How to build an online food delivery app like Talabat?

Technology is paving its way in the food industry rapidly. The ease and convenience of ordering food and quick deliveries are changing how food businesses operate. With the ease of ordering online, the growth in the online food delivery application has shown a steep upward trend.

As per the report by Statista, the number of food delivery users in the Middle East region is expected to reach 5.5 million by 2026, with a penetration rate of 44.5% in 2022.

Today’s tech-savvy generation value the convenience of ordering online and receiving quicker deliveries helping them in managing their busy schedules.

Based on the success of the food delivery app, Talabat, investors have shown a lot of inclination toward funding such applications. This seems to be the perfect time to monetize the online food delivery business by creating a robust food delivery app like Talabat.

The rise in popularity of such apps is stable, and worldwide revenue is expected to reach $320 billion by 2029. While COVID has already pushed us to use contactless delivery services, the use of technology in the future will also affect this domain to introduce food deliveries by drones once they evolve to be more sustainable.

The on-demand food delivery industry is not as young as one might think. What is new is the exploration of new fronts in the digital market, as it was undeveloped until 2013. The primary distinction between the traditional and new approaches to the food delivery industry is that the latter gave the customer access to the logistics associated with various restaurants and allowed them to compare and contrast the goods and services provided by various restaurants.

Even though the food delivery industry has seen growth over the last few years, there is a lot of opportunity for refinement and excellence, especially when it comes to food delivery services. Customers might be drawn in by a wide selection of restaurants, a variety of food options, and easy payment methods. Therefore, the urgent need is to create an app that offers these features.

Want to learn more about how you can develop an app like Talabat? Keep reading.

Why should you create a food delivery app like Talabat?

Prior to investing your time and resources in on-demand food delivery app development, it is crucial to determine the advantages of entering the market. In other words, it is better to know why you are stepping into this field and what benefits it would reap to make a food delivery platform like Talabat.

• Market growth is quite promising 

  The number of users and income generated by the delivery business are still amazing. As mentioned above, the market in this industry is expected to touch $320 billion by 2029. But this is not the end. If there was ever a moment to create your own meal delivery app, it is now.

• Locate and remain in touch with your target market

A fantastic approach to engage your target audience, get in touch with them, and obtain feedback is through an on-demand delivery app. The secret to operating a successful business is connecting with as many potential clients as possible. You will be able to see an increase in repeat customers if you create an app similar to Talabat that appeals to a large number of clients at once.

• Convenience and openness to both owners and customers

The benefit to consumers is clear. They get more options and better services. The owners will profit if they can respond to market demands as rapidly as possible by engaging with clients, enlarging their sphere of influence, and gaining dominance.

Key features of a food delivery app like Talabat

Talabat has been one of the most well-known food delivery services in the Middle East’s online meal delivery market for over a decade. Abdulaziz Al Loughani established the meal delivery service Talabat in Kuwait in 2004. In nations in the Middle East, Talabat has been known as a dependable food delivery app.

When Talabat was established, the food delivery sector had just begun to see the effects of the digitization wave. The business made the most of the untapped prospects available at the time by offering the people of the middle east an innovative new method of ordering food. The business expanded its customer base by enabling customers to order food using their mobile devices conveniently.

Talabat app’s features are what make it the most popular meal delivery app in the UAE. If you want an app similar to Talabat, here are the food delivery app features you should consider:

From the customer’s perspective

Only if the application is optimized for an aesthetic feel and ease of navigation the users will choose your application over others. Keeping in mind the needs of the customers, the following features should be considered while creating an application like Talabat.

• Order tracking

Restaurant owners can often update the order status using a real-time tracking tool so that the delivery person can monitor the order and pick it up when it is prepared. Additionally, consumers may follow their orders via real-time delivery tracking from the moment they place an order until the food is delivered.

• Real image support

Customers are highly concerned about the location and cleanliness standards of the restaurant they are ordering from, even when they are not choosing to dine in. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you provide restaurant and food images together with the address and the menu.

• Customer assistance

There must be someone to contact in the event of any inconvenience. A help desk must be available for any needs. These queries and complaints can give you feedback to improve your services.

• Billing options

Your food delivery platform must be secure with multiple payment gateways and offer a variety of payment choices for instant billing, like net banking, debit cards, and credit cards.

From the delivery service’s perspective

The delivery agent, restaurant, and consumers must work closely together for the convenience of all parties involved. The developer must aim for delivery-centric features like:

• A feature that enables order status determination for quicker delivery and better administration. This should help you streamline the management and execution of order deliveries.
• A database for information about all delivery persons and their contact information. It should also track their order delivery history.
• GPS tracker for information about the delivery location and the quickest way to get there. This feature will also give them an approximation of delivery time.
• A chat system for communication with restaurants and customers for speedy coordination. The delivery person should also be able to direct the consumer to the restaurant if necessary.
• Frequent reward deliveries so that delivery agents’ morale and motivation can be boosted.

From the restaurant’s perspective

The restaurant partnering with you for food delivery should have the feature of registering into your delivery platform. Having partnerships with more restaurants and quality restaurants will attract more customers. The features must include the following:

• Registration of restaurant partners with their names, updated menus, addresses, and contact information.
• Order tracking system with push notifications feature.
• A chat system for communication with the delivery partners for better coordination.
• Options of multiple payment systems through your payment gateways.

Additionally, the application must have the feature of managing the above-mentioned three key business parties to add and approve their membership on your application. This will also help you derive analytical KPIs, providing you with further business opportunities or gaps that can be resolved in a timely manner. Charging fees to become your partner will also become a source of revenue, making your business profitable.

How to develop an app for food delivery like Talabat?

