Rushabh PatelContrary to popular beliefs, frozen food doesn’t really cut down on nutritional values. In fact, they can be healthier than their fresher versions. Many dietitians and nutritionists explain that freezing locks the nutritional values of the foods instead of eliminating them. Now that we have got the elephant out of the room let’s look at how we cannot really do without frozen foods. The frozen food sector has been growing at a breakneck speed with an ever-expanding customer base. Enhancements in food technology have brought in newer methods of taste preservations and quality enhancements to the sector. Customers are hence looking for better options through frozen food counterparts. Not to mention the conveniences they gain by storing food items instead of regularly shopping for fresh supplies. Therefore, frozen food delivery app development has become a potential economic venture that can provide your business the market edge.
On-demand food home delivery app development has improved considerably in the past years, with newer norms actively determining customer behavior. Customers have hence gradually shifted from grocery shop aisles to a home delivery app like Schwan’s. Schwan’s have been operational for more than 70 years back when frozen food wasn’t even a trend. Now when people are looking towards frozen food options more often, app development companies are investing more in frozen food delivery apps.
Frozen foods allow people benefits such as time-saving, food wastage prevention, cost savings, to name a few. Moreover, frozen food delivery apps provide seamless browsing, ordering, and delivery to your doorstep. There are no separate bars for frozen desserts, snacks, or pizzas. You can see everything under one roof, inside the app interface. The business units are increasing in number and providing lucrative offers for the customers who are slowly but surely inclining towards frozen food.
The best features for frozen food delivery app
Suppose we pick up the case of Schwan’s. Its frozen food delivery app functions as a platform where customers can place orders from their favorite cold chain retailers. Brands such as Big Daddy’s, Red Baron, Villa Prima, etc., offer multiple items such as Pizzas and Pagoda Asian snacks. Schwan’s business plan can functionalities is comparable to Uber Eats, and if we study their features closely, we can build our very own app. You will require an app that includes numerous business-oriented functionalities. Let us have a look at a few of those.
1. User account and authentication
Every on-demand smartphone app starts with creating a user account for the specific user to sign into. It must prompt the user to fill in all necessary details and create an account. These details will be imported into the app database. Next, it will ask for a password which it will use to authenticate the user every time he logs in. These simple steps are essential for creating a customer database and providing authentication for each customer.
2. Browse food items
Next, the user must be able to go through all the food items available in your store through an easy-to-navigate interface. All relevant details regarding the item must be provided through a consolidated view for the customers. The app must have an add to cart button against each item and also an option to select the quantity. The detailed price of the item must be visible in the interface. The browsing gallery is the most important aspect of the app as it is here the user will spend most of his time on the app. It must be comprehensive, eye-catching, and informative for the user’s convenience.
3. Delivery tracking and management
The app must provide interfaces and functionalities that allow users to track their delivery. It will provide them notifications about their delivery schedule and have a location tracking system. Many delivery apps choose not to provide live delivery tracking, but it might appease a lot of customers. The delivery management portal of the app is essential because users might alter their delivery details. They might decide to change their delivery schedule or payment method, and this interface must facilitate that.
4. Payments
The payments feature is another crucial aspect of any on-demand app. Users want to have multiple payment methods while purchasing online orders. Your app must include them all, including wallets, UPIs, cards, and cash on delivery. Users are slowly migrating towards digital payments, and your frozen food delivery app must include a majority of payments app. This will add to the conveniences of the customers and help your business grow.
5. Customer feedback
On-demand services are heavily reliant on customer reviews and genuine feedback. In fact, customer opinion is a very influential aspect that drives the buying decision of potential customers. Your frozen food delivery app must provide a feature for accepting reviews against items. If there is a query, the concerned team must answer them at the earliest. This is how your customers will gain a sense of reliability and trust from your brand. The customer feedback feature must be easy to use and have interactive functionality.
Costs involved in frozen food delivery app development
Taking all necessary app development aspects into consideration, a food delivery application development usually costs more than 10,000 USD. It includes a very basic food delivery app with must-have features, doesn’t cover advanced fancy features. The main facets of frozen food delivery app such as Schwan’s that contributes to the expenses are as follows.
- 1. Time consumption for integrating the app features and developing the interface.
- 2. The complexity level of the developed app.
- 3. Hourly rate of development team members.
The more complex features you add to your app, the more will be the cost of developing it. Moreover, it will increase the time consumption and hence add to the expenses. A straightforward formula can be used in this regard to estimating involved costs in-home delivery app development.
Total development costs = cost per hour x Development hours
The cost per hour is a variable factor that depends on the location of your development team. Whether you partner with a mobile app development company or outsource the entire project determines this variable factor. If you hire mobile development companies in countries where the price of IT labor is low, you might get your app built within the 10k USD mark. In many cases, the costs exceed 15K USD, where advanced features are incorporated into the app interface.
Conclusion
The home delivery app market is spreading its roots rapidly across the world. Newer brands are cropping up and investing in frozen food delivery application development. The key is in building an agile app focused entirely on the demographics and customer behavior of a particular region. Once you have understood and acquired the regional markets, you can plan strategically and expand your market. If you are a beginner in this domain, it’s best to understand the basics of frozen food delivery app development and proceed cautiously.
