Studies reveal that the number of pets in US households is more than the number of children. This is really an unbelievable thing, but true. A majority of them say that they care for their pets as much as their children. Moreover, recent years have witnessed a rapid rise in the number of Indians choosing pets. Dogs top the list of pets globally.
It is because the dogs offer great company, treat you as a friend, and are loyal. Everyone loves their dogs and gets the same love in return. They are cute and fluffy, enhance your moods, and are an antidote for loneliness, but also bring extra responsibilities. Dogs need constant care, food, training, grooming, playing, as well as regular walking. People are busy nowadays with their existing responsibilities in life, and it is difficult for them to handle all these responsibilities.
That’s where the role of a dog walking mobile app comes into play. In this era of digital transformation, everything now has a solution at your fingertips. What these dog walking apps do is help you outsource the responsibility of dog walking to attendants. These attendants will take your dog for a walk for the time decided by you. The app will show the tracking about everything so that you can stay assured.
If you are looking to on demand dog walking app development, then this will prove to be a great and profitable idea.
Why Develop Dog Walking App?
The demand for dog walking apps is in demand today because an increasing number of people around the world are adopting dogs as pets.
- There were around 19.5 million pet dogs in India in 2018. By 2023, there will be more than 31 million pet dogs in the country. The market is witnessing a surge in demand for dog food sales because of the growth of the number of pet dogs.
- In the USA, 63.4 million households have at least one pet dog.
- More than 95% of dog owners count their dog as a family member.
- USA, China, Russia, Japan, Philippines, and India are among the countries with the highest dog population.
- A majority of dog owners say that taking out their dogs for a walk shows their love and affection for the dogs. However, 57% of dog owners admit that they fail to take the dog for walking regularly. The main reasons behind this failure are laziness, work, family responsibilities, bad weather, and challenges in dealing with a dog.
These crucial statistics are enough to prove that the dog owners want an app that can address their challenges of not being able to take the dog out for a walk regularly. If you have a business idea for such an app, then this is the right time for you to make a decision. Below, you will find everything related to dog care app development, including the business model, features, step by step process, and cost.
How Does an On Demand Dog Walking App Work?
Let’s understand the workflow of a dog walking business app.
- The user installs the mobile app and signs up for it.
- Browse and search the nearby dog walkers. Send request for dog walking service.
- Other users who have registered as a dog walker get the notification about the request. They have the option to accept or deny the request on the basis of interests.
- After accepting the request, the details about the user is shared with the dog walker.
- Once the walker takes the dog for a walk, the pet owner can track the location and route of the walk, in real-time in the app.
- Once the walk is done, the walker notifies the dog owner and hands over the dog to them.
The dog owner pays the specified amount through the app using online payment options or directly to the walker. - Both the dog walker and owner can rate and review their experiences in the app.
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Business Model of Dog Walking App
How to monetize or earn money from a dog walking app? This is an important question because that’s how you are going to earn revenue and make profits from an application similar to the dog walking uber app.
Below is how an ideal business model for such an app works:
- Commission: Most of your revenue will come through the commission from transactions made by the dog owner to the walker. Since you provide options to the people to find dog walkers online, it makes sense to charge some amount for it. So, the commission is charged for giving work to the walker and dog walking service to the dog owner.
- Subscription: You can also provide subscriptions to the dog owners on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Once they have subscribed to the app with the amount specified by you, they can send their dogs for a walk for the defined number of times, hours, or distance. This will make your app a subscription-based solution which is a trending thing nowadays.
- Paid Promotions: You can improve the visibility of the dog walkers in the app by promoting them and charge some fee for the same. This will bring the walker more leads and some additional revenue to the app.
- Ads: This is another great way to monetize your dog walking mobile app. You can display advertisements in the app related to dog foods, grooming, or other things that might interest your audience. For this, you can charge the service providers or vendors.
- Dog Care Products: If you want an additional source of income, then you must sell several dog care essential products through the app. You can add a shop section where all the products can be listed with pricing. Since you already have an audience, it becomes easy for you to drive sales to the products.
On Demand Dog Walking App Development Features
While opting for the on demand dog walking app development, you must integrate the following features for the user, walker, and admin.
User Features
- Registration: After installing the app, the new users can sign up with an email address, phone number, and password. You can also enable them to register with a Google Account or social media for a faster experience.
- Profile: The user can create his/her profile and add personal information, like name, photo, address, information about the dog, etc.
- Booking: After browsing the available walkers nearby, the dog owners can send requests for booking a walker. They can also cancel the walk if there are any issues.
- Estimated Bill: While browsing and booking a dog walker service, the user can see the estimated amount that will be charged for the walk.
- Check Walker Profile: The user can see the profile of the dog walker to know his experience, visiting charges, overall ratings, as well as reviews by other users.
- Notifications: The dog owners receive notifications about everything, right after placing a walker request, the status of the walk, and when the walk is complete.
- Live Tracking: It will allow the dog owners to see the live location of their dogs when they are on the walk. This helps them to know when to expect the pet back and stay assured.
- Payment: Integrate multiple payment options in the app so that the user can pay the bill using their preferred mode, like debit/credit card, UPI, e-wallet apps, etc. You can also include the cash option.
- In-App Communication: By adding a calling or messaging feature in the app, you can allow the dog owner and walker to communicate easily.
- Feedback: After the completion of a walk, the users can rate and review their experience with the dog walker and offer suggestions for improvement.
