Top 5 Tips For Building Your Online Food Ordering And Delivery Platform in 2022 And Beyond

Smartphones and the Internet led to a meteoric rise in online food ordering and delivery platforms. These apps have made ordering food from our favorite restaurants convenient with just a few clicks. 

Here are some interesting stats regarding these platforms: 

1. 70% of customers prefer ordering food online and want it delivered to their location. 
2. The online food ordering and delivery apps will reach 2,656 million users by 2026.
3. This entire industry is expected to be worth USD 200 billion by 2025. 

If you want to build your online food ordering and delivery apps platform, there is no better time to jump in than now. 

This blog will share five tips to help you get off the right start. Let's begin.

Tip No 1: Stay Updated With Customer Choices Regarding Food

Customer preferences regarding food keep changing and never remain the same. So, when starting an online food ordering and delivery platform, it's essential to be aware of the latest trends in food choices to fulfill them. 

Here are the latest trends regarding customer tastes in food:

Alternative Protein Sources

In 2022, people shifted towards alternative protein sources due to health and environmental concerns. Cultured meat, lab-grown food, plant-based nutrition, edible insects, and mycoprotein are gaining traction and becoming primary protein sources. Not only are they nutrient-rich, but they also minimize resource use from the farm-to-fork, unlike protein from livestock. 

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It will also reduce overall costs, and these alternative protein sources demand only marginal dietary requirements and health monitoring. 

Nutraceuticals

The fear of Covid-19 caused people to pay more attention to eating healthily. They want essential nutrients for a healthy lifestyle. So, nutraceuticals have become a top trend in the food industry. 

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Scientific research has revealed that nutraceuticals provide multiple health benefits against disorders related to oxidative stress like allergy, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and immune diseases. 

That's what is driving the demands for nutraceuticals like: 

1. Nutritional supplements 
2. Functional foods
3. Medicinal foods
4. Gut microbiomes enhance foods like prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics 

Personalized Nutrition Solutions 

There is also a demand for personalized nutrition solutions as people are becoming more aware of the importance of nutrition. Customers increasingly prefer sugar and gluten-free diets, vegan diets, and clean-label products. 

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The purpose behind sharing trends like these is to help you partner with restaurants through which you can fulfill customers' needs regarding food. It will help your startup get off the right start.   

Tip No 2: Adopt Sustainable Packaging For Food   

Customers are concerned about the environmental impact on our planet. There is an expectation now that companies and startups will develop sustainable ways to conduct their operations. 

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Here are some alternatives to plastics

1. Bagasse: Utilized as a non-plastic substitute to throw away food storage and dinnerware. It is 100 percent disposable and doesn't have any harmful impact on the environment. Bagasse can be composted at home, but it composts more quickly at industrial composting facilities, where it takes just 60 days to decompose.
2. Areca palm leaf:  It deteriorates speedily and doesn't impact the environment negatively. A leaf plate will not need to chop any tree compared to bananas and bamboo, which requires cutting down many trees. Bananas and bamboo are biodegradable, but manufacturing them does have an impact on the plant. That's not the case with areca leaf plates, which can get created without harming the environment. Areca palm leaf packaging is also less expensive. 
3. Bioplastics: The commercial production of biodegradable plastics is similar to regular plastic. But, the ingredients utilized to make them are polymers that degrade quickly. They are either made entirely of natural materials like corn starch or typical petrochemicals meant to break down more quickly.

Tip No 3: Mobile Apps Are the First Choice For Order Placement

The world is increasingly becoming digital. This digitization has contributed to the immense growth of online food ordering and delivery applications.

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GoodFirms survey revealed that 58.8% of surveyees use mobile apps for placing an order.  

What's the reason behind this? 

Well, a mobile app lets you do the following things: 

1. Book table in advance: Users can make, modify, and cancel bookings at a restaurant they wish to dine in. So, no more waiting in line.
2. Door-to-door delivery: Restaurants are ready to deliver your favorite food to your doorstep. You can order online with just a few clicks and relax on your couch while the delivery partner promptly collects your food and delivers it to your residence. 
3. Reviews and Feedback: People can share their experiences, like the taste of the food, the services of the staff, and the ambiance, through ratings. It helps others decide if they should order from that place or not. Restaurants can also use this feedback to improve their services and food quality. It's a win-win for both. 
4. Get discounts and offers: People love to order food if they get cashback or discount offers. 
5. Track your food: You can track the location of the delivery partner and determine the time it will take to get the food delivered to your doorstep. Also, it helps the delivery boy too in finding your location. 

With this much convenience, it's no wonder that online food ordering and delivery apps are surging in popularity nowadays. They have an extensive encyclopedia of restaurants, complete with ratings, average cost, menus, and reviews. 

So, nowadays, a mobile app is a must if you plan to start an online food ordering and delivery platform. 

With Goodtal, you can contact mobile app developers to create a food delivery app. They will provide end-to-end services at an affordable rate with a streamlined workflow.  

Tip No 4: Come Up With A Subscription Based Model

These exclusive membership programs will benefit those who subscribe to them.

By availing of it, customers get the following benefits that are unavailable to regular users. Here are some suggestions: 

1. Free delivery is available on all orders. There is no distance fee applied, no surge charges during rush hours, and priority delivery, which means that an order placed by a subscriber will jump to the front of the real-time queue when the app looks for a delivery partner to deliver the order.  
2. Provide exclusive deals at the best restaurants in your country. These also include discounts from partner restaurants while dining out.

A survey by GoodFirms revealed that 22% prefer a subscription for ordering multiple meals throughout the week. So, come up with your plan.

Tip No 5: Invest in Robots and Drones Technology For Food Delivery 

Food delivery through robots and drones is still in the early phase as companies are experimenting with it. But, they can potentially solve some issues that come with delivering food. 

Customers would often no longer get fresh food because it couldn't be delivered on time due to delivery partners stuck in high traffic or having to provide multiple foods in the same area. Robots and drones can solve these problems. 

Recently, Uber announced that it is trying to deliver food to people's homes with robots. Customers will be given two options to have their food delivered by robots instead of humans. They will get instructions on how to retrieve food from inside the robot. 

The robot resembles a colorful wheel with a lid that flips open to reveal a delivery inside. It will operate in West Hollywood. 

In 2016, a New Zealand couple became the first people in the world to have Pizza delivered by a drone. Domino's Pizza flew the Peri Peri Chicken and Cranberry pizzas to the family's backyard.   

Again, delivery through robots and drones is still at its nascent stage. But it will become mainstream as the technology empowering robots and drones advances. So, it's worth investing in them early to reap benefits later. 

For Further Reading 

Check out GoodFirms research on online food ordering and delivery platforms. It shares valuable insights into customer perception and buying behavior when choosing a platform for ordering their food. You will also learn in-depth about this industry's challenges and future opportunities.