May 25, 2021 Admin

Mobile App Development

Food App Development: Guide To Build App Like Postmates With Cost & Features

Digital transformation has transformed the lives of many people. Smartphones have dragged the transitory changes in our life as our basic necessities are now getting fulfilled with this smart device. Whether it’s about a searching job or ordering our favorite delicacies, everything is possible with the smartphone. 

Last year, the food sector has elevated its business enormously as the whole world was under the clutch of pandemic and people were ordering food from their place. Many business entities find this situation as an opportunity to launch their own food delivery service. Additionally, as per the research, “62% of U.S. customers order delivery or takeout food once a week.”

Hence, due to the rising ignite of online food platforms many developers and business owners are drifting towards the ecosystem of food delivery app development. However, if you are someone who is looking to create an app to deliver food, you are at the right place. But before proceeding we would like to pick a food delivery app for you — Postmates!

Why Invest in Food Delivery App Development?

In the fast-moving world, people have barely time to visit restaurants and enjoy their meals, instead, they are comfortable sitting at their palace and relishing their delicacies in their own way. This is another reason why the online food industry is in the spotlight. 

On the other hand, many online food delivery platforms including Uber Eats have claimed that they have generated around $4.8 billion in revenue in 2020, and GrubHub had 31.4 million active users in 2020. Whereas DoorDash is associated with 390,000 restaurants. 

Hence, due to the rising need for online food delivery as per the statistics, many business entities are getting in touch with IT professional services, for better and efficient food delivery services in the market. As we said above, we will take an example of Postmates for better understanding so that you can steal some amazing features of Postmates. 

What is Postmates?

Postmates is an online food delivery app like Uber and DoorDash. Postmates showcases its presence in more than 100 metropolitan areas in the USA. It has been observed that the business model of Postmates is somewhat similar to Uber. And do you know? This online food delivery platform’s parent company is Uber itself! 

You can also read- Food Delivery App Development: Best Specifications & Cost To Build An App Like Uber Eats

Postmates have more than 500,000 fleet members, 600,000 merchants, and also serve 80% of US Households across all 50 states. On the other hand, Postmates has dragged good investors who have helped this business to acquire a large customer base. It’s evident that Postmates has taken a great leap in terms of success within a short span of time. 

How To Use Postmates?

Using Postmates is simple and you don’t need any other special method to deliver your favorite food online. Just like other apps, you need to register first on your smartphone and here you go! Browse your favorite restaurant or dish. Additionally, you can also choose the feature whether you would like to pick up the order or you want it to get delivered to your place. 

Apart from this, there is also the “Party” feature that helps you with free delivery if you order from popular business restaurants at that particular moment. Once these orders are clocked, users have a few minutes to secure their free delivery before the list is updated. In addition to this, if you want to look for a specific eatery or dosh, tap on the search bar on the app. Here, you can either click on the suggestion or can also enter the particular term to get more precise results. 

Note-  Before proceeding with the product development, make sure to learn the in-depth difference between Android or iOS.

If you want to take a look at your available promo codes, account information, recent orders, or want to join Postmates Unlimited, tap on the account icon located on the top-left corner of the mobile. Apart, you can also take the customer assistance features from here.

Postmates Business Model: 

Postmates’ business model is somewhat similar to Uber Eats. As you know, Postmates helps users to order food and to deliver in their footsteps from the list of 600,000 restaurants. There are giants competitors in the market of Postamates such as ChowNow, Doordash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub.

Founders and Funders Of Postmates: 

Founders	Bastian Lehmann, Sam Street, Sean Plaice
Founded	1 May 2011
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Postmates valuation	$2.4 billion
Funding received	Total Funding $763M
Average order size	$34.17
Daily orders	8500 (as of 2016)

 

Also read- In-depth Guide to Different Types of Profitable Food & Restaurant Software

Postmates Segments: 

Postmates operated on three basic segments,i.e, customer, merchants, and delivery agents. 

