The online food delivery ecosystem is growing at a rapid pace, at present. Tech mammoths are continuously evolving their online food delivery systems. The global on-demand food delivery landscape has become a cradle for innovation. Also, companies are trying to use technology to deal with the critical challenges faced by the industry.
According to industry research, the online food delivery market is expected to hit $161.7 billion by 2023. Owing to the growing demand, the industry has prompted many players to launch their own food delivery services online.
Nowadays, a lot of startup entrepreneurs are endeavoring to develop food delivery apps like UberEATS. But the process of developing a mobile app comes with a lot of challenges. If you are looking to develop apps for food delivery services, you need to tackle the following challenges:
1. Price Discrepancy Issues
Often food delivery apps like Postmates & UberEATS face issues related to price discrepancies. Users find different prices on the menus & checkout screens. When they order, they are slapped with different and most often higher prices.
Because this is a common issue in food delivery mobile apps, it leads to high levels of customer dissatisfaction. This often happens due to several hidden charges for delivery, taxes, payment processing, and even partner commissions.
This price challenge needs to be addressed by creating smart algorithms during app development. This would ensure price transparency from the first point of contact with the customer.
2. Branding Issues
Food delivery apps are heavily dependent on restaurant partners for the success of their business model. Even the best food delivery apps have to stay dependent on restaurants for growing their revenues.
But many times, these apps fail to address concerns regarding restaurant branding. There have been several examples of restaurant misbranding because of app database update issues. For streamlined branding, an app has to be updated with a restaurant’s brand identity, pricing, and menus. Sometimes, due to logistics issues, customers get offended by a brand leading to a negative impact on its online reputation.
Food delivery apps depend on other restaurants for its success. So, it is important to take care of branding and goodwill issues. This can be done by creating dynamic database systems to give restaurants the power to control their branding, menu, and pricing.
3. Payment/Refund Issues
Maximum customer complaints of food delivery companies are related to payment and refund issues. This case arises because sometimes the payment gateway is too complex. Also, there might not be enough payment options in an app.
At the same time, unclear refund policies of food ordering and delivery apps can turn off the customer base. Restaurants and the app might have different policies regarding refunds. This can cause dissatisfaction, too. So, it is important that an app development company must have an efficient payment gateway & clear policies. Also, a common understanding must be achieved between all the stakeholders regarding a refund.
4. Customer Relationship Management Issues
Food choices are a personal matter. What might be great for one customer might not be pleasing for another? This scenario can give birth to several controversies and disagreements between restaurants and users. So, as a food delivery app company, you should invest in resolving these issues with technology. Also, there should be a provision within your app to raise a complaint regarding food quality.
Also, ratings and reviews should be recorded and rewarded which will lead to a better food-ordering ecosystem and higher customer satisfaction. In case of any disagreement, an online food delivery system and customer service desk should intervene to achieve a resolution that doesn’t harm the brand as well as the customer.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned challenges pose a significant risk to the prosperity of a food startup looking to replicate the success of the best food delivery apps. If you are thinking of developing apps for food delivery services, you should tackle these challenges right from the beginning. And in case you are stuck with food delivery app development, our experts can help. Just get in touch and augment your success story, today.
