You don’t need to know coding or hire an agency for on-demand food delivery application development. In this article, we’ll walk you through the following:
- What you’ll need to prepare to build a food delivery app.
- A step-by-step guide for creating a food delivery app using Adalo.
- Integrating payments, location, and publishing to the app stores.
- Resources for building your app
Food Delivery Application Development: Getting Started
How a Food Delivery App Can Benefit Your Business
Food delivery apps allow restaurants, cafes, groceries, and other food businesses to provide their clients with the convenience of online shopping, ordering, and delivery — all from the comfort of their own homes.
And you won’t need to worry about paying third-party delivery platforms or deal with the repercussions of a third-party delivery person canceling on you. You’ll have control over the entire delivery process.
Designing Your Food Delivery App
Before we jump into custom food delivery app development, you’ll need to prepare a few things. Gathering these 3 items checked is the first step to developing your app:
- Wireframes (digital blueprints): First and foremost, you’ll need to draw up some digital blueprints, also known as wireframes, which are screen-by-screen mockups of your app. Doing this will also give you a better idea of how you want your app to appear, which will guide your app building.
Pass on the paper and pencil — it’s the 2020s, and several high-quality and free wireframing tools are out there. We recommend you try Figma’s free wireframe kit, an easy-to-use tool.
- A list of your needed functionalities: It goes without saying that you’ll need to feature the products you're selling on your app and have a location feature that informs your delivery team about customer locations.
However, you can build out other unique features and functions that separate your food delivery app from the rest. For instance, allow customers to star rate each of your products, provide push notifications about impending deliveries, and include a chat service so clients can speak directly with drivers.
Suppose you include more functionalities that bolster your food delivery app’s user experience (UX). In that case, you might have a higher client satisfaction rate, meaning more folks could demand your products rather than those from your competitors.
- A free account with a top no-code app builder, Adalo: Don’t have any technical knowledge? Does looking at line-after-line of code give you vertigo? Good! You can create your very own app with zero tech or programming skills using Adalo.
Instead of writing code, Adalo lets you build your app using a super-simple drag-and-drop interface, allowing you to piece together your app by moving elements around with your mouse.
You can customize your app to meet your precise needs, tastes, and brand image. Once you’re done, you’ll have a high-functional and professional-looking app for nearly any food delivery needs.
While Adalo is powerful enough to breathe life into almost any food delivery app idea for small to mid-sized businesses, it’s intuitive enough to use right out of the box. Adalo combines simplicity with powerful features, making it an effective choice for no-code development.
The Parts of Your App That You’ll Build
One of the (many) cool things about building with Adalo is that it’s an all-in-one app builder: You won’t need to sign up for a third-party backend or database builder to complete your app. Adalo comes complete with everything you need.
When you build with Adalo, you’ll create the 3 following parts:
- The Frontend: Your clients will see, tap, and order using your frontend. Its screens will display all the food you’re selling, screens for checkout, and a map that shows your client’s location to your drivers.
- The Backend: Functioning as your app’s control center, your backend does all your app’s heavy lifting. It calculates your client’s final bills, sends location info to your drivers, processes payments through third-party platforms, and more.
- The Database: The database is essentially your app’s data storage center. All the information clients enter is saved to your database. Here are a few database items you’ll find in a typical food delivery app:
- User Names
- User locations
- Menu items
- Prices
- Payment history
- And much more
Already have a database or a pre-built backend? If it’s through Xano, Google Sheets, or Airtable, you’re in luck: Adalo integrates with these platforms — we’ll discuss how to connect them to your frontend below.
Food Delivery App Building Guide
Step 1: Download the Ordering App Template
When you build your app with Adalo, there’s no need to start from scratch. Adalo provides dozens of premade templates with all the frontend, backend, and database components you need to create your app. For a restaurant delivery app, we suggest you download Adalo’s ordering template.
If the colors and layout aren’t what you have in mind, don’t worry one bit. As we said earlier, you’ll be able to customize nearly every last pixel — the color, structure, pictures, and more, so your final app meets your expectations.
Step 2: How to Customize Your App
Now that you have the template, it’s building time — after answering a few questions, Adalo will take you to your building interface, which is composed of the following 3 pieces:
- The Horizontal Ribbon: Stretching horizontally across your screen’s top, you’ll use the Horizontal Ribbon to access your Adalo account and see how your app looks on devices like an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or a tablet.
