Restaurant owners and food delivery outlets are looking for ways to enhance the overall customer experience. Presently, given the rapid pace of life, a large part of the population is not able to prepare meals or does not even find time to dine in at a restaurant. This is why restaurants are inclined to provide online food ordering options to their customers.
Online food ordering makes up a significant part of the restaurant industry and innovative approaches have become necessary to remain relevant in the industry. To withstand the competition and keep up with the ever-changing customer demands; food delivery businesses have opted to invest in Custom Software Development Services for Online Food Ordering. As a result, a huge variety of online food ordering apps have surfaced in the market with a core emphasis on providing a better service to both restaurants and customers.
These are the top 10 trends in the online food ordering solutions.
- Real-time Delivery Tracking
- Personalized Platform
- Preordering Food
- Intelligent Menu Options
- Order from Anywhere
- Rider Logistics
- Virtual Waiters
- Push Notifications
- Feedback Portal
- Predictive Search
Let’s explore these prevailing factors in the food delivery market in detail.
Real-time Delivery Tracking
Location-based services have given online food ordering platforms the ability to engage with their customers in a better way. Customer immediacy increases once their order is made. Custom Food Delivery Technology Solutions provide us with real-time order tracking features using GPS tracking systems. With this technology, customers can track their orders from when it is being prepared, to dispatch and till they finally receive the order at their places.
Order tracking allows the customer to have constant access to their order details, which provides clarity and saves a lot of confusion for both the restaurant and customer. When users can view how their order is being accommodated, they do not call at the restaurant, again and again, to ask when their order will be prepared and delivered. In the same way, providing transparency of the whole process to the user allows restaurants to streamline the whole food delivery service for the customer that increases efficiency in their operations.
Personalized Platform
Personalization has become one of the foundations of successful operations for the food ordering apps. Within the online food ordering industry, there is a huge scope for creating personalized experiences for each individual. The most popular personalization route for online food ordering apps is restaurant recommendation.
The app tracks and analyses all user activities and behavior to suggest relevant restaurants or food items. For example, if a customer frequently orders pizza from a specific restaurant, the app could recommend other restaurants that have similar menu items that the customer may be interested in. Simple personalization features like this have a great positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Providing a personalization platform makes it easy to provide a tailored experience to all your customers. It helps in engaging and building your relationship with the customer. Moreover, it aids in retaining your existing users as they will get what they want with minimum effort.
Preordering Food
An aspect of providing a personalized experience for each user involves the recent trend of the preorder option. Some people order the same food items on a regular basis or want to schedule a delivery for the future. Custom Food Ordering Software Development has included the feature of allowing the user to save a specific order or to place an order in advance in recent food delivery apps. With this specific personalized feature, online food delivery businesses can save users the hassle of searching for their favorite restaurant or food items repeatedly.
Intelligent Menu Options
Artificial intelligence remains at the forefront of every industry nowadays. Artificial intelligence in food ordering apps monitors order patterns of all users according to various aspects, for example, the time of day, weekday/weekends or any specific holidays. With this data, the app recommends intelligent menu items with respect to different parameters. For example, for different times of day, the app will display a contrasting range of food items for breakfast, lunch and dinner times.
Order from Anywhere
Software Development for Online Food Delivery has introduced a range of mobile and web apps to aid customers in ordering food online. In this digital era, food ordering apps are gaining popularity as they provide the ease of ordering food from anywhere and in a convenient manner. Having a food ordering website or an app for a restaurant is no longer a choice.
It has become a necessity for food delivery businesses. Customers have been proven to opt for delivery when technology makes it more accessible to do so. People nowadays look for instant food delivery and the accessibility of having it ordered and delivered where ever they may be through food delivery apps in their smartphones.
Rider Logistics
The most important part of providing a food delivery service of your restaurant is having a strong and intuitive management system. You must know how many riders you need; how many are available or are delivering an order at each time of the day. Custom Food Delivery Technology Solutions monitor all rider movements from pickup to delivery.
Using AI and the real-time data available, the food delivery app calculates how many riders it needs on the streets, which rider is best placed for which order, and so on. It can also correspond to real-world events such as heavy traffic and recommend the best route for the rider. Rider logistics help you improve your deliveries by monitoring driver data and finding patterns from existing data in the system. This helps you save money on resources and fuel expenses as well.
Virtual Waiters
Another trend in online food ordering is of virtual assistants and chatbots in food ordering apps to take orders or address any queries the users may have rather than appointing customer service representatives. Customers can either type in their query or order food by voice. The chat-bot will reply to customer inquiries and also inform them about the latest deals.
Push Notifications
Alerts or push notifications have become a powerful tool to engage customers by having messages pop up on their mobile or browser screens. With push technology, you can easily grab the attention of users and notify them about their order details, any discounts or special offers. Push notifications in online food ordering apps were initially a result of Custom Food Ordering Software Development and used to alert customers when their order is ready or when it has arrived.
Nowadays the food delivery apps are increasingly using alerts to market their restaurants and provide information about the latest deals. Push notifications in the food ordering app allow customers to be aware of their order status. This inherent feature takes advantage of mobile technology to facilitate the customer’s order. Push notifications provide a seamless service from start to finish and keep the users informed.
Feedback Portal
For the food ordering and delivery industry, customer feedback is the simplest and most effective way of getting insights to improve your food delivery service. Customers are the best source to review and suggest changes in your delivery services or menu options. Food ordering apps include a feedback portal which is displayed to the user once their order has been completed. This will allow the customer to share their experiences or suggest any recommendations. Knowing customer demands, these reviews can help you to both identify any issues in your service and to enhance user experience in the future.
Predictive Search
Predictive search is a great feature that allows customers to directly search the restaurant or products name. Based on previous user data, the search field will populate relevant restaurants and food items for the user according to their priorities. Filter options with predictive search help the user to navigate through and be provided with only the options which pertain to their selection. These features allow users to find what they want more easily and quickly.
Final Words
The online food ordering industry has greatly benefitted from Custom Software Development for Food Delivery. Food ordering software aids in providing efficient order and customer management. Incorporation of recent and developing trends in food ordering apps has caused significant conversion of customers towards online food delivery. These upcoming factors provide continuous improvement to the order taking and delivering mechanism for restaurants.
Techliance has already provided a functioning solution to a food ordering business in the UK. Our client Mr. Cod is successfully running the online Food Delivery service and mobile app that is providing online food ordering to customers in the UK. With expertise in online food delivery app development, Techliance encourages upcoming as well as established eatery businesses to discuss their food ordering software requirements. Discuss with us how you can expand your food delivery business with the online food ordering app to better service the foodies.
