Working of App like Lalamove. Guide to Courier Delivery App Development

Scenario Post Chinese Apps Ban

The Indian government banned 43 mobile apps inclusive of Chinese apps and non-Chinese apps on 24 November 2020.

When read in detail about this action of app ban, the reports by Economictimes, stated that the action happened under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act because of a contract breach.

The Government of India said that the reason was the activities by Chinese apps that had the potential to hamper India’s sovereignty, integrity, defense, security, and public order.

The ban on apps was imposed after the order passed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology after receiving the comprehensive reports from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center. The Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed this with a press release. 

India has also banned Chinese apps earlier in 2020. At that time, India blocked 59 Chinese apps in June and 118 more apps in the month of September. The apps like Tiktok, PubG, UC Browser, etc were put down from play stores and the functioning stopped.

When the apps got banned, the whole of India and the world got a new perspective on dependence over foreign apps. It made users and business owners think that why they have to go for other apps and pay service rentals when they can make their own!

Making a clone app will give multiple benefits like-

1. Cost Saving

Save the cost of paying rentals and service charges to foreign apps. Making your own app is only a one-time investment. But then you have all savings and more revenue could be used for expanding business for growth.

2. Better Understanding of Market

When you launch the app in your locality and in your country is a big advantage. You are very well known about cultures, tastes, and preferences. If you make an app that aligns with the mindset of the users, it gives better chances for your app to get popular amongst others.

3. Readymade User Base

It is the best opportunity that one can use on Chinese apps. Since the users of the app are already there in the market. By sudden ban of apps, the users may get devastated and feel an urge to get compensated. If you make clones of banned apps the users are already in the market that can promise you good downloads.

4. No legal complications

The major reason why India banned Chinese apps was the question they had over privacy that was being intervened by the Chinese apps. If you’re in your country, making apps for your country and business you will be well aware of the legal complications. Therefore you will develop mobile apps that abide by your country’s law and policies.

Courier Delivery App Lalamove and India

Lalamove was one of the famous Chinese apps in India that used to deal with courier services online. It was banned this 24 November 2020 along with major other Chinese apps due to integrity reasons as stated by Times Now. 

The app allows vendors to coordinate and use the app’s resources for performing home delivery services for the vendor’s clients. The app was famous because of its ease of use and fast parcel delivery solutions. The image below highlights the USPs that made Lalamove one of the go-to courier service apps for the users.

Thus it is very clear that Chinese app Lalamove offered-

• Big Task Force

The app had employed more than 30,000 drivers and vendors in the loop. It means that it had a broad range of employers that were attached to them which were ready to provide more services.

This means, the more the people for services, the better is the performance. Therefore if you are planning to develop a mobile app like Lalamove, consider employing or onboarding more drivers.

• Minimum Buffer Time

The app was very fast in response. As soon as the vendor requested for pick up of order to deliver, the app used to provide the driver within 30 seconds. No waiting time led to customer satisfaction as people want fast service and Lalamove did that.

Matching drivers with the vendors and then having fast order assignments to the drivers made deliveries fast. The vendors were able to complete their orders fast and make cash flow run quickly post deliveries.

• Fast Service

One of the major highlights of Lalamove was its fast response and quick deliveries. The app with a big task force and efficient networking technology was able to deliver the products in a very short span of time. 

In Fact, it was counted as a promising same day courier service delivery. On the official site of Lalamove, they claimed to have 1 Lac plus home deliveries due to their fast deliveries.

• Multi Functioning

The app was so good with its logistics and delivery management system that the drivers were able to deliver more than one courier at one go. This made their courier service faster and more efficient due to high-cost savings over petrol.

Details to Consider while Developing App like Lalamove

When you are making an app like Lalamove, you have to consider the features that it used to provide. Because if you are making a clone app, you have to provide similar features. If to be more correct, you need to provide better features. Like having easy-to-use panels, better delivery, easy app navigation, etc. Similarly, apart from these stated features, there are many other features to look upon as shown in the infographic below.

Let us learn about each of these features and functionality in more detail.

1. Easy Onboarding

Whenever you log in to the app, the process should be absolutely convenient. Either it is about logging in or signing up. The process of coming over to the app for user should be easy. The app should have an option to get signed up with Social Media Platforms. The person by simply linking the app with one of the Social media IDs should be able to use the app easily.

