Nowadays, a lot of discussions are happening around the development of a food delivery platform. You must not be unbeknownst to the rising popularity of food delivery app development, which is tremendously popular among people owing to its convenience. But every new mobile app development certainly comes with its challenges, and online food delivery challenges are nothing new.
Now, as we discuss the food delivery system, a food delivery app development is not a big problem. The real challenges are associated with the maintenance of a food delivery system. While we focus on this trend, let’s explore its origin.
- The current wave of food & grocery delivery ventures came into existence in the Uber-for-X rush.
- However, you need to remember that the logistics for this arena are way more complex than matching riders with drivers and providing a GPS tracking facility in a mobile app.
- For the success of any food delivery platform, it must carefully build and maintain menus as well as inventory lists for millions of individual merchants, track a huge number of daily received orders, and also run a well-organized dispatching system.
This serious task needs a very thoughtful approach. Hence after careful research of some of the present food ordering & delivery solutions, we found a few facts about the challenges they are dealing with. Thus, after taking a closer look at the issues, we discuss how the business can deal with the problem and keep its audience happy by avoiding a few mistakes.
Growing Market of Online Food Delivery
Before jumping towards the challenges faced by food delivery companies, let’s first have a sneak peek into this system which has been widely embraced by the worldwide audience.
It has been learned from numerous research studies that online food delivery and the takeaway system will be growing at a CAGR of 15.25 percent by 2021.
The figures don’t surprise anyone, going by the increasing number of people choosing to order their food. Numerous restaurants and delivery services have joined this bandwagon, and it has not gone down for a long time.
Explore More: Best Food Delivery App Development Companies List
Challenges Associated with Online Food Delivery System
Online food delivery system though extremely popular, still has its dynamics, and presents several problems with online food ordering, which have been discussed below, to give you a deeper understanding of the channel:
Neglecting Customer Loyalty
In the digital world, fidelity means the most to customers. The more choices, the more they get spoilt, and the more they love it. Customer management is one of the significant problems with food delivery startups. So, their mantra is “The more, the merrier.” Those who don’t focus on maintaining their customer base will face the consequences bitterly. However, when a delivery service or restaurant treats its customers with exclusive deals, incentives, and freebies, they instantly gain their loyalty that very moment. The sooner the restaurants realize this, the better it is for them.
Not Keeping the Price Model Predictable
The prominence of a new system certainly attracts fierce competition it and adds to food delivery app challenges. Owing to the huge competition in this arena, adopting a price model that doesn’t continuously fluctuate and pushes sales is challenging.
Also, Read: DoorDash Pricing Model- Lessons on Making Money as the Food Giant Does
So, now the small businesses run on lower margins & capital, and when they further reduce the price, it puts them out of business. And then, in the case of well-set restaurants and delivery firms, there is still no guarantee of higher sales after the price cuts, noting that customers continuously expect more benefits as they place orders.
Competition with the Biggies
Realizing the great potential of the online food delivery system, e-commerce giants are entering the market. For instance, Amazon & Uber are already up with UberEATS and Amazon Restaurants, respectively. Old players like Starbucks and McDonald’s are also planning to join the bandwagon. The big names are pretty aware of the problems with food delivery apps. Now they have the financial & operation resources required to meet market demand. They can easily combat the competition, due to which small setups and independent food delivery businesses are struggling to retain their place in the market.
Dilemma over Logistics
One of the most common online food delivery problems is logistics. Shall we restrict the delivery to a few areas or the whole city? Is there any chance of grabbing more orders from a specific area? How many vehicles would be needed for delivery, and how should they be allocated across delivery points? How can food remain fresh while retaining its quality even when the delivery is for a far-off location?
Hence, there are endless concerns, and restaurants & delivery services must keep these parameters in mind as they decide upon the last-mile logistics model. Timely delivery should be ensured as its opposite may tick off customers, and the chances for the same are high in case of ineffective logistics. Once the trust in your service is lost, it will be tough to regain it.
Inconsistent Food Quality
Maintaining the quality of food delivered to the customers is a real job. After all, the food delivered in packages is just no comparison to food served straight to the customer’s table from the kitchen, which is just a meter away in restaurants.
Mus Read: How to succeed in Restaurant Food Delivery business?
Even when adequate measure is taken to maintain food quality & packaging measures for online orders, they remain prone to quality lapse. The pizzas may turn cold, curries are sure to spill, noodles turn sticky, and sandwiches get moist. And customers always equate food quality to delivery quality. Some of the significant problems with food delivery services are faced due to the quality of the food delivered to the customers.
