Today, one gets everything at the tip of their fingers. Whether it’s booking a cab, or shopping, or ordering food- just a click or two, and the job is done!
Recently, we have tracked a rising demand for ordering grocery items online. Nearly 25% of the consumers in the US order their groceries online. The demand is continuously increasing and will spur the market to higher growth. By 2024, it is expected that the online grocery market will reach a valuation of a whopping $133.8 billion.
This paved the way for a great opportunity for startups, traditional grocery stores, and tech companies to invest in their own grocery delivery app development projects.
Why Is Investing In A Grocery Delivery App Development Fruitful?
As per Statista, we have witnessed a good hike in online grocery sales in the U.S. Even though the total spend on online grocery shopping is relatively low, the number of people who have actually tried a digital grocery service is quite high.
Down below we can see where exactly online grocery shopping & delivery is the most popular: 
South Korea is leading in the online grocery shopping industry, with nearly 20% of their shoppers prefer to buy their groceries from on-demand grocery delivery mobile apps regularly.
How Do Grocery Delivery Apps Work?
The functioning of a grocery delivery app is very simple. It virtually offers all sorts of grocery items and provides the facility of applying various advanced filters in order to enhance the user experience. Users can add items to their cart, and initiate the final checkout. In most apps, they can also schedule a slot for delivery. Detailed steps are mentioned below:
- Sign-up
- Log in via emails, phone numbers, etc.
- Product search
- Adding items to cart
- Adding necessary details during checkout
- Order confirmation & payment process
- Admin receives orders
- Notifications sent to store managers/owners
- Manager responses to the request
- Admin communicates to the customer in the meantime
- The order gets generated by the store owner
- Updates the Admin to initiate pickup & delivery
- Successful delivery to the customer
- Ratings & Reviews (customers, stores, drivers)
Grocery Delivery App Development | Business Model
What Are The Must-Have Features For A Grocery App Development?
In order to enhance the user experience, the software solution should come with several striking features that are at par with the top grocery delivery apps.
CUSTOMER UI
Interactive Home Page
Users will be provided with a list of stores based on their location, and products’ searches. They can see ‘recommended’ & ‘open’ stores, and can also create a list of their ‘favorite stores’. Special badges will reflect against stores that follow the highest safety standards.
Explore Stores & Products
Users can search for a variety of products and/or for a particular store they want to shop from. The system search algorithm will return matching products along with the stores’ availability. They will also get options for a substitute product, in case the selected product runs out of stock.
Lightning Fast Search
The software should leverage ElasticSearch to enable super-fast search and filtering from a huge catalog. This provides a seamless user experience, besides shortening the sales cycle.
Advanced Filters
Users will get multiple filtering options. They can apply the same based on their preferences. All products search will be sorted out based on ratings & reviews, availability, price, etc.
Detailed Product Description
Users will get a descriptive view of products. This will help them better understand the product attributes – price, color, manufacturer, etc. The PDP allows users to check which store is offering the lowest price on a product.
Product Availability Notifications
As products will have specific inventories added on the CMS panel, users will be notified about the availability of a product, during checkout. Similar products can be generated using a machine learning algorithm, based on buying patterns of users.
Multi-Vendor Cart
To enhance the user experience, the software should allow customers to shop & order from a variety of stores, at the same time! They can add or delete items, and can also view total savings on every purchase. Users can also schedule a preferred time for the delivery.
Seamless Checkout Process
After confirming the order & delivery address, users can choose from multiple payment options (credit/debit cards, COD, app wallets) in our online grocery delivery app software. If a store does not deliver in a particular area/zone, users can either cancel the order or change the address.
Real-Time Delivery Tracking
The real-time tracking will help users to know each detail- from the time the order gets picked, to the completion of the delivery. In case a product is unavailable, the picker/delivery agent will inform the users, and the latter can immediately opt for a substitute, or cancel the item.
Order History
The whole list of past and present orders will be visible to users. Orders can be filtered based on several parameters (months, years). Orders that are purchased from multiple stores, will be tracked separately.
GROCERY SHOPPER/PICKER APP FLOW
The functioning of the store app must be highly flexible and should allow configuration, based on several parameters.
