How to set up a food delivery business like UberEATS?

1. Introduction

Do you recall and remember when we had to go to restaurants to get good food? Those days were hard, indeed.

Ordering food online and having it delivered at your home is something that we, the consumers are liking with each passing day. And with the sudden and unexpected disruption of covid, more consumers than ever have begun to realize the convenience of online ordering.

The food delivery market in the previous few years has got enormously big. The rapid growth of technology and easy smartphone availability has contributed massively to this enormous rise. Besides this, what has led to the food delivery growth is the changing consumer lifestyle, their eating habits and them seeking convenience of the highest order; something which these food delivery apps easily provide. Remaining in the confines of your home, the food delivery apps provide you plethora of food choices to order things of your liking 24*7.

As the number of food delivery apps and varieties of food ready to be served on the platter increase globally, food deliveries are increasing all the more and they have inarguably become a furor not just among the consumers, but businesses too.

So, how does your business create an app that is highly profitable and yielding like Uber Eats? The previous five years or so have been very demanding of food delivery apps. The consumers are widely preferring them and the food delivery companies can’t be happier.

Whether it be the likes of Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash, Swiggy or the consumers themselves, everyone is liking and enjoying the phenomenal shift to such platforms. These large number of food delivery apps and massive choices available therein, ordering food from local restaurants through your mobile phones, or logging in to the restaurant’s websites, render food delivery to be one of the most rapidly changing and growing industries in today’s times.

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2. Learning About The Statistics: Industry Numbers That Speak Volumes

The following food delivery trends and statistics are a strong witness to the fact as to how important and big the food delivery industry is getting day by day.

• Chinese consumers generate the most revenue when it comes to food delivery– As of the year 2020, China’s market size of online food delivery services stood at 66,462 billion yuan or 102 billion US dollars. This statistic is overwhelming in the sense that it easily surpassed the market predictions according to which the revenues for the year 2020 were to reach an approximate of $51,514 million. Moreover, as found mentioned in a report, China is the largest market for food delivery with a market size of $27.3 billion in 2021.

• The United States market is estimated to grow big and its revenues are estimated to reach $26,527 million– Finding itself in the second place to no other country but China, the United States’ food delivery market has an overwhelming potential as trends reveal and statistics suggest. Given the whopping revenue figures, a 1% annual growth rate in the US market is expected. New York city, by virtue of the amount of money spent, shows the greatest number of users of food delivery apps and services. In fact, the NYC food delivery statistics reveal that the average New Yorker spent $773.7 on food delivery. Occupying the second spot is San Francisco with a spending of $579.8 per person.

• The food delivery rivalry in the US market is cut throat– Such is the competition in the United States’ food delivery market that where on one hand as of the year 2018, Grub Hub held 34% of the market share, Uber Eats stood at 27%. Door dash followed the two closely.

• As of March 2022, Door Dash dominated the food delivery market with a whopping market share of 59% and Uber Eats stood at the second position with 24%. As of the year 2021, though Door Dash dominated the San Francisco food delivery market, Uber Eats app was the most used one for food delivery service in Miami.

• As per a report, China’s online food delivery revenue was forecast to reach over 67 billion U.S dollars by the year 2024.

• The estimated online food delivery market size worldwide was estimated at 2 billion U.S dollars in 2022. This figure is expected to grow to 223.7 billion U.S dollars by 2027.

• Instacart orders soared up– Affected by covid in 2020 and unable to go out, a large number of people in US turned to Instacart. It went from getting 8,20,000 orders in February to 14 million in the month of April. This is one of the most significant examples of the rapid growth in the food delivery market, but US food delivery statistics show that this trend is synonymous to popular companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grub Hub, etc.

Note: As per the mention in an article published in February 2022, 45 percent of the company’s total revenues earned in 2021 are by Uber Eats. In point of fact, Uber Eats has grown from $1.9 billion to $8 billion of revenues.

So, as the statistics suggest, this goes without saying that the industry is big enough to accommodate as many players as they may come across and the potential it has is highly promising. Food delivery services offering solutions through food delivery apps are here to stay.

So, a natural and obvious question that pops up in mind is how to develop a highly efficient food delivery app and what should be its features so as to lure more and more customers into using it? Or rather a straightforward question would be- ‘How to set up a food delivery business like Uber Eats?’

