Grocery Delivery App Development: Cost, Technologies and Key Features

Today, technological advancement has introduced many new ideas in the market to cope up with the traditional business challenges and the on-demand grocery app development is one of them. It is not just offering convenient, automated and dynamic grocery delivery services that are enticing customers but also helping entrepreneurs and other business owners in scaling up their business solutions.

Subsequently, many startups are planning to invest in this soaring business opportunity to eliminate the customer’s pain of standing in long queues every now and then.

Considering this, in this blog we have tried to cover a detailed description of the on-demand grocery apps i.e. its significance, business models, popular apps, tech stack, key features, grocery app development process, cost of developing grocery delivery app, and more.

Unlock the potential of the on-demand grocery delivery app development craze with insights on market trends, business models, popular apps, technology stack, key features, and development costs. Dive deep into the future of grocery retail and explore the benefits of investing in this thriving sector

Scroll down to gain deep insights!

The Future State of Grocery Retail Around The World

Fueled by evolving customer expectations, technological advancements and new opportunities, the trajectory of online grocery can be understood with the following graph:

• The Global Instant Grocery Market size is expected to reach $14780 billion by 2030, rising at a market growth of 3.0% CAGR during the forecast period
• 63% of the population are likely to buy groceries using online modes i.e. smartphones, apps and more.
• IBIS report states that there is a continuous growth in the grocery delivery industry and it has recently reached $757B with a growth rate of 2.9%.
• Popular grocery delivery apps like Doordash and Grubhub have around 39M and 16M users.

Top 5 Benefits to Build A Grocery Delivery App

1. An Efficient Model That Promotes Cost Effectiveness

An online grocery business app is the best fit for people who are initially planning to start their business with a low-budget investment. Anyone can go with the app development having basic features. It also lower downs operational costs like inventory management, billing, checkout, etc.

2. Level Up the Brick and Mortar Stores

If you are running a brick-and-mortar store then you must switch to the online grocery app that helps you in follow the current trend and stay ahead in the market competition. The on-demand app solution provides the best opportunity to automate business operations and ensure a backup of mobility solutions.

3. Saves A Lot of Time and Resources

Turning on to the grocery delivery business enables business owners to handle a huge customer base easily and thus they can invest their time and resources in bringing efficiency to their services. Moreover, an on-demand business can also offer the convenience of managing daily chores from the comfort of the customer’s home.

4. Gain Greater Customer Reach

While customer base of the traditional store is built with personal relationships or mouth-to-mouth publicity. Whereas the online store can drive a huge audience with the search engine traffic which is easily accessible to the users as it has no geographical limitations.

5. Provides Ease of Marketing

As online grocery store can reach a wide audience, it holds the massive power to market their products and services easily. Business owners can easily save a huge cost while targeting the right audience and ensure flexibility in measuring data and statistics like cost per click, impressions, rate of engagement, and more.

Different Types of Business Models To Adopt By Grocery Business Owners

There are different types of business models explained that are fulfilling multiple business needs. Read them thoroughly to get an idea about the model that suits your business.

1. The Inventory Model

The Inventory model works on the idea of storing products in a safe and well-maintained warehouse in order to offer timely product delivery and other related customer services to fulfill customer needs. The owner in this collects products from multiple vendors and takes the responsibility of handling customer issues with a smooth interaction.

The model is generally considered a little expensive because the single-product-based businesses use and bears a huge cost of building, maintaining warehouse, and transportation.

Bigbasket is one of the best examples of an inventory model.

2. The Shopping Model

This is a well-known model used by many giant business owners. This model also works just like the multi-vendor model but the only difference is that customers do not get the option of selecting the shop from which they are purchasing. The order is directly taken by the platform and they send it to the individuals who collect the products and send them to the desired delivery location.

This model is preferred by most businesses because the owner only needs to have a strong delivery chain and good connections with multiple stores.

3. The Multi-Vendor Marketplace

The model is also known as the zero-inventory model because the owner does not hold the responsibility of managing inventory rather multiple vendors come together to offer their products and services using the on-demand platform. And in return, they provide a part of their sale to the platform owner as a commission.

Finally, the transportation and packaging are either managed by the seller or internally by the e-commerce platform.

4. The Hyper-Local Model

This model works on the basic objectives of providing speedy delivery, empowering the local shopkeepers, and helping people in fulling the demands of the local area. The business owner has to ensure close collaboration with the local vendors so that the market demands of a specific area can be fulfilled easily.