- Referral: Include the referral feature to allow the users to invite their friends and bring more users to your app. For every invite, you can offer some free walks or an amount.
- Reports: An essential feature to help users see the walk log and reports about their dogs, including walking distance and duration, bookings, payments, etc.
Walker Features
- Profile: Allowing the experienced walkers to register on the app and set up their profile. They can add their information, like experience, name, contact number, interests, etc.
- Requests: Walker can receive and see the walk request in real-time and have the options to accept or deny it based on their interests.
- Dog Owner Info: The walker can check the details about the dog owner, such as their name and contact number, dog information, address, etc.
- Availability: Walkers can show the timings during the day when they are available to take dogs for a walk.
- Navigation: Dog walkers should enable the navigation feature so that dog owners can track their route while they approach them and take the dog for a walk.
- Earnings: This feature will allow walkers to have a centralized look at all their earnings and bookings, along with date and time.
Admin Features
- Dashboard: A centralized dashboard with an intuitive experience to manage everything in the app from a single place.
- Booking Management: Admins can manage all the bookings made in the app by the user and accepted by the walker.
- User/Walker Management: This feature allows the admins to manage the accounts of users and walkers and keep track of their activities.
- Notifications: A feature for admins to send push notifications to the users about the latest promotions, offers, discounts, or app updates.
- Analytics: A centralized feature that shows the reports and analytics about the number of app users, bookings, commissions, revenue, etc.
- Tracking: This feature is to gain control over the activities of the walker when they take the dog for a walk. It is crucial for safety and security purpose.
- Payment Management: The app will receive payments from dog owners, and part of it is sent to the walkers. Admin can see total earnings, commissions, and change the rate of commission.
- Support: Users or walkers may issues. When they submit a ticket or raise a query, you can see those queries and respond to them with this feature.
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Advanced Features of on demand dog walking app development
- Schedule Walks: Since dog walking is a regular activity, a feature to schedule the walk can make the experience more convenient for the dog owner. They can schedule the walks for a week with a one-time booking.
- Filters: The filter feature can be added to the apps of both the walker and the owner. The walker will be able to filter the requests based on their interests and distance. Whereas, the dog owner can choose the walker according to selected criteria.
- Professional Advice: It can prove to a very useful feature for your users, especially the ones who are new dog parents. You can provide them with professional tips about training, grooming, diet, and other things that help in taking good care of a dog. You can share such advice daily and bring in more users for the app.
- Events Notifications: If any pet or dog events are happening nearby, you can notify your users about them. They can participate in such events with their dogs. These events can be dog show, dog training programs, dog sports, etc.
- Community: Many apps include this feature to engage the users on the platform. The community feature can bring together the dog owners virtually, where they can share tips for dog care or their experiences with pets. They can also share photos of their dogs and communicate through comments.
- Live Streaming: Along with GPS tracking, you can also integrate a live streaming feature, where you allow the dog owner to see the entire walk live from the app. This keeps them assured about the safety of their pets.
- Dog Playdate: Playdates help in maintaining the physical and mental well-being of the dog. With such a feature, you can notify users about the dog playdates nearby. Dog owners can meet fellow dog lovers, whereas the dogs get to play and socialize with other dogs.
- 24/7 Support: Providing support is crucial for the success of a mobile app. Dog owners or walkers may face issues related to payment, experience, or any other thing. In such cases, they can seek your support team for help.
How to Develop a Dog Walking Mobile App?
1. Decide business model
The first step is to make a decision about the business model of the app. We have mentioned the top five ways to monetize a dog walking app above. You can choose multiple or all ways to make profits from the app. This is a crucial step because your aim is to serve the need of people and do a money-making business for yourself.
2. Research the market
Market research is vital for every business strategy. You have to understand the market’s current scenario, such as your target audience, challenges of the audience, how to address those challenges with your app, the latest trends in the pet care sector, etc.
Next, find your top competitors in the target market, like the best dog walking app, their dog walking services, marketing strategies, and more things. This will help you understand the current state of the market and find more innovative ways to grow your business. You can also take inspirations from them.
3. Finalize app features
After the market research, you should decide the features to include in the app. To compete in the market, you must look to integrate all the features mentioned above, including the advanced ones.
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4. Find an app development company
For on demand dog walking app development, you need to find a reliable Android or iOS app development company. You need to choose a company that has experience in developing such apps, and can take care of the UI/UX design as well. The expert app development companies will create a great app that can attract more users and help you grow in the market.
5. Testing
After developing the app, the final phase before the launch is the testing. The aim of testing is to find the potential issues and bugs that remain in the app during development. If you release the app without testing, the users will face several issues and abandon your application.
There are experienced testers available for this purpose. However, you must choose the on demand dog walking app development company that can handle the testing part as well. With this, you wouldn’t need to look out for another company or testers for fixing the bugs.
Cost of Developing a Dog Walking App
The on demand dog walking app development cost depends on a number of key factors, such as features to be integrated, target market, platforms chosen (Android, iOS), UI/UX design, the expertise of the app development company, and app complexity.
Overall, the average cost to develop a dog walking mobile app will be somewhere between $10,000 to $30,000.
Wrapping Up
Mobile apps are serving almost every need today. Dog walking apps are doing the same, by helping dog owners to find the people who can take their dogs for a walk. Undoubtedly, this is an in-demand business idea that will only grow with time. By getting dog care and walk app developed, you can grab a big share in the market.
Have any doubts or questions? Get in touch with our experts or write in the comments.
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