Customer: Users who want to get their food delivered to their doorstep by spending a little delivery price. 

• Postmates offers its services around the clock and 365 days. 
• Users can make an order from anywhere and at any time. 
• The ordered item will be delivered within an hour. 

Merchants: On the other hand, Postamates also get aligned with the merchants to offer a huge client base platform. Now here, merchants can pay a little amount of the total bill to the Postmates revenue system.

• The merchants get a golden opportunity to sell their products with a large client base
• Merchants are required to pay some amount to the delivery agents for the task
• They can also deliver the food to the customer’s doorstep.

Delivery Agents: Delivery agents work and earn money according to their own preferred schedules. Delivery persons are called Postmates and they receive 80% of the delivery fee and the rest is kept by the company itself. These delivery personals get up to $25/an hour.

• Flexibility is there with the delivery agents 
• They are getting 80% of the total delivery fee. 
• Delivery agent’s earnings depend on how many deliveries they are making in a day. 

Make sure to read- IT Infrastructure Planning: Why It’s Important for Your Business?

Postmates Revenue Streams

We understand that to start your own “food delivery app development” project, it is important to know the revenue model of a giant food delivery platform. — Postmates. Hence, we are dissecting the revenue streams below: 

1. Merchant’s Fees

Postamates works with local merchants to help them in giving the platform with the extended customer base. Here, Postamtes charged a small percentage on each order from the merchants. All the procedure is followed by the official agreement with the terms and conditions. 

2. Delivery Fee

Postmates charges the delivery fee on every order and basically, the fee is $5 but it gets reduced during the occasional offers. Hence, 80% of the delivery fee is transferred to the messenger account, and the rest 20% is kept by the company. 

3. Convenience Fee

As we have talked about the dissection of the delivery fee, Postamates owns a 9% of the flat charge as a convenience fee over each order. This fee directly goes into the company account and users pay this as a happy tip because their food is delivered to their steps at the right time. 

Features To Add In Your Online Food Delivery App Like Postmates

As you have come so far, let’s understand what features you might add to your app. We have classified the features between customers, delivery agents, and merchants.

Customer Panel Feature: 

SignRegistration/Login/ in	Through email, contact number, or social profile
Source Of Order	Selecting store by placing a pin on the map or by typing manually
Destination	Selecting the destination by placing a pin or on the map or by typing manually
Order Details	Sharing an order image within the detail panel
Card Registration	Multiple card channels
Automatic Payment	Automatic payment procedure through Stripes
Order History	Checking previously ordered items
Reviews & Ratings	Check reviews and give ratings

 

Merchant/ Restaurant Panel Feature: 

Admin Panel/ Dashboard	Robust web-based administration panel
Order Placing	The sleek method of placing an order
Payment Invoice	Sharing invoice with the customer through email or text
Ratings	Rating feature to improve their services
Notifications	Users can receive notification regarding there item is picked up or restaurant has assigned the agent for the specific delivery

 

Delivery Agent Panel Feature:

Registration	It is vital to cross-check the delivery agent with the company before getting him on board.
Order Bookings	Delivery agents select the orders according to the location and preference
Booking History	The entire list of successfully completed deliveries
Delivery Status	Accepted/ rejected/ picked up/ out for delivery

 

Additional Features To Add in Your Customised Food Delivery App Like Postmates: 

We understand to make your application out of the crowd you need an amazing dedicated software development team. They will help you to understand how well your app's functionalities should work, hence there are some other essential features that you can add to your app.

1.     Gamification 

This functionality attains new and existing users, it drives engagement in a better way. However, it operates on the gameplay mechanics to help users when the order is completed. You can consult this feature with the team to increase customer satisfaction and engagement. 

