Create a Grocery Delivery App Without Coding: A 7-Step Guide

Did you know? Anyone can create a grocery delivery app in just a few days — even without coding experience.

Here’s what you’ll get from this guide:

• Basics of creating a grocery delivery app
• App components to add
• A complete 7-step process to create a grocery delivery app
• Best practices for building your delivery app with Adalo

Let’s dive in by discussing the benefits of using a no-code platform.

What Is a Grocery Delivery App, and How Do You Create One?

Just as its name implies, a grocery delivery app allows your customers to shop for their groceries directly from your app, pay, and then have their goods delivered to their doorsteps in a certain amount of time. 

Creating a grocery delivery app using no-code is something nearly anyone can accomplish. The only technical skill you’ll need to build a grocery delivery app is being able to turn on a computer. 

Before you start building, here are the things you’ll need:

• Wireframes (digital blueprints): Drawing your blueprints using a digital tool will accustom you to operating a drag-and-drop interface while bringing your ideas to life. 
  
  Consider using Figma, a leading graphic design software company that offers both free and paid plans suitable for creating mockups. 

• An account with Adalo, the no-code app builder of choice: Adalo is a user-friendly no-code app builder, ideal for beginners and experienced users alike. However, you may still want to consult tutorials or guides to get the most out of its more advanced features.
  
  Plus, Adalo offers a huge amount of power. It offers an enormous amount of plugins, add-ons, and third-party integrations that will give your app some extra oomph. You’ll also have enough design freedom to cater, configure, and customize your grocery delivery app just the way you want. 

• A list of features: Obviously, you’ll need screens that show your groceries and payment integration with Stripe or PayPal. But you might want other features, like push notifications that let customers know their delivery is on the way and a chatbot that allows you to speak to them directly.

Think of any extra features and functionalities that make your user experience (UX) stand out. Write them down so you don’t forget — there’s an excellent chance you can add them to your app with Adalo. 

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App Fundamentals: The Parts of an App

Let’s talk about the parts of your app — the parts of any app, and you’ll be able to build and customize each one with Adalo:  

• The Frontend: This is the part of your app where users will browse through your groceries, pay, find their delivery status, and more. It includes all your screens, buttons, color scheme, and more. 
  
  With Adalo, you’ll have all the tools to construct an eye-catching frontend. There are templates with premade screens, colors, forms, and much more. You’ll also have the power to customize each piece to your taste. 

• The Backend: This is your app’s “command center.” It will pull up items from your database, connect to third-party apps and APIs, store info in your database, and more. Adalo lets you customize your backend to your specifications. 

• The Database: Essentially your app’s storage warehouse, the database holds all the information found in your app. This includes your grocery items, their prices, your shoppers, and any other information you provide.  

Adalo provides an integrated backend and database solution, which you can customize to meet the specific needs of your app. If you’re already using a third-party database provider like Google Sheets, Xano, or Airtable, you can seamlessly connect it to your Adalo frontend. 

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Seven Simple Steps: How to Create a Grocery Delivery App

Step 1: Download the App Template 

First, start with Adalo’s premade template for offering your grocery items: Adalo’s ordering template. Originally designed for restaurants, this template allows you to upload your products, change the screen colors to fit your brands, add and delete almost anything else, and much more. 

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Step 2: Customizing Your App’s Look and Feel

Now it’s time to leverage Adalo to change the ordering template into your unique grocery delivery app. But first, here’s a quick rundown of Adalo’s building interface, made up of these 3 parts:  

1. The Horizontal Ribbon: This expands horizontally across the top of your screen. You can use it to edit your Adalo account and preview your app.

2. The Building Canvas: Your app’s “live blueprint,” the building canvas contains “under construction” versions of all your app's screens. 
   
   You’ll see all the new changes you make to your app right on your building canvas. Use your cursor to drag and drop pictures and position text boxes, buttons, and forms. 