3. UberEATS: Providing Its Food Delivery Prowess Year Over Year

Before we start to put things into perspective and begin learning about the strategies and tactics for successfully setting up a food delivery business, let us have a look at the following overwhelming statistics about UberEATS that has already given many a leading food delivery business a serious run for their money.

According to the most recent report from sensortower.com, UberEATS is the most downloaded Food & Drink category app in the globe for April 2019. The app has almost eight million downloads, a year-over-year growth of more than double since the year 2018. Where on one hand, the most app installs for UberEATS stood at 24 percent for India, it was closely followed by the United States at 21 percent.

The below provided figure reveals the competitiveness and singular leadership of the UberEATS app around the world for the year 2019.

Similarly in the year 2016, a report from sensortower.com published in January 2017, UberEATS app was downloaded more than 10 million times worldwide since its February 2016 official launch.

The chart below visualizes monthly downloads of the UberEATS app during 2016, and hence is highly suggestive of the UberEATS food delivery app and service’s success and contention in the same year, compared to its two largest competitors viz a viz GrubHub and Postmates in the on-demand meal delivery space.

Sensor Tower’s data shows that GrubHub’s estimated worldwide downloads for the year 2016 totaled approximately 3.07 million, while Postmates totaled approximately 3.6 million. Additionally, UberEATS achieved an average month-over-month growth rate of about 23 percent from March 2016 through December 2016.

As per a mention in an article published in the New York times in November 2020, having acquired Postmates, the two companies together would have a whopping 37 percent share of food delivery sales in the United States alone, as reported by Edison Trends, an organization which monitors credit card spending.

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4. UberEATS’ Business Model

Riveting and arduous as it may sound, UberEATS has worked up its way rather perseveringly. With a large number of food delivery apps available, to be able to retain a competitive spot for long, tells the tale of a business that has efficient work processes and an exhaustive business model.

By defining its work processes neatly and categorically and thoughtfully deliberating on the business model, successful corporate houses already take that big leap required to flourish in the market. UberEATS is a classic example of this.

Below is the business model of UberEATS that gives a beautiful insight into how food delivery businesses should be run.

UberEATS is an aggregator business that connects and is the coming together of three parties viz a viz,

1. Restaurants or food joints– Businesses who list their cuisines and food items on the UberEATS platform
2. Customers– People who choose and order food to be delivered from the app
3. Drivers– Individuals who ensure a smooth and timely delivery of the food or cuisine so ordered, by the customers.

The business model of UberEATS is so simple yet benefitting that everyone involved in the chain gets a part of the collectively availed benefits. To say so, the relationship so developed is mutually profitable for everyone which is why perhaps the association generally goes a long way. UberEATS does not operate a fleet of delivery drivers. Because it doesn’t generally own any restaurants or vehicles to ensure delivery of food, its overhead costs are very less.

Instead, what it does to make profits is that it charges a certain percentage from both- the restaurants and customers, for every order they make and hence keeps itself going.

Since the drivers so involved are independent and not employed by UberEATS, they do not need to be paid any fixed salary, which again is a big saving. Instead, they earn for every delivery they make.

Moreover, they don’t have to work for fixed number of hours. Accepting deliveries of food remains at their discretion. The more they work and deliver, the more money they make. This is an added perk for them.

Customers win too, as they get the convenience and flexibility to order food of their choice from any restaurant they like through an app which allows for a rememberable app experience and hassle-free transactions.

They don’t have to make out time to go out again after coming back from the office, face unnecessary traffic snarls, burn their vehicle fuel and waste time, which again is nothing less than a big saving for them. After all, who would want to miss out on such opportunities? Perhaps, no one. If you are busy, UberEATS has got you covered, it appears.

Hence, the customers are the most satisfied ones when they find food delivered to their doorsteps.

Restaurants make their part of gains and profits as they get their chances of online visibility increased to a good degree, and in return, this brings increased profits for them when customers see their presence on the app, go through their cuisine offerings and order food.

UberEATS in the previous few years has worked up its way pretty smartly and intelligently. It prospered all the more during covid, when people worldwide sat in their homes and had no other option but to order food online for the family. UberEATS made the most of this time. By applying the right set of marketing strategies and designing an engaging, easy to use and user-friendly interface for customers, they brought in for themselves chunk of market shares. Finding an opportunity in the lockdown, had it not worked diligently on its software, apps and UI designs, etc. it would not have been here where it stands today.