It is just similar to the multi-vendor store where the owner does not manage the inventory but offers a platform for the local vendors so that they can sell the products.

Most Popular Grocery Apps In The Market

• Farmigo

The app is famous for its fresh products that are available for purchase like dairy products, meats, snacks, and more. The farmer’s app offers good quality products at a better price as compared to the other supermarket stores. Additionally, a functional user interface of the app helps people to order items in a hassle-free manner. An interesting community section in the app allows users to check out other users who are also using the app.

• Shipt

A leading company that offers groceries to their customer’s on-demand basis. It has many unique features that made it popular as compared to other apps. The users can check out the items that are especially available on sale and can raise a request for the non-listed items. In addition to this, a user can repurchase the previous order items by using the buy again feature.

• Instacart

This is one of the leading apps in the grocery delivery app market worldwide. The unique features that make the business stand out in the market include first free delivery as the user joins the app. It allows one to buy groceries from multiple stores at the same time and the user can also compare different store prices for better decision-making. Moreover, the user can also reduce the delivery charges by choosing the app membership.

• Postmates

This Postmates app work on the concept of providing more than just groceries. People can place an order for any available product from the app within the pre-defined location and can get delivery within an hour. The delivery services are also extended to the delivery of restaurant food with a nominal delivery fee charge based on the distance covered. Also, the 24 hours service availability makes the app unique and worth using.

• Big Basket

The Big Basket app has got much popularity in terms of the excellent customer services offered by them. With the fast and safe product delivery, the app has improved user engagement and in case of late delivery, the user gets a portion of their payment back in their account. Also, in case of any queries, the user can connect via the chat option and communicate seamlessly.

 Technologies Required To Develop A Grocery Delivery App

The selection of technologies for app development is important because it helps in managing the app’s scalability, smooth functioning, and security. Therefore, it is important to pick the right technologies.

Given below are the technologies that will be used by any grocery delivery app development company:

Frontend:  Angular, Java, CSS, HTML, ReactJS

Backend:  Laravel, Node.js

Database: MongoDB

Payment gateways: Stripe API, Braintree SDK, PayPal API

Cloud environment:  Google Cloud, AWS

Location Tracking: Mapkit framework for iOS and Google Map SDK for Android

Social login:  Facebook, Google, and Twitter APIs.

Key Features To Be Used In Grocery Delivery App Development

The main reason to include features in the grocery app development is to reduce customer efforts for product procurement and offer them a unique experience during their grocery shopping journey. There are majorly three stakeholders of the app that helps in managing the efficient working of the app.

Customer Panel App

• User Login

Make the login process seamless by using phone no., social media credentials, and email to ensure better time-saving.

• Search Products

Users should be able to browse the product categories to choose a single product from the available list having detailed information.

• Push Notifications

Upon completion of the order, notification must be sent to the user with information about the order status, delivery, product offers, and more.

• Avail Offer

Users can check out available offers, discounts, and coupons before checking out the order. The feature cut down the original cost and minimizes the chances of cart abandonment.

• Google Map

The feature automatically detects the user location which reduces user efforts of typing address manually every time they place an order. Later on, the user can also save their permanent address for future orders.

• Live Location Tracking

The user can track the order delivery person from his way to the mentioned delivery location.

• Schedule Order

The user can easily schedule a preferred order and place a delivery time as per the availability of the slots.

Delivery Panel App

• Login/Registration

The delivery person will register themselves using email, phone no., and password. entering the required details like email, phone no., government id, photo and more to ensure user authenticity and security.

• Profile Management

The person can upload their personal details like photos, government id, contact details, etc, to ensure security and authenticity.

• Delivery Order Management

The user can easily manage order-related queries like pending order requests by sending acceptance or rejection on the same and sharing related order details.

• GPS/ Live Tracking

The delivery person can easily find out the customer’s address and check out the easiest route to reach there.

• Order Store Notification

On the order acceptance, the delivery person informs the store manager via notification to start preparing the order for quick delivery.

• Check Feedbacks

The delivery person can check the customer feedback to know their experiences using products and services and improvise on it to ensure better customer retention.

• Customer Support Via Call or Live Chat

The delivery person can connect with the customer to resolve any order/service-related query by connecting via call/chat.

Admin Panel App

• Manage Profile

The admin can create a profile using a number, email, and password to access customer and delivery personnel accounts and manage other activities on the app.

