How to Develop a Food Delivery App like Zomato-Development Phase, Features and Cost

Food is one of the most cherished human needs. All of us have food cravings and love different cuisines, but cooking everytime is not easy for most of the people. Surveys revealed that almost 70% of men and 100% of young women in India get food cravings daily.

These food cravings have led to the birth and popularity of online food delivery applications. Apps like Zomato have evolved themselves as a favourite hub spot for youth and middle-aged people. According to surveys, 70% of people like to order their favourite dishes from their smartphones. These apps satisfy their customers by offering delicious dishes at an affordable price at their doorstep.

Statistics that prove the demand to make app Like Zomato

• Rapid Boost in Sales up to 20-25%

The on-demand online food delivery apps have led to an increase of 20-25% in the eatery business.  Also, it is recorded that online food delivery services have evolved 300% since 2014, which is faster when compared with the dine-in traffic.

• 10 Million+ App Downloads In App Stores

Zomato is one of the most popular apps in India with trendy features, exciting offers, and excellent customer support, it has touched the milestone of 10 Million+ app downloads. Experts have revealed that restaurants can lose up to 70% of their customers by 2020 if they stop offering online delivery services.

•  Rapid Growth In Revenue Generation

It has been estimated that the food delivery apps help the restaurants by multiplying their revenue generation by 5x times. According to Statista, revenue from on-demand delivery apps amounts to US$107,438m in 2019.

• Increase in In-App Payment

It has been recorded that, in 2019 payments made through food applications have reached a huge amount of $210.45 billion.

• Market Share

It has been observed that on-demand food delivery applications hold approximately 10% of the total market share. They have reached this milestone due to exciting and innovative offers to boost their sales. When compared with other segments, food delivery apps are flourishing at a faster pace with millions of app downloads and satisfied customers. 

Why is Zomato more popular than other food ordering apps?

Zomato is a Gurugram-based startup company, which was founded by the two young minds, Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Initially, it was named Foodiebay and was renamed Zomato in 2010. It is ramping up its business aggressively and has reached a mark of 3-million orders monthly.

The entire concept of Zomato has proved out to be a huge success. It is one of the leading food-tech startups which covers more than 10,000 cities and 23 countries across the globe.

We have listed major reasons behind the success of Zomato:

• The First Mover Advantage 

It is well said that the first movers in any sector win half the battle with their outstanding ideas. However, Zomato was the first of its kind and established quick connections with its customers, which was one of the major reasons behind the popularity of this app. They became unstoppable due to their unique marketing and brand-building skills. Whether it is midnight cravings or early morning cramps they are committed to delivering food at your doorsteps. This ultimately helped Zomato to sail through rising in a shorter span.

• Robust Business Model

A strong business model is the most important ingredient in order to ensure long term success. From the initial stage, the Zomato services app comprised a unique, reliable, and profitable business model which helped the company to deal with the tough times when the company was facing losses in 2015-16. However, the company has evolved itself and has boosted its revenue in multi-folds through advertisements, Zomato Gold, Zomato Whitelabel and Zomato Kitchens.

• Strong Team Support

In order to build a Zomato like app, you need to have ambitious and hard-working people around you. It is very essential to have the right team with people sharing a common vision and the potential to turn the ideas into reality. The right team and people are the biggest assets any company can ever have. The right set of people are always committed to the company and are ready to walk on the bumpy roads during your ups and downs.

• Continuous Innovation and Evolution

Establishing a startup involves taking risks and continuous evolution in order to rise. One of the best things about the Zomato ordering app is that it is continuously evolving and expanding itself by introducing new policies, offers, and services. With a clear picture, Zomato came with a unique concept of advanced table booking, this feature facilitated users by booking the tables of their choice which minimized the waiting time. In addition to this, it comprises a subscription model known as Zomato Gold, which offers perks and offers on food and drinks for people who love to dine-out. It has partnered itself with 10,000 restaurants globally to offer either 1+1 on food or 2+2 on beverages. All this has helped the company to sail through the immense competition in the food tech industry.

