How to develop your Grocery Delivery App using this low-cost technique?
Is your grocery store or supermarket business suffering for coronavirus? Do you wish your grocery store should appear on the top when people search for “grocery delivery near me” or “grocery shop near me”? Then, you need to go for a grocery delivery app development.
Technical advancement and Calamities originate transformations in our lifestyles. Coronavirus and its effects are the latest examples that we are now living in a new normal way. You will observe paradigm shifts in buying and selling of every essential and non-essential.
Thanks to smartphones and on-demand delivery mobile apps, we can deliver anything right at our doorstep, even in lockdown situations. From clothing to household or groceries, everything is available at our fingertips. Doesn’t it seem fruitful to start an online grocery delivery venture?
Well, If you think developing a grocery shopping delivery app will require a big investment, then give it a double thought right there. Read this article and grasp how to make a grocery delivery app at the lowest budget.
Steps that you should take into account to secure the success of your grocery delivery app development
We are discussing a cost-effective grocery shopping delivery app. When you want to save the cost, you need to perform some tasks on your own. It not only saves your money but time to market the app as well.
Select the Model of your on-demand grocery delivery app
Above everything else, select the model of your grocery shopping delivery app. The specific app model helps you focus on and accomplish your core business aim. So, there are mainly three types of grocery delivery apps. Let’s give you a brief on each one.
Store-specific
The model is the best choice when you are running your own supermarket or grocery store. The application will solely represent your store and the products to your customers. Further, it will be in your account to manage all store-related activities, including online grocery items, orders, deliveries, etc.
Aggregator
It is the most convenient way to kick-off an online grocery shopping delivery app without actually opening any store. Yes, just develop a grocery home delivery app and let local grocery stores register on your app.
Your app will aggregate grocery stores for users to find and order from their nearby grocery retailers. Later, the concerned grocer will confirm the order and deliver the groceries to the customer.
Marketplace
A marketplace grocery app model is somewhat similar to the aggregator model. However, the difference is you need to hire delivery boys to deliver grocery orders to the customer’s venue.
Do you like the grocery delivery app model of BigBasket? Then, Make an app like BigBasket by reading this blog.
The model you choose will affect the overall cost of developing a grocery delivery app. Nevertheless, to build a compelling on-demand delivery app for grocery stores, you must create three apps.
- Customer app
Customers will install and register on the app to order groceries from your online store. The app incorporates customer-centric features such as searching grocery stores, a cart to add items, payment options, reorder, etc.
- Store/Merchant app
The app is for grocers and vendors who want to sell their products over your grocery delivery app. They will be allowed to control and manage the app as per their stock and product availability.
- Delivery Driver App
It is for the delivery personnel to keep track of pick-up and drop-off of the grocery orders.
Pro Tip: You can encompass the customer and vendor panel into a single app bifurcating at registration time.
Deciding the Revenue Model
There are many ways to make money out of grocery delivery mobile apps despite selling the products. Let’s give you an idea of some revenue models that you can incorporate into your grocery delivery app.
- Delivery Charges: The most common revenue-generating model for any on-demand delivery app is charging for delivery service. You can calculate the delivery charge depending on the distance between the customer and the store. Or charge a flat delivery rate based on the total amount of the order.
2. Revenue Sharing: When you aggregate other grocery stores on your mobile app, then ask them to share their revenue. The commission rate basically lies in each order, and it should be predefined. You can fix a certain percentage, such as 15% or 30% on every order.
3. Advertisement Promotional Services: The grocery delivery app can also make money through advertising and highlighting different brands on the app. Promotional banners and post of other stores for a fixed time on your app to increase their visibility.
4. Membership fee: Another effective way to generate revenue despite selling is by offering membership. Offer lucrative schemes like unlimited free delivery, exclusive discount on groceries, etc. with membership. Charge a fixed amount for a monthly or yearly membership. It also helps to stick the customers on the app until the membership.
One of the famous grocery delivery apps Instacart has different delivery charges. Suppose a customer’s order is above the value of $35. Then, the customer is entitled to pay $3.99 for scheduling delivery for 2 hours, and $5.99 for 1 hour.
Do you like the Instacart grocery delivery app? Get to know more about how to Make a Grocery Delivery App like Instacart.
Must-have Features of Grocery Delivery App
Features are among the preliminary factors that determine the cost of developing a grocery shopping app. It states that the more features you incorporate into your app, the more it will cost to build your app. Besides, it is crucial to integrate features that make your app one-of-a-kind and enhance UI/UX.