To find out the essential features of an app that are helping businesses stay afloat in such crunch times as of ours, read on.

5. How To Create A Feature Packed App Like UberEATS?

In order for you to establish and develop your food delivery business, the first and the foremost thing is to develop an app that promises ease and convenience in today’s times. Notably, creating an app like UberEATS requires a team of diligent developers and efficient tech savvy members. A catchy UI design and an engaging interface like that of UberEATS, are two features among many, that users worldwide appear to be most influenced by.

UberEATS, through its food delivery app makes ordering and delivery an easy and a worth remembering experience for its users. It follows three really simple and hassle-free steps viz a viz- browse, order, track and get it delivered.

You can easily navigate through the app and look for your favorite cuisines, place an order of your choice, see the estimated preparation time of the cuisine so ordered, the time needed to deliver or reach your destination and also track your cuisine in transit as to how much distance it has covered and what part of it remains or approximately how much time will it take to reach you. As a matter of fact, UberEATS has an efficient and robust delivery monitoring system that allows you to track your orders till the time it is delivered.

Given below is a list of things that need to be taken care of by businesses, smartly and aggressively.

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• Organizing and curating the website content smartly: If the success of apps of food delivery companies in general and UberEATS in particular, is anything to by, the first thing that makes it happen is its aesthetic appeal. The better managed and smartly curated the contents of a website or an application are, the greater is its chance of making it big. By virtue of providing better personalization of mobile apps through the use of artificial intelligence, UberEATS has the front row seat in this innovation.
• Recommendation of wanted suggestions on apps: Machine learning has been a boon for aspiring businesses. It is with the help of this technology that past user history is monitored and existing contextual information is utilized by UberEATS that suggests food alternatives and cuisines of individual consumer choice. This is something that the other aspiring businesses can also replicate.
• An app that provides holistic information: An app or a food delivery software that is user friendly and engaging at the same time evokes great interest in them. To be able to provide a classified yet complete information about food items and its delivery aspect through your app, makes you competitive enough to take any rival head on. This is what UberEATS does, perhaps. Its app is all about easy exploring and is touted as one of the most user-friendly app. For instance, if a user looks for sugar free products, he gets to find them easily on the app. Moreover, he can easily find and navigate through the smallest of details regarding ingredients used, estimated preparation time, expected delivery time, etc.
• Order hassle free, irrespective of where you are: A food delivery app that advertises food aggressively but doesn’t provide the convenience of having it anywhere a consumer wants, is nothing but a failure in today’s extremely fast paced times. UberEATS takes a good care of this by enabling smooth and timely deliveries at various places like parks, hospitals, offices, gymnasiums, hotels, etc.
• Facility of pre ordering through apps: Several users around the world who run short of time and want to get food of their choice and taste on time, they prefer UberEATS most of the time. You can pre book your order and specify a time for delivery of the food item you want two days after or may be next week. This feature of apps may provide a business with the much-needed distinctive competence and subsequent competitive advantage in the food delivery services’ market.

UberEATS appears firmly set to continue going in the food delivery services’ market. Having acquired its once a rival firm, Postmates, the future for Uber looks to be focused on food delivery, with some expected expansions into grocery delivery in North America and Europe in the year 2022.

What remains to be seen is how other food delivery businesses catch up with the growing worldwide acceptance of providing food delivery solutions through the use of food delivery apps.

6. Checklist For Businesses In The Food Delivery Industry

• Is your business capable of proving its mettle in the food delivery industry?
• Does your business have a good website?
• Does it have a mobile app which is user friendly and is capable of evoking interest in consumers?
• Do you have the requisite resources to pursue the right set of marketing strategies?
• Can your business expand its outreach through the use of social media?
• Can your business collaborate with social media influencers and food bloggers?

If a business can find answers for itself for few of the above-mentioned questions, if not all, it can certainly work up its way to reaching a competitive position as that of UberEATS. Having listed a plethora of takeaways in the form of business model, statistics, data, app features, etc. for businesses and entrepreneurs, it remains to be seen how many food delivery service providers are actually able to replicate the strategies and app-related features as that of UberEATS so as to provide their customers with feasible food delivery solutions and stand out in the marketplace. Afterall, In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.