• Intricate Eye on its Competitors

A Food delivery app like Zomato always monitors the competitors and their marketing campaigns very closely. . Besides, it kept a count of its competitors and kept evolving itself continuously. All this was done to stay ahead of its competitors by its branding skills and by launching new offers. It soon launched the Zomato Gold in order to cope up with other food delivery apps and generate higher revenues. 

How Does Zomato App Works and Earn Revenue?

• Restaurant Listings / Advertising (62% Revenue Generation)

During its initial days, Zomato was just a platform in which restaurants were listed. These advertisements generated revenues from the listed restaurants. After some time, this was further extended to table reservations and food delivery facilities. In the present-day scenario, Zomato charges a high commission to different restaurants in order to promote and place them on its home page.

• Food Delivery (30% Revenue Generation)

Similar to advertisements, Zomato charges a heavy commission to the restaurants based on their order history. When the customer pays the delivery fees, this amount is equally split between the restaurant owner as well the company head. The delivery fees depend on many factors like the riders, distance of the location from the restaurant. All this contributes towards the revenue generation of the application.

• Live Events

Zomato has recently entered into branded events by introducing Zomaland. They are basically live events that consist of food, drinks, live performances, musical events, dance performances, and other fun activities. Zomato charges the entry fees to enter Zomland and people can enjoy the rest of the fun activities. In 2018 it was organized in Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru. Zomato revealed that a crowd of 100K was witnessed in these fun carnivals.

• White Label Access

Apps similar to Zomato facilitate restaurants to develop their customized food delivery apps under Zomato Whitelabel access. In addition to this, it collaborates with cloud kitchens and with other partnered restaurants for consultancy services. When a user searches the list of restaurants available for the location, Zomato helps the user by increasing the options of restaurants. All this is done at a minimal cost due to the tough competition of other food-tech online delivery apps.

• Zomato Kitchens

Zomato keeps in touch with the entrepreneurs in order to set up and operate Zomato Kitchens under different labels. All this helps the entrepreneurs to fund restaurants in the right locations with a huge investment of INR 35 Lakhs. It has been revealed that Zomato offers a return in the range of INR 2 Lakhs to INR 4 Lakhs per month and has affiliated 180+ kitchens in running.

How To Create an App Like Zomato?

Before developing a Zomato like app, you need to understand your target audience carefully in order to retain better results. This can be done by carrying out detailed market analysis and checking the demands of your customers which can ensure higher-growths. Along with this, you need to keep a count of restaurant owners, delivery persons, and end-users to maintain a  stable balance. Developing an app is not an easy task, so it is highly advised to hire top app developers from, Zomato App Development Company which can help you to develop this app at an affordable mobile app development cost.

Major Components for Development of a Zomato-Clone App

The entire structure to create a app like Zomato comprises 4 major elements that work together to offer a premium user-experience:

• Customer’s end
• Delivery personas
• Restaurant’s end
• Admin’s end

1. Customer’s End

This refers to  the front-end of the application along with UI/UX design which plays a major role to attract customers. You need to hire dedicated developers to design the application which matches the demand and psychological level of your customers. This interface comprises Search bars, Booking, Payments, Reviews, etc.

We have listed some important features which should be integrated to build Zomato like app, they are mostly the same for all the parties mentioned above :

• Social media account integration:

This feature facilitates the users by helping them to log in or sign up with their social media accounts or email ids.

• Search Bar:

Search Bar is one of the most important features to save your time and satisfy your cravings at the same time. It helps the users to search their favorite restaurants as well as dishes and cuisines.

• Call or Message Restaurant/ Driver:

This feature is extremely helpful in delivering clear instructions regarding ordered food to restaurants and locations to driver in charge. It can also be used to inform about the delays or any inconvenience caused to the person who ordered the food.

• Multiple Payment Options:

It is very important to offer flexible payment methods to your customers. Multiple payment options include Debit Card, COD, Mobile Wallets, Credit Cards and UPI.

• Notifications:

Push notification is the best way to attract your target audience. These notifications let the customers know about the latest offers and major discounts.  

• GPS Tracking:

Integrated tracking feature helps the user to track the location of their driver as well as track the status of their food.

• Veg And Non-Veg Logo:

It helps the customers to distinguish between the veg and non-veg food items before ordering them.

