10 Outstanding Features to Make Online Food Delivery Apps Standout

10 Features to Develop Outstanding Food Delivery Apps

1. Easy App Onboarding

While app onboarding is a crucial part of every app, in the food delivery niche – it is mandatory to pay special attention to this feature. Imagine how you feel when you are hungry.

Let us tell – excited, eager, and impatient. Aren’t we right?

The same is the condition with the users of food delivery apps. When they download the app (with hunger in their minds) and find the registration process way too long and time-consuming – they consider ordering using other apps instead of filling long forms. 

Thus, when people download a new app for ordering food – you shouldn’t ask them to fill a long form asking countless questions like name, age, address or other such details. Make it easier for them to get into the app and use it. 

Allowing sign-up in a single tap using Facebook or Twitter immediately satisfies the users and moves them over to try the application feature by not wasting their time in the long registration process.

Or on the other hand, if you need to keep it formal by not integrating any social media with your food ordering app, then asking for a name and mobile number should be enough. It’s better to not complicate things for users by forcing them to create complex usernames.

2. Push Notifications

If used well – push notifications can take your food ordering app to another level. Remember, the competition is hard in the food delivery app market and to get the attention of users – you really need some amazing features – push notifications is one of them.

It helps businesses in staying connected with their customers and also improves app engagement rate. Using push notifications, you can convey all types of information such as discounts, offers, location-based order dropped messages, and so on.

But, one thing that you need to do while sending push notifications is that the content in these must add value to the users and you shouldn’t just send plain text advertising messages in order to increase orders.

Try to use push notifications in such a way that they help your business application grow substantially. You can constantly notify your users about loyalty programs, latest deals, and offer restaurants to grab their attention from time to time. However, make sure to not overdo this and disturb users time and again.

3. Loyalty Programs and Discount Deals

If you want to increase customer loyalty, revenues, and create brand awareness, gamification is a must-have feature for your online food delivery app.

Also, you should never forget about attracting new customers to your food app by offering them special deals, discounts, and offers. According to research around 40% of food delivery app customers use these apps to find deals and discounts, while around 20% of users use these apps just to earn loyalty points. 

Thus, the stats say – why it is a wonderful approach to bring new customers to your app.

It’s crucial to attract potential users to win brand loyalty to then develop brand awareness. That’s why big brands give more consideration to their marketing features in-app. For instance, Starbucks viably increased its sales by 80% when it launched loyalty programs. The brand credits 40% of its total sales to this initiative.

4. Real-Time Tracking

Integrating this feature in your app is like hitting two targets with a single stone. First, it will let your eager users track the location of their orders using real-time GPS. Second, it will help your drivers find the optimal route to reach at the user’s doorsteps ASAP – saving their time as well fuel in turn minimizing the delivery expenses.

If you integrate this feature in your app, you (admin) and your users can track the location and every movement of delivery personnel easily in-app. Some of the great APIs to integrate this feature in your food delivery app include Google Maps, Waze’s Navigation, or MapKit. 

5. Geo-Fencing or Integration with Beacons

These days, without marketing, your service is good for nothing. And when you are planning to enter a competitive market – you should leave no stone unturned to make your presence felt in the market. 

That’s where integrating location-based service in food ordering apps comes into play. The popularity of technologies like geo-fencing and beacons have given brands a chance to engage with their customers even before they know about the brand. 

Similarly, in your food-ordering apps, you can use this feature to promote certain restaurants that will pay you for doing the same. Along with serving your customers well, you can also use this feature as a revenue source to monetize your food ordering application.

Consider it as distributing flyers to passers-by people for promotion of your services and deals offered by restaurants a win-win situation for all the stakeholders associated with the delivery platform. It is a modern way of marketing that you must use to take your food business to another level.

6. Easy Payment Options

While food ordering apps help users avoid long lines in front of restaurants – the ability to pay in an app takes their experience one step ahead by providing them more convenience.

So, you must make the payment procedure extremely simple for your customers to keep them hooked by providing them all payment options in-app.

You should add as much as possible payment methods in your app to provide a seamless food ordering experience to your users. For example, Credit or Debit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Online Banking, Cash on Delivery, etc, etc.

7. Personalization

Personalization has become a noteworthy feature in On-Demand Applications today. 

In this feature, the application tracks and analyzes the user’s activities in-app and suggests services and products based on what they like or are likely to buy more.

It helps in drawing in and building your relationship with the customers of your app. It also helps in user retention as they are getting what they need with the least efforts. 

With personalization, you spare them from the problem of looking through their preferred café or cuisines over and again.

8. Chatbots Integration

Think about having a person who knows all your preferences and suggests you meals to eat daily. Wouldn’t it be fantastic?

Chatbot functions in the same way for your users. While it is a relatively new technology – several entrepreneurs are using it for providing personalized services to their customers. 

A chatbot is an AI-based computer program that imitates communication with users to answer their basic queries like What’s the best restaurant in the town?

With the use of AI, chatbots are not just restricted to being an answering machine that addresses basic questions. They literally can help users in finding what they want.

Instead, they have taken personalization to another level. And, including this feature can make your app stand out from the rest.

9. Contactless Drop-Offs

Considering the present circumstances where every single person is afraid of catching the virus, it is mandatory to include the contactless delivery feature in your app.

Leaving food packets on doorsteps or messaging your driver an image of where you need your meal dropped off – these are the new ways using which users like to receive their orders these days.

So, consider adding this feature if you are planning to launch your app anytime soon.

10. Reviews & Ratings

Getting feedback from users is the least difficult and best way of getting insights to improve your application. Also, it is crucial to constantly review and roll out important features in your application to keep yourself updated in the market. 

Also, who might be the best to suggest changes than your own customers to make your app better? That’s why it is important to add this framework in your app to let your users share their experiences with you.

Conclusion

Though the food delivery industry is fascinating and full to the brim with opportunities for new-gen entrepreneurs, you need a feature-rich and seamlessly-performing solution to grab the share of this market. Keep in mind that users are already having other options – so they will come to your app only if they will find something unique in it. 

So, thinking about your USP should be your first step in building a food delivery app. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur planning to launch your food delivery app in the market or a food business owner looking to increase your sales, customer retention rate or build brand awareness – if you launch an app with the above mentioned features – you can take the experience of your users to the next level to then achieve your business goals.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s create wonders together.