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Shahid Mansuri
Shahid Mansuri

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How to build on-demand grocery delivery app for today’s tech-savvy shoppers?

What e-commerce was to the product industry, Uberisation is to service industry. While the concept of marketplaces has been around for a while now, it never really took off. That was before smartphones came. In case you’re unaware, marketplace is a platform that connects buyers with sellers, customers with service providers, job seekers meet employers etc.

So the question arises what benefits do marketplaces get in facilitating the trade between the two ends of a supply chain? Well, there are many: they receive good traffic on their website, they can make a lot money with website ads and they can always take a cut whenever a trade happens on their platform. Consider on-demand delivery apps as fast-paced marketplaces.

ondemand-delivery-app-marketplace-report

Grocery App US Market Growth

The grocery mobile apps such as Instacart, Grofers and Bigbasket have already left all the business verticals spell bound, hence there is no confusion in saying that future of the grocery delivery mobile apps will continue to bloom in the coming years.

Uber for X concept: demand and supply

Uber for X model is the biggest driver of sharing economy and is, itself, a superset of the on-demand economy. A minimum of two players are part of the model, which is similar to marketplace, except users expect instant provisioning of their demand. At the end of the what matters is delivery, instant delivery in this model.

An Uber user demands a car at his location. An UberEATS user demands food at his home. An Urbansitter user demands baby sitter and TaskRabbit user demands a plumber or electrician.

So two things are important in this model–what and where.

on-demand-grocery-delivery-app-cta1

Contemplating delivery apps in on-demand economy

If you look closely, Uber for X model isn’t just about what and where. There are many crucial aspects to it. The most important is when. If I the plumber comes a week later or the baby sitter comes tomorrow, there is no point of calling them at all. That is, I want a plumber within 30 minutes at my office or I don’t. This is the whole point why instant delivery of people and things is so important in on-demand economy.

on-demand-grocery-economy

Another aspect is how. How happy are your users with the service? Doesn’t Uber ask you to rate its service on a scale of 1-5 every time you take a ride?

What does it take—on-demand grocery delivery?

For instant provisioning of demanded person or thing, you must rely on local suppliers and service providers. In case of grocery delivery, you have to strike a deal with a number of grocery store owners in each locality in your service area. You can ask them for discount over marked price or commission over customer’s billed amount.

on-demand-grocery-delivery-app-sample

In addition, you have to find a local delivery agency that would deliver the demand thing to the customer’s place. They charge a fixed rate for each delivery or a percentage of the bill amount. To subdue the charges of delivery agency, you can add delivery charges to a customer’s bill.

Typical features of an on-demand grocery delivery app

on-demand-grocery-delivery-app-example

While most of them the same features as on any other on-demand apps there are few that are composite to on-demand grocery apps. And like any on-demand app the user has to specify What, followed by where. However, the app needs to know Who, who are you?

Read more: Set up an on-demand grocery market?

Who— for the app to identify person ordering grocery and contact him in case of an issue

  • Sign up
  • Sign in
  • User Profile
  • Forget Password
  • Facebook Login
  • Edit Profile
  • Verify email and phone number

Who— to learn the customer’s demand and how he would like to pay for it.

  • Order Menu
  • Product Search
  • Search Filters
  • Search Suggestions
  • Quantity counter
  • Shopping Cart
  • Checkout
  • Discount Coupon
  • Payment Gateway

Who— what is the location where customer wants the demanded person or thing

  • Customer’s Location
  • Address Search
  • Switch delivery location
  • Set Favorites
  • Pin Address on map

Who— in how much time does the customer expects the delivery

  • Pick Time Slot
  • Express Delivery
  • Track delivery person
  • Contact delivery person
  • Cancel Order

Who— are people happy with the services, supplier or quality? If so, how much?

  • Rate Services
  • Rate Delivery Boy
  • Rate Product Quality
  • Write a review
  • Support and Help
  • What are technologies involved?

Types of grocery apps in the market

If you’re coming up with an on-demand grocery delivery app for today’s tech-savvy shoppers, you have many options. Some of the most common type of grocery delivery app belongs to one of the following categories.

Aggregators

Aggregators simply list nearby grocery stores to a user. The user can select one of the nearby grocery store listed on the app. From the online menu, he can add whatever he wants in any quantity to the cart. He checks out of the cart, make payment with various available payment option, and wait for the store to confirm the order. Once the order is confirmed, he can track his order in real-time until he reaches his place. The liability to deliver the order lies solely with the store owner, aggregator merely lists the store and its menu on its platform.

on-demand-grocery-delivery-app-cta2

Marketplaces

A marketplace grocery store is quite similar to a grocery store aggregation platform, except the marketplace has its own team of delivery boys to deliver ordered grocery to the customers’ home by means of a retail mobility solution.

Single Stores

In a single store app, the grocery owner commission his own branded app and takes care of everything from maintaining app and keeping an updated online menu to delivering the order to a customer and collecting money.

Grocery Chains

Grocery chain, for example, Walmart tends to have their own on-demand mobility solution, which is similar to a single store at micro level operations.

Which is the best for you?

Well, that depends, while aggregator platforms are almost risk-free endeavors. You risk losing brand integrity if a listed grocery owner refuses to deliver or is being rude to a customer on your platform.

So every type has its own set of advantages and limitations. While marketplaces are good to retain brand reputation, the underlying risks are too many. Of course, the advantage is this that you have full control from taking order to delivering order and collecting money and customers won’t interact with actual sellers.

Single stores are a costly affair if you don’t get many orders.

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