- The Building Canvas: This is the part of the building interface you’ll use to create your app. You’ll be able to see all our app’s screens; you can zoom in by pressing “Ctrl +.”
You can also edit screens by clicking on them from the Building Canvas. Most of the customization you’ll do comes directly from your Editing Dashboard.
- The Editing Dashboard: Dropping down vertically on the left-hand side of your screen, the Editing Dashboard has all the tools for creating and customizing your app. For instance, you’ll use it to add new screens, features, forms, and much more.
Adding and Deleting Screens and Components
The most important button found on the Editing Dashboard rests at the very top. It’s a large “+” inside a colorful circle. By pressing this, you’ll find functions to add new screens and other components, such as:
- Lists, which you can customize with pictures and info to feature the food you’re selling.
- Forms, which customers will fill out to create accounts, enter payment info, and more.
- Elements such as buttons, icons, and text boxes.
- Marketplace components, add-ons, and plugins made by Adalo and the Adalo developer community provide your app with fantastic functionality. These components include an image carousel for easy product viewing, a star rating tool, a map function, and more.
Customizing a component’s color is as easy as clicking on it from your building canvas and changing the color scheme using the editing box that will appear as soon as you select a screen’s component.
You can easily toggle between screens by pressing the “Screens” button, which appears as a screen icon.
To enlarge or shrink a component, select it, press your mouse button, and move your cursor until it reaches your desired size. Deleting components is as easy as choosing the undesired component from your building dashboard and pressing the delete button.
To delete screens, go to the “Screens” button, scroll down to the screen you want to throw out, select the 3 vertical dots button near the title, then click “Delete Screen.”
Step 3: Getting To Know Your Database
As we mentioned, Adalo has a pre-packaged database that you can customize to your tastes. First, access your database by clicking the “Database” button on your editing dashboard — it’s a spreadsheet icon.
Here are the 3 parts of an Adalo database and how to customize them:
1. Collections: These are groups of data, and they’re structured as spreadsheets. Change any collection directly from the “Screens” button and push “Add to Database.” You'll be able to create a new collection and customize your data.
2. Properties: Properties live at the top of each collection, in the first row of cells. To add or delete them, push the “Add to Properties” button in the box that pops up to the right of your Editing Dashboard.
3. Records: Your records are found in each cell of every collection. They’re the actual data in your food delivery app, such as user names, prices, food for sale, and more.
How To Connect an External Database
Listen up for folks with a Xano, Google Sheets, or Airtable database: Integrate your pre-made database by scrolling down to the “Add External Datasource” option within the “Database” function. Follow the directions, and you should be golden.
Step 4: How To Preview Your Food Delivery App
By pressing the green “Preview App” button on the Horizontal Ribbon and selecting “Staging Preview,” you can see how your app appears on mobile and desktop devices. You’ll be able to navigate through your app as if it were live.
While flipping through your app, jot down any problems. Get these issues fixed immediately, as they could impede your app’s publishing time.
Step 5: Integrating Payments and Location Services
Payments with Stripe
Your customers will be able to pay as they order, thanks to Adalo’s Stripe integration, which you can set up by visiting Stripe’s account-creation homepage. Create an account, follow the directions, and return to the Editing Dashboard.
Then, select the “Add Components/Add Screens” button, find the Stripe payment form, enter your info, and you’re ready to begin accepting payments.
Integrating Geolocation
You’ve got a delivery app, so of course, you’ll want to add Adalo’s geolocation function so your drivers can seamlessly navigate to your customers' locations. First, get your Google API key, and then go to the “Settings” section (looks like a bicycle gear) on your Editing Dashboard.
Then, go to your “Database” section and select the “Special Location” property type. Follow the directions, and your geolocation should be up and running. If you have any issues, check out this section of the help documentation for a detailed rundown of setting up geolocation.
Step 6: Publishing on the Web in the App Stores
Adalo lets you create 3 apps from 1: An app for the web, an app for the Apple App Store, and an app for the Google Play Store. Let’s talk about how to publish your app to the web first:
- Select your profile button from the Horizontal Ribbon.