The next option for signing up or logging in should be by filling in email id details or phone number. This assures unique users over the app.

Apart from logging in and signing up the driver should also have easy onboarding for the job. This means their document verification and submission should happen over the phone easily. Along with that, they should have the power to show their status online or offline for taking orders.  

2. Impressive app Layout

In the delivery service app, the user has to keep track of multiple activities. In the user panel, the person should be able to know about his order status, estimated time of arrival along with a rating option.

Whereas talking about the driver panel, the person by looking at the app should be able to learn about his assigned job and what route he should take for order delivery. And in the admin panel of the courier delivery app, the person should have easy access to understand and manage all the other functions for smooth coordination.

But in order to make all this happen, the user interface of the mobile app should be self-explanatory. By opening the app only the person should be able to navigate themselves which tabs and screens to go and learn about particular information. Therefore easy on hands layout should be a must!

3. Synchronization of Panels

The panels are the heart of any app. Be it a home service on-demand app or the food delivery app, there is a need for panels when there are three parties involved- the user (customer), vendor (driver/service provider), and admin (owner).

So making an app where all these three panels are integrated at one spot and they are interlinked with each other makes the functioning of the app smooth. Especially the admin panel in the courier delivery app is very important for better coordination.

For example, if you have the product ready for dispatch and the driver doesn’t know when to collect the purpose of developing a delivery service app would be a fail. Similarly, if the end-user does not know when his product is going to come, the satisfaction level falls down.

Therefore the panels should work together in alignment altogether for impactful performance.

4. Pickup and Delivery Management

As mentioned above, the panels are very important for the functioning of the app and each of them has its own importance. Since we are here talking about making a courier delivery app like Lalamove, parcel delivery is our central focus.

The picking up of the order and delivery stats should be well updated over the app. The driver should be able to know which order he is going to collect and where they have delivered. 

Similarly, the admin should be able to have all insights about the number of products in the warehouse, the ones in transit, and completed orders. The essence of a logistics app should be present for order pick up and delivery services.

5. GPS Enabling

In the courier service app, GPS plays a vital role. The driver with help of GPS route enabling gets optimized routes that allow them to reach the destination in the shortest time and do the delivery.

Also with GPS tracking, the user also keeps getting insights about the order like estimated time of arrival and the admin is able to know and track the parcel and driver easily.

Therefore embedding GPS features in the app allows ease to use to drivers, users, and admin for better courier services.

6. Push Notification

Out of sight, out of mind is the real story of every consumer today. Since the competition is very high today. Many people want to take their business online and make the best out of it. You need to gain personal attention from users by sending them updates.

With help of push notifications, the admin is able to send the notifications regarding discounts, new features, or any pricing plans they want to inform their users. The push notification allows the admin to write and send the desired notifications to people all at once. It is easy and the admin does not need to depend on mobile app developers again and again for sending the notifications to all app users.

7. Payment Security

The Courier service app involves the payment as it is the source of revenue for both the vendors and the admin(owner). The payment gateways that are integrated with the app should be standardized and accepted globally.

The reason behind it is that courier service is required to have the product from one corner and delivered at another corner. Therefore payments should be acceptable across all the parts of the country or globe. 

So standard payment gateways should be included that ensures secured payments supported with OTPs for surety of payments.

8. Feedback Submission

If the user is given the power to share their experience of delivery, it will eventually give better insights to the vendor and admin. They will learn from feedback which drivers and middlemen they have to involve for better parcel delivery.

Also, it gives the satisfaction to the user that their voice is being heard and action is taken upon.

Budget Estimation for Making App like Lalamove

The budget of making an app depends on what features you want to include and at what level you want your app to get launched. For example, to make an app like Lalamove, will require vast Geo-mapping and employment of many vendors and drivers. It will automatically be pricier than an app with small courier service delivery constraints.

On average, to make a courier delivery app like Lalamove starts from 10,000 US dollars. The price could vary depending on your requirement. You can contact the app development company for better clarity.

Conclusion

Home delivery apps today are in demand because people today are dependent on a comfortable “on-demand” life. With apps like Lalamove getting banned, people are having problems and they are eagerly waiting for the apps that provide them good courier delivery services.

So making an app that already has a good user base and its major player gets out of competition, it is the right time to make the most out of it!