• Dashboard

The admin can have a clear view of the activities like orders, deliveries, payment, inventory and more.

• Manage Vendors/Stores

Admin can manage a huge chain of stores and vendors and ensure the inventory stock meets the rising customer demand.

• Manage Customers

The Admin can check and manage customer activities and coordinate in case of any emergency.

• Manage Payments

Admin can check and manage the total earnings on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

• Report Management

Admin can check daily, monthly, and weekly reports to check service quality and customer engagement.

Advanced Features

• Loyalty Programmes

The creator/app owner can build a huge fanbase using the tactics like physical gifts, non-tangible rewards, memberships and more.

• Behavioural Tracking

This ensures tracking customer behavior over the services of an app which includes most searched orders, recent items ordered, the average shopping time etc.

• AI-Based Delivery System

The delivery process can be automated with optimized routes. The unmanned fleet can help in boosting productivity, detecting risks and preventing frauds.

The Process of Grocery Delivery App Development

1. Plan Your Idea or Strategy

Initially create a strategic plan, discuss it with the team, do the brainstorming and draw the plan that fits perfectly with the business needs.

2. Calculate Features and Functionalities to Be Added

Make sure to pre-test and check all the features and functionalities that need to be added to the app as it will help in controlling the development cost by overlooking insignificant features and functionalities.

3. Pay Attention to Wireframes and Prototyping

Create an intuitive wireframe including all the necessary features and functionalities that lays down a path for prototyping. Once both the processes are completed then we can move to the final stage of development. But still, the changes can be made in the prototyping, as many times as needed before development.

4. Start Processing the Development Stage

At this stage, the team starts working on functionalities and features to turn them into successful code to build the first version of the app. It includes proactive participation of the developers with guided aesthetics to ensure smooth development.

5. Go Through the Quality Analysis and Testing Phase

The testers take every minute detail into account with the rigorous method in real-time to offer successful deliverables as and when needed.

6. Get Ready for The Deployment

The app delivery will be done with continuous maintenance, functionality check, and required improvements to display the app as intended.

7. Don’t Forget to Offer After Delivery Support Services

The ever-changing technological and business requirement demands a continuous evolvement of the strategies. Thus, make sure to offer constant upgrades now and again to maintain its performance and growth in the market.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop A Grocery Delivery App?

Estimating the cost of app development is not much easy. One needs to include multiple basic requirements of the app development phase. Here are some of the factors that will help in defining the cost required to build a grocery delivery app:

Complexity of The Project

Integrating more complex features increases the development time and thus costs higher. For instance, if you will include features like live tracking with heavy traffic and multiple vendor store then it will cost higher as compared to the basic features. So, one needs to thoroughly conduct market research and understand their business requirements to perform the right selection of features and functionalities.

Number of Features

Some common features like live tracking, push notifications, multiple product listings, order history and more are very basic features that cost nominal charges. But some business requirements are fulfilled by advanced features like multiple payment gateways, geofencing, facial recognition and more which will automatically cost a higher amount.

Size of The Team

The development cost varies depending on the number of developers hired. Also, the speed, as well as quality is totally dependent on the team size. If the team size is small with a higher workload then it may create a risk of managing multiple resources associated with the project.

Number of Iterations

Feedbacks are the best ways to ensure accuracy and provide speedy deployment of the product. It is suggested that there must be frequent iterations from the client side to the team in order to ensure the quality and feature requirements are just as similar as client expectations.

Developers Experience

It can be a time-consuming process to search and find a suitable team of developers with the required skill set and the right expertise to offer a better experience to the users and clients. So, begin your research to find and hire the right developers who can fulfil the specific requirements of the project.

Technologies Used

The use of technology in the development of grocery delivery apps can vary. So, it is required to understand the project requirement that decides on the right set of technologies. The project requirement can be for either the Android platform or for iOS or for both.

Team Composition

• 1 Project Manager
• 1-2 Android App Developers
• 1 UI/UX Designer
• 1 Quality Analyst

Summing Up!

Creating a grocery delivery app without a dash of innovation can leave you in a dangerous position or just will not make a great pay out. Understanding its current market scenario and the gaps are way more significant to bring innovation and beat the rising market competition.

Codiant is one of the excellent and well-known grocery delivery app development companies that can help you in integrating all the consumer-driven features in the native or cross platform app as per the business requirements.

Connect with our experienced and expert team of developers who will help in applying more detailed tips and tricks to enhance or develop your on-demand grocery delivery app solution.