- Return to “Settings” on the Editing Dashboard, and find the “Domain” section — type in your domain (www.domain.co). Don’t have one? Then, visit GoDaddy and purchase your very own domain.
- Go back to the Editing Dashboard, press “Publish,” and follow the instructions for a web app.
Now, your app is live on Google, and customers can find it like any other website. They’ll also be able to place orders, but receiving push notifications or being able to access your driver’s geolocation might be challenging to execute.
These features are only available on native mobile apps, which we’ll discuss next.
Publishing to the Apple App and Google Play Stores
While publishing your app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store is more involved than on the web, you can add more functionalities like geolocation, camera integration, and push notifications. Plus, the Apple App Store and Google Play Store have a combined billion monthly visitors and an enormous potential audience.
But, as we said, publishing to the app stores is quite involved. Before you start the publishing process, ensure you have the following:
- A written description: First, search for other food delivery apps and read their descriptions carefully, jotting down keywords the app-makers use to describe their app.
Then, start writing your app description and include the keywords you found and your unique keywords — these are essentially synonyms of their keywords.
Doing this can help your app appear in more search results for certain keywords, which might increase your app’s visibility in the app store search results.
It’s also essential to keep your description to the point: Although you’ll have a 4,000-character limit, write just enough to illustrate your app’s functionality. No one wants to read an app description that reminds them of a graduate school textbook.
- Build a cool icon: You’ll need an app icon that appears to the side of your app’s title in the app store search results. Because folks will associate this icon with your app, you’ll need to ensure that it’s eye-catching.
If you don’t have any graphic design experience, don’t worry. Sign up for an easy-to-use program like Looka and build an engaging app icon quickly.
- Provide pro-level screenshots and videos: Both app stores let you submit a few screenshots and videos of your app in action. Don’t turn in anything sloppy: If customers see professional screenshots and well-thought-out videos, it will most likely reflect well on your brand.
Once you have all the above, it’s time to publish.
Publishing Your Grocery Delivery App to the Apple App Store
Navigate to Apple’s iOS developer page, create an account, and pay the $99 yearly fee. Importantly, register with Testflight, Apple’s testing platform, which lets hundreds of folks download your app to their phones, test it, and provide feedback.
Take the feedback into account and make any necessary adjustments to your app. After it’s ready, go back to your Adalo account and select the “Publish” button. After following Apple’s instructions and submitting your app, Apple usually publishes it in a few days. Still, it may take longer, depending on the app's complexity, compliance with guidelines, and the current review queue.
Publishing Your Grocery Delivery App to the Google Play Store
For example, with Apple, go to the Android developer page and create an account. Pay the one-time enrollment fee of $25. Sign up for Google’s app-testing platform, which is similar to Testflight, and implement the needed changes.
After polishing your app, go to your Adalo account, select "Publish,” and follow the Android directions. Android should approve your app in as little as a few hours to a few days.
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Next Steps: Resources, Analytics, and Maintenance
While building your app, you might encounter a few issues that we didn’t discuss in this building guide. Luckily, Adalo has a thriving ecosystem, packed with enough info and resources such as the following:
- Adalo’s App Academy: This is the place for folks who want to learn Adalo through loads of courses, tutorials, and modules. You’ll have all the info you need to understand every last bit of Adalo’s app-building interface.
- Adalo’s Forum: Use the Adalo forum to connect with other folks embarking on their app-building journey and get answers to your questions from experienced Adalo users.
- Adalo’s Help Documents: These provide step-by-step instructions and demo videos to help you build your app.
Maintenance, Analytics, and Marketing
After publishing your app, ensuring it runs without issues is priority number one. If you ever find crashing screens or bugs, fix them on the double to uphold a positive reputation as an app publisher.
Want to know how many folks are using your app daily, where they’re located, and analytical info about your app? Just click that “Analytics” button (a graph icon) near the bottom of your editing dashboard and find out.
Growing your food delivery app’s audience might result in more sales. One way to do this is to market your app methodically. Want to know more? Then check out our app-marketing guide, which is a deep dive into all the techniques you can apply.
Ultimately, building a food delivery app can bolster your sales and be a fun and rewarding experience. Adalo provides all the tools you need for successful food delivery application development — enjoy the building experience.