Remember, we need to build either three or two apps and top of that, an admin panel. The Admin Panel is to hover over the online grocery shopping business. So, let us glimpse over simple yet interactive features you can manage with the low budget as well.
Customer App
Registration with Google account or any of Social media account;
Browse Items to look for generic items;
Smart Search to narrow down the search for a specific item, brand, or store;
Order Tracking to allow customers to get the delivery status of the order in real-time;
Multiple Payment Gateways to allow customers to pay online using their convenient option;
Discounts and Offers to attract customers to buy products on your grocery shopping app;
Ratings and Feedback to know whether customers cherish your products and services;
Reorder to enable customers to reorder previous purchases;
Schedule Delivery to permit customers to schedule delivery time as per their convenience;
Store Manager App
Manage Order to confirm or refuse any order according to the stock availability;
Dashboard to observe the demand and supply chain of the store and other inventory statistics;
Manage Discounts and Offers to announce discount and special offers on their store items respectively;
Reports & Analytics to let store managers gauge the revenue generated on your marketplace grocery shopping app;
Feedback Management lets the store manager see feedback received on the app from their customers;
Manage Listing is a crucial feature that allows the manager to add or remove any item;
Manage Notifications to allow the store to keep in touch with their customers via notifications;
Driver/Delivery Boy App
Manage Profile is a feature that includes registration to set up the profile and add personal details for a Delivery boy;
Check Orders feature allows delivery boys to keep track of new delivery orders and details of the same;
Order Delivered shows all the delivered orders by the delivery boy;
Live Tracking Path enables the delivery boy to see the customer location on the Google map and head towards the same;
Admin Panel
Inventory Management; if you are handling the only grocery store, integrate the feature to keep track and check on end-to-end inventory.
Logistics Integration; if you are a marketplace grocery shopping app and need to manage logistics on your own, integrate the feature to manage logistic tasks hassle-free.
Help & Support; for any model, it is mandatory to keep the help & support feature to help customers or store managers whenever they are stuck on the app.
Store Management; keep this feature to approve any store to sell on your grocery shopping app.
These were some of the crucial features. Nevertheless, you can customize the feature list as per your preferences.
Pro tip: Research your competitors’ app and study about features and functionality in-depth before listing your app’s features. Find your inspiration from the Top 5 Grocery Delivery apps.
Investment required for Grocery Delivery App Development
So far, we went through some of the crucial decisions you need to make for the sake of cost-effective grocery delivery app development. Now, let us shed light on some technical steps that will contribute to your low-cost app development.
- Wireframing
A wireframe is the foundation of the user interface and user journey. It contains the basic layout, user flow, and structural guidelines of the app and helps to keep your development team on one page.
It can be prepared within a matter of hours. Which means you can iterate the design without wasting any penny.
- Prototyping
App Prototyping comes next to preparing a low-fidelity wireframe. Designers prepare the visual and interactive app model that doesn’t have working codes, but it feels like a real app. Prototype saves time as well as money and reduces the risk of app failure.
The reason being, it allows us to test the app model on users to validate whether the design is usable and valuable to end-users. After receiving feedback from real users, we can rectify the design before commencing the app development.
This way, it saves loads of time for developers to find and resolve defects after deploying the app. The lesser time developers spend, the less the cost to develop the grocery delivery app will be.
- Identify the app development approach
Selecting the right approach is imperative for every app development. On top of that, an approach must be in accordance with the budget, especially while you are on a tight budget. Glimpse on the below app development approaches to find the right one.
- Native: Undoubtedly, it enables you to deliver the unwatchable user experience and app performance. However, developing a native app is quite costly and time-consuming. Having said that, it is a platform-specific approach and requires a separate team to build an app for Android and iOS.
- Hybrid: Developers build the app using standard web technologies and hybrid frameworks. They augment the web code with native language to create unique features and access to native APIs. The app can be installed the same as others but runs in the native browsers.
- Cross-platform: Using a single codebase, developers build an app that can run on the multiple operating systems. Many cross-platform tools are available to achieve native-like app performance such as Flutter, Xamarine, React Native, etc. the approach is viable as it saves cost and time both at once.
Find the top 10 cross-platform app development frameworks to choose the right framework.
Time to Step ahead
Hopefully, the article helps you to manage your grocery delivery app development under your budget. The cost may rise up than your stipulated budget, but it will enable you to receive a high ROI. Besides, mobile app development is a perfect solution for grocery stores to endure this pandemic situation.
So, develop your grocery shopping delivery app and get a little closer to your end-customers. For any assistance in developing your grocery delivery app, reach us. We have working experience in developing similar apps with startups as well as small to big supermarkets.
