App users can even pre-order items 2 hours and four days before! Undeniably, it is pivotal to stay one step ahead of your rivals by offering more of such advanced features. Try adding value into your users’ busy lives.

3. Push Notifications

One of the most pivotal features is – push notifications. Along with providing the easiest way of user communication, it earns your users’ loyalty.

(a) Get Instant Updates: In a hurry? Instant notifications on the go is your answer. Get notified of every new order, track the dispatch and delivery.

(b) Improved App Engagement & Retention Rates: Push notifications feature gets a higher view and click-through ratio. Apps with push notifications have 92% higher retention rates and 26% higher open rate!

4. Ratings and Reviews

The feature allows users to effortlessly rate and review restaurants from where they have received food orders. It provides transparency between users and restaurants. It’s an opportunity to improve the services. Also, you can provide them with a list of high-rating restaurants to deliver high-quality services.

Thus, if you have ever thought of creating an on-demand food ordering app like Seamless, then these features are worth including.

Must-Have Features for Web Portal of Food Delivery Apps:

Web service is under the accountability of the platform owners. Simply put, if you develop a Seamless-like mobile app, or Seamless clone, you would be in charge of handling the web service portal.

(1) Admin Dashboard:

To manage the overall functionality and different stakeholders, admin dashboards have the capability to view the number of users, a list of the restaurants and delivery professionals associated with your brand. The admin can add and remove any stakeholders at any point of time using this feature.

Analytics and Reporting:

The data insights & metrics based on the bookings made are shown by generating reports. An analysis can be done about the total number of users on board, the usage times, demographic data, the total number of delivery professionals and restaurants listed, profit and loss calculation per week, month and year, etc.

(2) For Delivery Professionals-

This is specifically for use by the delivery men. After getting 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.

(i) Trip Information & Navigation:

Delivery men receive the restaurant’s pickup address and the drop details of the user. 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.

(ii) Route Optimisation:

Maps integrated with the app helps delivery professionals to access the possible route to beat the traffic and make their deliveries as fast as possible.

(iii) Start/End Trip:

After accepting the request and beginning the trip towards the restaurant, a driver’s trip starts. In a similar way, another trip begins when he is on his way to make the delivery.

(iv) Contact the User/Restaurant:

The feature helps the driver call the concerned stakeholders without having to copy the number and dialling it manually. It makes their work hassle-free.

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(3) Users App-

(i) Easy Log-in (Social media integration) and Search Option:

Manually signing up is a task. Make the process easier for your users by enabling them to sign up with their social media accounts. New users will find it easier to access the app with a search option. Based on their preference of cuisine/ dish, they can get a list of restaurants with their desired food items.

(ii) Multiple Payment Options & Notifications:

Give your users an option to pay with their desired mode of payment. Give them multiple options like a Debit Card, Credit Card, Cash on delivery, Mobile wallets, etc. The user must get a push notification about their order, trending search, favourite restaurant, etc.

(iii) Call Restaurant/ Driver & Track Driver:

Calling directly to the restaurant/ driver in case of any specific instructions to give against their order is a user favourite. It boosts transparency in a way! And with the help of the tracking driver feature, the user can access the map integrated into the app and track the status of their food.

(iv) Personal Favourite- Social Community:

Allow your users to integrate their social media handles for creating their profiles. The users would be able to connect with each other, follow and make recommendations on cuisines, dishes, puns, restaurants, etc.

(v) Veg Option and Real-time Availability

Users must be given an option to filter out the veg and non-veg dishes. Also, the online reservation system of the app allows users to check the availability of the tables in case of dine-in options.

Things To Consider Before Getting the App Developed:

The competition out there in this industry is immense. Be innovative to step higher than your competitors,  when it comes to building an app like Seamless. But how to do that?

It’s quite easy. Please your customers with the quality of your service. Give them remarkable features to leave a lasting impression of your brand. It will keep them engaged with your platform. Ultimately, you will be able to scale up your Seamless-like business.