• Real-time Availability:

This feature offers high accessibility to its customers by allowing the users to check the availability of tables and food options before making a booking in real-time.

• Large Social Community:

The users can connect with each other by integrating their social media handles and creating a profile. With this users can recommend cuisines, dishes, and restaurants to each other. This will ultimately lead towards boosting your sales and can strengthen your relations with your customers.

2. Delivery Incharge’s End

This is one of the most important components of your application, it is very essential to ensure easy delivery of the ordered food items. Here is a list of important features that should be present in your application for delivery boys

• Check Latest Orders

This allows the delivery boy to keep a count of the present as well as upcoming orders and manage his time to complete daily targets with proper planning.

• Accept or Reject Orders

It is an important feature, which offers a choice to the delivery in charge to reject orders in case of any emergencies or disputes. They can also accept orders quickly, to complete their daily targets and earn incentives.

• Geolocation

Geolocations help the delivery boy to reach the correct location with the shortest route.

• E-sign Page

The E-sign page facilitates the delivery boy by providing an e-signature after delivering their orders as a confirmation receipt.

3. Restaurant’s End

The restaurant’s owners need to have separate features in order to track their customer rates and business pulse. However, many app features of the customer’s app are similar to the restaurant’s end.

The major features for the restaurants to build an app like Zomato include:

• Easy Reply to reviews

This feature helps the restaurants to get in touch with their potential customers by replying to their reviews.

• Listen to conversations with your customers

It can help the restaurant owners by allowing them to listen to received calls and request a call back in case of missed calls on busy days.

• Manage restaurant’s information and offers

Restaurant owners can easily modify the information and photos of their outlets and customize their profile according to the taste of their customers with attractive menus, pictures, working hours, etc. They can even add offers accordingly to attract more customers.

•  Keep an Eye on analytics:

Analytics helps the restaurant’s owners to feel the pulse of their business and keep a track on the performance and revenue generation of their restaurant as well as their competitors.

•  Control over Whitelabel Apps for Zomato

If your restaurant comprises the Whitelabel Zomato app, they can easily edit the entire information with the help of this feature.

4. Admin’s End

The backend of the application is popularly regarded as the admin panel, which carries out the entire functionality of the application. We will advise you to hire a Mobile app development company for Zomato like app development which can influx your sales. Hence, we have jotted down the major features which are essential to develop apps like Zomato and ensure strong support from the Admin’s side.

• Admin Dashboard:

This dashboard manages the overall updation and functionality of all the stakeholders. This panel comprises restaurant management features in order to add and delete the outlets from the list. It is capable enough to view the total customers of an outlet as well as number of deliveries in a particular month.

In addition to this, it comprises payment management accounts, there is a single account of delivered professionals as well as the distributor to make the process hassle-free.

• Analytics and Reporting:

The analytics manages the data insights and metrics of the bookings, by generating reports from the applications. The profit and loss of all the listed restaurants as well as delivery staff are checked on a weekly or monthly basis. This is specially designed to calculate the total revenue generated and profit calculation.

How much does it cost to build an app like Zomato?

The major pricing model of your app depends upon the choice of features. This can again be segregated on the basis of MVPs and advanced features. Let me take you towards the factors which determine the zomato app development cost :

• Application Size

App size is directly proportional to the features inside your app. In order to keep your app small, you need to avoid unnecessary features and stick with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It comprises a few features, which can be expanded and modified accordingly.

• App Design

Apps like Zomato have an attractive design and user-friendly interface which attracts potential customers and boosts the revenue of the app.

• Supported Platforms

In order to target a large audience, you need to have an app that operates on multiple platforms which include Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. If you want to go on the cheaper side, you can develop an app that supports android platforms only.

The cost of app development can Roughly range between $12,000 – $25,000.

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Maven Cluster is the leading mobile app development company in USA, with industry’s top 1% of professionals. We have experience of more than 10+ years in mobile app development services. We are highly dedicated towards developing robust, user-friendly, and customized mobile applications. Feel free to contact us, in order to know the exact zomato app development cost. We will be more than happy, if you join the happy community of our clients.