3. The Editing Dashboard: Found on the left-hand side of your screen, this vertical drop-down dashboard provides all the buttons you need to build. You’ll find functions for publishing to the app stores, customizing your app’s frontend, integrating with third-party platforms, and much more. 

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The 9 Pieces of Your Editing Dashboard

As you’ll spend most of your time on the editing dashboard, here’s an overview of each specific functionality from top to bottom: 

1. Add Component and Add Screen (appears as a “+”): Use this to add new pages (also called screens), buttons, integrations, forms, etc. When building your sales order app, you’ll be pressing this button often. 

2. Branding Button (appears as an artist’s palette): Use this to change your grocery delivery app’s colors and fonts.  

3. Add Screens (appears as a screen): This will show all your app’s screens. Click on this to toggle through each screen and select the one you want to edit fast.    

4. Database Collection (looks like a spreadsheet): As the name suggests, this is your database’s home. We’ll discuss database customization in Step 3. 

5. Settings (appears as a mechanical sprocket): Here, you can access APIs, write meta descriptions, and find other details about your app.  

6. Publish (appears as a double checkmark): This helps you publish your app to the app stores, which we will walk you through in Step 6. 

7. Analytics (appears as a chart): As the name suggests, this shows you all the user data, such as daily users, their locations, and your most popular screens. 

8. Version History (appears as a circular check in a rectangle): You can build up to 10 versions of your app (but you can only publish one) and find all of them here. 

9. Hire an expert (spiked circle with a check inside): Did you start building, but things got busy, and now you don’t have time to develop your grocery delivery app? This button will help you find a professional Adalo developer to create your grocery app.    

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Step 3: Dialing in Your Grocery Delivery App’s Database

As we said earlier, Adalo is prepacked with its built-in database. You’ll be able to customize it to your tastes. Each Adalo database comes with these 3 parts: 

1. Records: These are the actual data found in your grocery delivery app, such as groceries, purchase amounts, user names, and more.

2. Properties: Look at the top of each database collection, and you’ll see a title in each row — these are your database’s properties. Add or delete them by pushing the “Add to Properties” button in the box that pops up to the right of your Editing Dashboard.  

3. Collections: Collections are groups of data stored, appearing like spreadsheets. You can change the name of every collection by clicking the “Screens” button. Then, click “Add to Database” to create a new collection and customize your property data.  

Connecting an External Database

Do you have your database and don’t need to use Adalo’s built-in one? From the Database button, scroll down to the “Add External Collection” option and follow the steps to connect your database.  

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Step 4: Adding and Deleting Screens 

Need more screens for your app? Don’t worry; Adalo’s got you covered: select “Add Component/Add Screen” on the Editing Dashboard and press“Add New Screen,” and a new one will show up on your Building Canvas. 

To customize the components of your screens, click the “Add Component/Add Screen” button and add the functionalities to customize your components at the top of your editing box. This allows you to make an app that’s completely congruent with your preferences.

Deleting screens is as simple as adding them. Just go to the “Screens” button, find the screen you want to throw in the trash, click the 3 vertical dots button near its title, and then press “Delete Screen.”  

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Step 5: Previewing Your Grocery Delivery App

Previewing how your grocery delivery app looks and functions on mobile and desktop devices is done by pressing the green “Preview App” button on the Horizontal Ribbon and selecting “Staging Preview,” which will load a preview of your app in a new tab. Click through your app as if it were live. 

While clicking through your preview, jot down any problems you find and get them fixed on the double, as problems could delay your app’s publishing process. 

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‍‍Step 6: Integrating Payments to your Grocery Delivery App

Adalo comes with a slick Stripe integration. To set up payments on your grocery delivery app, go to Stripe’s homepage and create an account. Then, go to your Editing Dashboard and select the “Add Components/Add Screens” button. 

Find the Stripe form and drag it over to your payments screen. Yes, setting up payments is that easy.