Home Page
The grocery store application is an excellent tool for store owners/ product sellers to manage and dispatch orders to customers. The home page shows a list of tabs where a new order; orders that are ready for pickup, checkout & delivery- all are displayed in an organized way.
View All Order Details
As and when a new order arrives, the owner gets notified in the grocery delivery software. They can now see all necessary details- like the customer details, the contents of the order, the selected mode of payment, etc.
Assigning A Picker
After accepting the order, the store owner can either pick-up the items himself or assign a picker. Detailed order picking stages (‘order picked’, ’not picked yet’, ‘product substituted’, ‘product removed’) will be displayed in various tabs for faster updates.
Suggestion Of Substitute Products
The picker or the store owner has the option to update the customer about products that are unavailable or out of stock. A substitute product will be suggested by the picker, and on approval by the customer, they can continue with the grocery shopping & delivery process.
Bag Label Printing
During checkout, the cashier will generate a receipt after scanning all the items. The receipt must be uploaded to the app. The picker will then confirm the no. of bags, print labels for each bag, which will be tied to the order & scanned by the driver at the time of delivery.
Pickup & Delivery
Once the shopping process ends, the store/freelance driver will update the customer about his estimated time of the final delivery. In case a driver isn’t assigned for the job, the store manager can manually assign a person from the store to deliver the groceries.
DRIVER APP FLOW
Multi-vendor grocery delivery app software should facilitate order delivery either via freelance drivers (ones who can pick-up items & deliver from multiple stores), or specific store drivers.
Assignment Of Orders
A store driver will be assigned the job directly, but freelance drivers will receive notifications on the app which they can accept or reject. The drivers will have the option to mark themselves available or unavailable as per their preference.
Single Pickup – Multiple Deliveries
Since drivers can deliver grocery orders at multiple addresses, they can provide updates both to the store owners/managers and the customers, all the same time! The real-time updates ensure seamless communication between drivers, store owners, and customers.
Proof Of Pickup & Deliver
The driver has to scan the QR code for each bag before delivery. The grocery delivery will be considered complete only after he has taken the signature of the customer. In case of contactless delivery, the drivers can take snaps of the bag left at the doorstep, as a sign of proof.
Reattempting Delivery Management
The driver can reattempt for a delivery, in case the customer is unavailable. He is allowed to do the same for other reasons as well and has to provide valid reasons, in order to inform the system admin about the reattempt.
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Market Leaders
Instacart has grown 179% since August 2017, and 75% since January, last year. The grocery delivery (and pickup) service now covers 80% of U.S. households, up from 35% in 2017. Shipt, Amazon, and FreshDirect all lag Instacart when it comes to grocery delivery market share.
Walmart grocery is one of the biggest grocery delivery services in the world. It provides services in more than 1,600 cities across the world. It was first launched in a few cities in 2015, then soon, it expanded its operations.
How Much Does A Grocery App Development Cost?
There are numerous factors on which development cost depends.
Reputation Of The Development Company
A prestigious, experienced, and reputed mobile app development company will charge a little more, but will not compromise on the quality of work!
Geolocation Of The Team
For instance, the development costs in South-East Asia can lies within 20-30$/ hr, while in the North America region can go up to hundreds of dollars per hour.
Timeline & The Team Size
If you demand the app within a short deadline, then the company is likely to increase its charges. Moreover, a large team of developers will cost more.
MVP OR Full Fledge Grocery Delivery App
A minimum viable product is an app with just essential features, while a full-fledged product is an app with essential and advanced features.
The cost of developing an MVP grocery delivery application can lie within 15-25 thousand dollars, while a fully-fledged app can cost you 25-35 thousand dollars.
It would be recommended to begin with an MVP and gradually scale up the app features if you are a beginner in this niche.
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Selection of An App Development Partner is VITAL
Developing a flawless grocery delivery mobile app requires skill. An experienced mobile app development partner is very important because the process includes multiple API integrations and customized functionalities thus, it is important to select an eCommerce solution provider company with in-depth knowledge of the domain and the required tech stack.