We have already talked about the desirable features of an ideal online meal delivery app. To achieve your goal and create an application for food delivery, having a reference app might be a very effective advantage. Here are comprehensive steps you can follow to build an app like Talabat:

Step 1: Conduct market research and define your niche

Prior to joining any new market field, it is crucial to understand the industry dynamics. To identify the market leaders and acquire insights into current trends, one needs to undertake rigorous competitor and market research. Only then shall you start the process of developing a food delivery platform like Talabat. Thoroughly examine your target audience and the market, as this will establish what your app needs.

Step 2: Prepare a business model

Your ultimate aim is to make money. You need to think about how your app will help you with that. Therefore, don’t forget to give your business plan’s prospects due consideration. Define the target market, marketing strategy, and monetization model. What strategies would you employ to keep your current clientele as well as draw in new ones? When will your app start to make a profit? What are the chances going forward?

Make a list of the necessary features and integrations based on this. You can choose the abilities that developers need to have. An assessment can help you determine what competencies are present in your current team and who or what is missing.

Step 3: Plan a revenue strategy

Develop a revenue strategy to monetize the food delivery app. Leading online food delivery companies like Talabat usually have four main income-generating channels:

• Price charged for each order
• Advertisements
• Promos for restaurants on-site
• Membership fees

Step 4: Put a team together and approach developers

You need to make sure that you have both experienced and technical help in your team to put your thoughts and goals into action. In order to avoid any misunderstandings and to ensure that you are happy with the final output, be sure to communicate all of your worries and requirements in advance with a reputable team of developers.

Step 5: Build an MVP

Your mental view needs to be more focused. Separate the must-have features from the rest of the features if you really want to set your delivery application apart from the competition. Then, start developing your MVP. Make sure that brand strategists, developers, and designers give the necessary consideration and perspective to create an appealing user interface because this is what the end user sees. Launching a preliminary draft and evaluating the responses will help you validate your business idea before you commit a significant amount of money.

Step 6: Run a test trial

Obtain the feedback your MVP helped to gather. Together, decide which features were most frequently used and which were lacking. Who has accessed your app the most frequently, and when? When creating your final product, concentrate on this information and make changes and improvements.

Step 7: Final release

Finally, you can launch your app, but this is where the constant customer assistance and bug-fixing job starts. Be there to assist your customers 24/7.

Design and tech stack required to build a food delivery app

The architecture of the application should be designed to facilitate customers, delivery partners, and restaurant partners in such a way that it is user-friendly from all the partner’s perspectives and is easily scalable with the subsequent growth of the business.

For smooth data exchange and automation of the services, the architecture should be designed keeping in mind the server capacity and integrated APIs and parsers to ensure there are no losses or delays in information exchanges.

Based on the steps mentioned above and the requirements of your application, it becomes imperative that the application works seamlessly on all the platforms, both Android and iOS. You can choose for ReactNative and Flutter frameworks to create your application as they are scalable, flexible, and most suitable for developing cross-platform applications.

In addition to special features, you must consider the below-mentioned basic features you must consider while choosing the tech stack.

Cost of developing a food delivery app

Any business is designed with an intent to earn profits. Thus it is important to know the investment required to ensure the desired profits. However, the cost depends on multiple factors like the features you choose, the applications and platforms you shortlist for the development of the application, and the development partner. Please note that the MVP cost and the cost of the final product will differ marginally.

For better understanding, it is advised to calculate the man-hours required to develop the application, as the cost will depend on the location of the development partner.

The below-mentioned grid can provide a better estimation of full-version applications development cost.

Based on the hiring location of your development partner and the required features, you can easily calculate the development cost with the formula:

(Features x time) x Hourly Rate = Development Cost

On an average, the cost to make an app like Talabat can cost anywhere between $15,000 to $40,000. You will also need to make versions for both Android and iOS.

[Also Read: How much does it cost to create an app in 2022? A detailed guide]

How can Appinventiv help build a profitable food delivery application?

When you start thinking along the lines of custom food delivery application development, Appinventiv should be the place to reach out to for support. With our history of clients and the services we provided to them, we can serve you as a reasonable and expert food delivery app development company.

Appinventiv helped Pizza Hut develop a mobile app for Middle Eastern countries using UI/UX technology to improve their digital appearance and user experience.

Our team did extensive research to understand the customer needs and provide a visually appealing architecture to their app. By overcoming operational challenges and increasing the screen transition time to 7 seconds, we were able to increase their mobile app conversion rate to 30% and encourage 50k+ app downloads.

It is no doubt that we will have your back from the beginning of the journey till the outcomes are seen. So, whenever you next think about how to create an app like Talabat, just drop us a query.

FAQs

Q. How much does the Talabat app cost?

A. The cost to make an app like Talabat can cost anywhere between $15,000 to $40,000 depending on the features and functions that the app needs, the resources required to build it, and the level of optimization and operability that it demands. You will also need to make versions for both Android and iOS. The cost from ideation to launch can also go up to $50k or $60k if you build a dedicated website apart from an app.

Q. How long does it take to build an app like Talabat?

A. With a team of experts and experienced developers, it should take between 8 to 10 weeks, depending on the features and functionalities that need to be inculcated into the app.

Q. Are there any special considerations one should take care of when developing an app similar to Talabat?

A. Yes, you must take care of a few things when developing food delivery app features. A solid structure is practically required for an online food delivery app like Talabat.

• Whether the front or back end, the app needs to be adaptable for future changes and additions as the needs and feedback change.
• Remember that consumers are exposed to the user interface, and the more easily it can be used, the more users will choose it.
• You need a solid database and backend to give the technical staff the greatest support possible.
• The app goes live after the front-end and back-end have been developed and integrated. However, a testing team is required to look for any application flaws even after launch.

THE AUTHOR

Prateek Saxena

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER