The COVID-19 pandemic has perpetuated an unforeseen crisis of petrifying dimension and intensity. It has ruined almost all the economies around the globe and brought down massive destruction on the food and travel industries in particular. The pandemic has literally changed everything overnight. It has completely altered the way in which we were used to doing things. From going out to watch one’s favorite movie to going out to have one’s favorite meal at their favorite restaurants. The food businesses are still a bit better off, all thanks to online food Delivery Apps. The food Delivery Apps have emerged as the most valuable technological inventions. They have emerged as the savior for both the restaurants as well as for the customers. It gave the customers the freedom of ordering their favorite food online from the safety and comfort of their homes and get it delivered right at their very doorsteps. Many restaurants and eateries have even gone a step further by providing the option of zero contact deliveries.

With the more and more restaurants and eateries switching on to the online delivery platforms many restaurants are even planning to develop their own food Delivery App. Owing to the pandemic more and more businesses have entered the online delivery apps game, making one’s own delivery app is not so easy. The features and the UI of the app has to be different to make the cut.

Let us discuss a few things and features that a good food Delivery Apps must have:

The Customer’s App

Every Delivery App essentially has three parts at least – Customer’s App, Admin’s App and the Delivery Agent’s App. Our main focus will be on the Customer’s App. It is the customers who will be using your food Delivery App the most frequently, thus the customer’s end of the app must be the most intuitive and easiest to use. The customer’s end of the app is to allow the customers to be able to get into the app and browse the different restaurants or dishes that they want to order from.

Following are the few of the important features that the customer’s app must have:

1. Profile Creation / Signing Up :Letting the customers register is the first process and is perhaps the first step that every app user has to take in-order to start interacting with / using an app. If a customer finds it too difficult to sign up into your app then they might even choose to not complete the entire sign up process. The registration process should thus be made as simple as possible. One of the best ways to do so is by allowing the user to complete the registration via singing up through their social media accounts. Once the sign-in process is complete the users can customize their profile in the app as per their own liking.
2. Food Hunting :A food Delivery App without the feature to allow the users to look for food is absolutely useless and makes no sense. The most important feature of the food Delivery App is thus the one which lets the users search for their favorite food. Once the registration process is complete, the user will be able log into his account in the app. After logging in the user should now be ready to look for their favorite restaurants and food in the app.



This feature allows the user to explore all the options around him that are able of catering to their needs. It helps them find pout the most viable option. Every food Delivery App has this feature, so how can one ensure that their app stands out of the crowd. There are many ways in which one can ensure that their app is the most unique one. Organizing the restaurants and cuisines based on their location, special items sold by restaurants (gluten-free diets, keto diet, vegan food), and the type of food sold (gourmet food or fast food), and cuisine from diverse nationalities. There should be filter options so that a user can research their particular food preferences more easily. The app should make the process of the customer getting hold of their desired food items as easy as possible.

Cloud kitchen stalwarts like Zomato & Swiggy have been using a combination of various different kinds of filters and smart search features that makes it easier for the users to actually find out the exact items that they have been looking for. Needless to say that the idea has worked wonders for them.


3. Review Section :The tech savvy millennials are very picky about their food choices. Most of the customer of the young generation believe choosing a restaurant best on their online profile. Especially while ordering food online, they are more likely to rely on a restaurant’s reviews. They are most likely to check the kind of food the restaurant delivers, the most recommended dishes and the average pricing. The feature can actually help to make the ordering process more user friendly.


4. Ordering Flexibility :The ordering process must be very flexible, to provide the user maximum ordering comfort and flexibility. Whatever orders are placed or whatever items are selected by a user it must first be sent to the cart section. This gives the user the flexibility of checking their orders one last time before placing the final order.



Another essential feature that increases the flexibility and usability of the app is the feature to allow scheduling of orders. This feature lets the user schedule an order for a specified time in the future. For example, if you are expecting a few guests at your place three hours later and you want to treat them with some good ol’ KFC stuff. The order scheduling feature will help you schedule the order in such a way that the app will automatically place the customer’s order at pre-determined time set by the customer themselves so that the order reaches the customer just in time to be served fresh and hot.

5. Easier Payments :The payments are critical to both the seller as well as the customer. While selling food online, especially in case of online payments, there are high risk of payment frauds which puts both the customers and the eateries at risk. The payment process and the interface must thus be made in an absolutely safe and secure manner.



Apart from making the payments portal safe and secured the app must allow payment options from a wide range of payments portals like GPay, PhonePay, PayTm etc. The higher the number of choices the easier and more flexible things become for customers. The payment section must also have the provision for providing the customers with promo or voucher codes.

6. Transparent Delivery Process :Like everything else in this world the online Delivery Apps also have their own sets of disadvantages. Perhaps the biggest among them all is the lack of transparency in the delivery system. The online food ordering systems work on minimal human interactions and as such are prone to many transparency issues. For example, a customer places an order and confirms the payment. The order gets confirmed but the customer doesn’t get any details of any delivery agents neither does they get any order tracking option. This will definitely cause the customer to lose faith on both the app and the restaurant as well. The delivery process should thus be made as fair and transparent as possible. Features like providing the delivery agent’s number and live tracking of orders can be really helpful in gaining the customer’s trust.


7. Order History Section The order history is actually a very important feature no matter how much ever we ignore it. Firstly it helps the customers to keep track of all the orders that they have made in the recent past. Secondly it helps them to rate a restaurant / eatery based on their past orders. This feature is especially important as it helps the customer check the names of restaurants and orders that impressed them so that they can quickly identify the restaurants and place further orders swiftly.