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Step 7: Publishing on the Web in the App Stores

When you create a grocery delivery app with Adalo, you can build an app for the web and app stores in nearly one go without making any complex changes to your app. 

Because it’s the most straightforward process, publish your app to the web first with these steps:

1. In the Horizontal Ribbon, select the profile button.
2. In “Settings,” navigate to “Domain,” and enter your domain (www.domain.co) — visit GoDaddy if you don’t have a domain name. 
3. Click the “Publish” on the Editing Dashboard, and follow the instructions. 

When you’re done, your app will be live on Google, and your customers can find it there and place orders. However, they won’t be able to enjoy mobile functions like receiving push notifications or using their GPS. 

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Publishing to the Apple App and Google Play Stores 

Publishing your app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store takes a few more steps than publishing it on the web. However, the Apple App Store and Google Play Store have over a billion combined monthly visitors who could become your potential customers.  

Before publishing, take the following steps:

• Research and description writing: Search for other grocery delivery apps, research the descriptions, and take notes, focusing on the keywords you find that describe their apps.
  
  ‍Begin writing your app description using the keywords you found and your unique keywords. This can help your app appear in more search results. Ensure your description is concise — no one wants to spend too much time reading an app description. 

• Create a cutting-edge icon: Your app icon will appear to the side of your app’s title in the app store search results, so you’ll need to ensure that it is visually appealing. 
  
  You don’t need the skills of a Renaissance artist to design your app icon — just register with a service like Looka and craft your icon easily. 

• Provide pro-level screenshots and videos: You’ll be able to submit a few screenshots and videos of your app in action — only provide the best. When customers see professional, beautiful, and educational screenshots and videos, they’ll be more likely to use your app.  

Now, it’s time to publish. 

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Publishing Your Grocery Delivery App to the Google Play Store  

First, go to the Android developer page, create an account, and pay the one-time enrollment fee of $25. Don’t forget to sign up for Google’s app-testing platform, which enables people to download and test your app and give you feedback about their UX. 

Take these folks’ opinions to heart and make any necessary changes. It goes without saying, but your reputation will suffer if you publish a poor app. 

After you’ve ironed out all the wrinkles, go to your Adalo account, press "Publish,” and follow the Android directions. 

Google Play Store’s review process typically takes about 7 days or more, depending on various factors, including your developer account status and the complexity of your app.

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‍Publishing Your Grocery Delivery App to the Apple App Store

Go to Apple’s iOS developer page, make an account, and pay the $99 fee you’ll be required to pay each year. Register with Testflight, Apple’s testing platform, and implement the feedback you get. 

After your app is ready, return to Adalo, select the “Publish” button, and then follow Apple’s instructions. 

Apple’s app approval time usually takes 24-48 hours, but this may be extended if there are issues that require changes and resubmission. 

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Next Steps: Expanding Your User Base, Checking Analytics, and Upkeep

After creating your grocery delivery app, you must ensure it continues functioning correctly and never crashes. Whenever you find bugs, glitches, or other issues, address them immediately. A poorly functioning app will reflect poorly on your reputation. 

Use the “Analytics” button to see how many people are using your app, where they’re from, and your most popular screens. 

If you’re like most grocery businesses, you’ll want to grow your app. However, marketing your app takes time, patience, and a few strategies. So, to get you started in the right direction, we wrote an app-marketing promo guide.  

Ensuring your app’s success takes time and persistence. Ultimately, if you put in a daily effort, your app will most likely succeed over time. Happy building!

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FAQ

How Much Does It Cost to Create a Grocery Delivery App Like Instacart?

The price of creating a grocery delivery app like Instacart can vary significantly. Using no-code platforms like Adalo can lower costs. Still, you’ll need to consider additional expenses like premium app templates, third-party integrations (such as payment gateways), and any fees associated with publishing on app stores. 

For a more customized solution, hiring developers or designers will add to the overall cost.