2.     AI Chatbots

These digital assistants help in giving world-class customer service whenever your client gets stuck in the ordering process. Chatbots are considered as one of the efficient methods to redefine the customer experience. In the food industry, these AI assistants are not new, therefore you can also opt for them in your app and can solve general queries of your customers. But don’t forget to get in touch with the chatbot development service team to offer a personalized experience to your customers. 

3.     Social Media Integration

This is another amazing feature that will work in both ways. Firstly it will simplify the user’s registration process and secondly it will lead to mouth marketing interaction. It is because people nowadays are highly engaged on social media and they like to share their lives online, including what they are eating today. Just a jest! Hence this is a smart idea to integrate social media platforms. 

Don’t skip- Data Integration Sets Business On A Fast Track

Make Sure To Follow These Business Points: 

1.     Market Research

Every big idea starts with wide market research. Hence make sure you are understanding the niche of your competitors along with the targeted audiences and latest food trends. You can also start the market research with the help of IT consultation services, to understand the services your competitors are offering. Once you understand the specifications, you can drag the idea and can divert it into your app. 

2.     Affordable Service

Being a startup, you can help your users with affordable services because other giant food platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash spent a lot on marketing and other services. But you can start with engaging the customers in your area to grow the client base. You can also tie-up with the nearby eateries in the early stage. 

3.     Be Unique

Here, we are talking about Postamates but that doesn’t mean you will clone the exact app like Postmates, instead, you can try your own way of delivering the better service. However, you can take out the creativity once you are doing proper market research. Don’t forget to understand your own USP and steal the spotlight in the market.

4.     Separate Reviews & Rating 

This is another important aspect that every business entity and developer should consider before launching their product in the market. There are chances that your users loved the food but find an issue regarding delivery or package. Right? Hence, make sure you are differencing these two factors for the improvement of your app. This method will also help you to improvise the services. 

5.     Diverse Services 

Have you checked the Uber Eats business model or DoorDash services? Well, these two offer a wide range of services apart from delivering food. Such as Uber Eats also delivers groceries and on the other hand, Postmates offers various services including alcohol. All the services are accumulated in one platform. 

Using The Correct Technology Stack: 

When you are using the right technology stack, that means you are giving the foundation life to our product, later it will offer a seamless experience to your customer. Here, you would require Product Engineering Services that can help you in the food startup platform. However, you can also consider the below-mentioned technologies in the early phase, apart from this you can rely on the dedicated team. 

Mobile App Development: Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android) However, it has been observed that many business entities get confused in order to go with Swift for mobile development. Although, in your case you can get in touch with your team they will help you in better understanding. 

Web App Development: AngularJS or React. Mostly, many business owners prefer to go with React Native for their mobile app development.   

Back-End Development: PHP language, but if you want to know better about the PHP web development service. Follow the guide below. 

A to Z Guide of Hiring the Best PHP Development Services

Databases: MySQL. Not only this, but you can also use any third-party services for your payment gateway, cloud platform, location service, and so on. Make sure you are taking help from experts. 

What Is The Cost To Build An App Like Postmates? 

The pricing of building an app like Postmates depends on various factors including app size, features, geographical locations, design, platform, and development team. But if you have noticed closely, many developers are ready to help you with the development princess under $15. Do you really think building an app like Postmates will cost you $15? Think again! Developing an app like Postmates requires a keen eye and attention to detail if you want to run in a long race. Hence, these are the marketing traps that you should be aware of.

To cut a long story short, there are various components including QA software testing services that are determining the cost of your food delivery app. But if we consider all the factors then the approx idea of a robust food delivery app would be around $35,000 - $75,000.

Are You Ready To Have Your Own App Like Postmates?

We understand that when it comes to developing an efficient food delivery app it is not easy as it requires the right guidance and team. Make sure the on demand app development, and also understand the market statistics for better knowledge about the latest trends. 

It is crucial to understand how well your product can reach the market along with offered services. Make sure to stand out of the crowd no one can beat the right team and guidance. We hope you liked this article and are also sharing it with your social circle. We are also open to conversation!