Inefficiency to Cope with Volumes
So, let’s assume that a particular food delivery service has gained prominence. So, the demand is soaring, and orders keep coming in. But, do the restaurants have the operations & logistics in place to deal with the volume without any interruption to services provided to walk-in customers? This is one of the significant challenges faced by Swiggy. It often happens that restaurants fail to develop a second or alternative line of operations to deal with online delivery orders.
Unreliability in Delivery & Logistics Staff
With there being myriad retail e-commerce services for possibly every arena, the demand for delivery & logistics staff has undoubtedly been fuelled, and this is quite a significant problem faced by Swiggy. But the attrition is pretty high too, owing to various reasons like inadequate salary, poaching & absconding, lack of training, no employee benefits, and the opportunities of progression, life, and health risks (due to weather, constant changes in work schedule and they also carry such heavy, bulky bags).
So, the delivery will surely suffer when insufficient delivery staff. Hence, it is evident that the online food delivery system has a bright future, but the delivery players must combat the hindrances to survive the immense competition. Keeping these facts in mind, it’s time to make the most of a brilliant food delivery mobile app and offer your customers a great online food ordering experience.
Increasing Regulations also affect Food Handling & Delivery.
This, again, is a challenging part of third-party food delivery service. As the food industry is constantly evolving, legislation is developing new rules for the companies providing third-party delivery & food handling. To keep up with these regulations, restaurants are bound to place trust in delivery services to maintain compliance. This way, the popular apps will now gain more prominence. Your business must work with them, integrating these orders and ensuing data into the POS (point-of-sale) system to not miss any order from the third-party delivery applications.
Industry experts share solutions to the challenges faced by the online food delivery industry. A little precaution and awareness can make things a lot easier for us.
Failure to integrate with the third-party delivery apps
For decades, restaurants have enjoyed busy lunchtime, and lately, the dinner service has increased as per the location & consumer expectations. Keeping this in mind, firms focus on offering experience and service. As we live in the era of online food delivery, customers expect delivery from any restaurant of their liking; however, hiring in-house delivery drivers leads to added costs. And now, as peak ordering times are changing, more and more firms are expected to turn to third-party food delivery service providers. However, this move would present another challenge – i.e., failure to integrate the third-party delivery applications, which will ultimately result in losing customers. Having a simple online food ordering platform via your site is not enough. Instead, it is vital to integrate your business with third-party applications, among the other food delivery channels, comprising the off-premise and on-premise ordering, for survival.
Recommended Read: Grocery Delivery App Development Company
Simple Solutions to Major Issues
Put It All Under a Custom Built Website
The ROI is undoubtedly not guaranteed when you hire someone for a food delivery app clone like Zomato. To succeed, you need significantly more. The mobile app developer should leave no stone unturned to build a one-of-a-kind identity in the business market for a strong impact on the client’s brain.
Related Blog: How Much Does It Cost to Develop Food Delivery Apps like Zomato, Grubhub, Uber Eats?
The food business can get the upside of creativity and programming given by the application. Getting going with a feature-rich and safe site is vital so that individuals can undoubtedly confide in you.
Start Small and Expand Later
Starting small would be a great idea to start your business. Area-related challenges faced by food aggregators are quite complicated, and they would need to start slow. After making progress in smaller regions, business owners can extend their business to an enormous scope. They need to sort out issues and advantageously look for arrangements. For instance, considering GrubHub’s business model, it began its journey in Chicago. GrubHub gradually expanded its territory to other US urban communities.
According to Local Demands
When we talk about the growth of online food ordering applications like FoodPanda, Ubereats, and GrubHub it majorly relies on how well they fulfill the requirements of the neighborhood. The food must request and conveyance business should deal with the neighborhood climate. To avoid online food delivery challenges, it is essential to see what work is going out with disconnected and internet showcasing. It may be conceivable that the eateries in the client’s objective territory don’t have a proficient web network, legitimate food arrangements, conveyance norms, etc.
Adding Helpful and Innovative Features
With higher engagements, there is a need to build a robust application that seems to be the clear solution to food delivery challenges. Adding interesting features and innovative solutions would make your app take over the market. The high-level substance channels can be built up that permit a pursuit dependent on the circumstance of food conveyance from the earliest starting point.
Easy Order Process
One of the most common challenges faced by Zomato was placing an order. The order process needs to be simple and actionable. Distinctive payment alternatives like cash on delivery, credit or debit card, or in any event, paying with an e-wallet app make the installment path simpler for the client.
Conclusion!
Woah! These are quite complex challenges. Keeping up with these challenges and maintaining great relations with clients and restaurants seems a little challenging. The right solutions can help you build a strong presence over the internet. All the more significantly, eateries ought to consistently have a decision concerning whether they will convey through your administration.
You can hire the right iOS and Android app development services providers to help you survive the market competition in no time and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other giants in the industry.