Unique Selling Point:

Carry out a research of the industry before starting working on the development process. Make a track of the changes and campaigns that your competitors have successfully carried out, or are planning to. Check to see if they have any fall-outs.

The users must feel acknowledged when it comes to their reviews or suggestions. Give them a, “Why should I install your app?” point that your competitors lack. It will go a long way in driving a large amount of traffic, engagement, and ultimately conversion.

What is your primary aim with the launch of this app? Try to understand your target audience well. Carry out surveys for a detailed market analysis. Make a note of who your buyer persona is. Check if you can cater to the demands from the platform. Plan the supply that is inline with the demand and create a long-term business relationship with the users.

Your competitors will definitely have some drawbacks. Come up with creative solutions and fill in the gaps. Try experimenting by tweaking the business model if you may. Set your brand apart from the rest.

Thorough Knowledge & Research:

What would be the best technology to go to for the app? Try to pinpoint the needs of the app and consult the right team of developers if you’re not technologically updated. You just have to know the basics and the right team will do the rest for you.

What devices does your target audience use? Try to find out the most preferred ones and you can shortlist the platform accordingly. And, make sure you never neglect the focus from your brand recognition.

Plan the features well in advance. you have to make sure that the scalability is in-line with your future expansion plans.

The Power Of Referrals/ Discounts:

Try to get as many followers and customers on-board right in the beginning. Use strategies like discounts, happy hours, promotions, etc to your leverage. Make them deals they cannot ignore and refuse. Provoke them to come back later with cash-back in forms of coupons.

Need any sort of help with ideation or the app development? We are just ONE CLICK  away!

The Factors Affecting The Cost of Building a Mobile App similar to Seamless:

The cost for developing such apps will depend on the number of features you wish to integrate in your app. Also, decide the platform where you would launch the app. There’s iOS and Android. With Android being used by masses, you need to make sure who your target audience actually is.

The price can be segregated based on 2 things: MVP and additional advanced features. Your admin panel will have to have additional features. It cannot just constitute of the basics. You will have complete control of this panel and can customise the same accordingly.

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For the driver and the user app, you can rely on the MVP model. Also, it is recommended that you do the same. It’s an opportunity for you to experiment and make progressive moves. If you’re lucky enough, engagement rates can be dependent on how good your minimal app works.

Further, when it comes to your team… there are options to choose from. You can hire your own team or outsource the project. It will impact the final result of your product as well as the prices. Basically, the most basic version of the app with MVP features and a simple UI/UX can cost around $7,000 to $10,000 for development of all the three apps- restaurant, driver and user app.

For a more advanced version with additional features, the estimated price can be somewhere in between $35,000 to $50,000. And just in case we consider the full-fledged Seamless like app, the price rises up to $75,000 and above.

Finding the Right Development Team:

This is the first step towards building a dream project into an actual mobile application. The right team is essential and will affect the quality of the app. Hence, you dream project’s success relies on it. To get started, know the number of people that you would require.

Now, it is time to decide whether you want to go for hiring your own team or freelances. You can also outsource the entire project to one trustworthy app development company. When you have built the entire roadmap for your entrepreneur venture, this step is remarkable.

Many app development companies have their own pricing models. From a pool of companies, if must shortlist one that’s best suitable for this work. To begin with, make a list of your requirements on the basis of the research you carried out. Accordingly, search for the developers using the credible sources and websites.

Now, read about their resources and case studies on the websites. Try to find out what their existing customers are saying about their work and only then make your decision. When in doubt, talk to them and get your query resolved.

To Sum Up…

We would love if we can aid you with our expertise in the domain. Having faced a number of challenges with the limitations of technology and the innovative demands of our customers, app development for our developing team has been a practice to perfect episode.

If you have already built the roadmap for your Seamless-like business, get ready to put the plan into execution, you can reach out to us for the development and launching your food delivery mobile app and generate recurring revenue.

Drop an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com. Hate waiting? CLICK HERE 

Did you like this blog? Let us know in the comments section below.

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