How These Features Helped Food Delivery Apps to Get More Customers

The past decade has seen an incredible rise in the popularity and adoption of food delivery applications. What started as a novel convenience offered by just a handful of platforms has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry, with major tech companies fighting for dominance in this booming sector.

According to data from Second Measure, online food delivery saw a 63% increase in gross merchandise value between 2019 and 2020 alone.[1] Leading apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub now facilitate the delivery of millions of meals each day across North America and other regions.

This rapid expansion can be attributed to effective strategies adopted by food delivery platforms to grow their customer base and order volumes. In this article, we will delve into 13 key features that helped drive more users to try and continue using these on-demand meal ordering and delivery services.

1. Easy Registration and Sign Up Process

A significant initial barrier to the use of any new service or app is the time commitment required for signups and account creation. Food delivery platforms addressed this hurdle by implementing quick and simple registration flows.

Minimal personally identifiable information is typically collected upfront - just basic details like name, email, phone number and address. Payment details are deferred to later in the checkout process. Combined with one-tap sign-in options using existing social/login credentials, the entire onboarding process takes under a minute for most apps.

By streamlining signup, food delivery platforms lowered the effort needed to give their service a first try. This conversion funnel optimization was key to attracting an initial wave of users and driving those first critical orders.

2. Attractive and Easy to Use App Interface

Beyond streamlining signups, food delivery apps invested heavily in crafting visually appealing and intuitive user interfaces. Sleek designs with largereadable typography and imagery optimize the mobile experience.

Key actions like browsing restaurants, adding items to cart and checkout are intuitively laid out. Customizable settings like saved addresses and payment methods further enhance usability. Darkmode options improve readability indoors as well.

Thoughtful UX flows combined with interactive mapping and real-time ETAs during orders keep users engaged throughout. Simple yet customizable filters and categories aid restaurant discovery. Such well-designed interfaces boosted conversions and time spent in-app.

3. Wide Range of Restaurant Options

While selection varies by region, major food delivery platforms partner with thousands of local eateries across cuisines. This breadth of choice addresses the diverse preferences of customers.

Apps ensure availability of popular cuisines like Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Indian and more. Established national and regional fast food chains are also featured alongside hundreds of independent local mom-and-pops. 24/7 availabilities further improve order potentials.

The variety eliminates any single point of failure for users. It also drives repeat orders and try-outs of new dishes. Higher order frequencies result as customers discover more options without leaving home. Visit Zipprr UberEats Clone Script.

4. Real-Time Order Tracking

Food delivery platforms revolutionized the dine-out experience by offering real-time visibility into order statuses. Customers can track preparation and estimated delivery times as their meals are prepared.

Step-by-step tracking eases anxiety during waits. It also builds trust by proving deliveries are progressing as promised. If delays arise, reasons are promptly communicated via app notifications.

This unprecedented transparency in the ordering process improves customer satisfaction versus traditional phone/desk orders. It also optimizes first impressions that drive repeat usage and recommendations.

5. Multiple Payment Methods

Flexible payment is a necessity for attracting mainstream adoption. Leading that front, food delivery apps support all popular payment methods including debit/credit cards, digital wallets and cash.

Cards pre-stored for recurring orders expedite checkouts. Digital wallets with one-tap payments boost conversions from mobile browsers. Meanwhile, cash payment upon delivery addresses the needs of tech-averse or budget-minded users.

By accommodating diverse payment preferences, these platforms welcome a broader base of customers without friction in workflows. Wide acceptances also simplify spends for birthday events or team lunches with splits.

6. Affordable Delivery Costs

While prices vary between apps and cities, most charge reasonable flat delivery fees between $2-5 per order. Some even offer occasional subsidies, especially for first orders.

Such competitive, transparent and sometimes free delivery drastically altered customer expectations. It removed a major psychological barrier to ordering in versus dining out, especially for single serve or smaller baskets.

Affordable fees optimized the value proposition, helping increase both order frequencies and average basket sizes per checkout. Customers could comfortably indulge work-from-home cravings or last-minute family hankerings.

7. Special Offers and Discounts

Food delivery apps provide a never-ending stream of promotional offers to users via apps and emails. Popular tactics include percentage or dollar amount order discounts, free delivery unlock codes and cashback rewards.

First order coupons attract trial by new users. Welcome credits on subsequent spends retain these customers long term. Meanwhile, loyalty programs reward existing users with tiered member discounts.

Festive season campaigns around occasions like New Year's or Thanksgiving also boost volumes. Such opportunistic incentives drive higher order frequencies, average order values and longer customer lifespans.

8. Customer Ratings and Reviews

Transparency improves trust in the platform. Users researching options reference star ratings and recent reviews left anonymously by past customers of featured restaurants.

Issues with inconsistent quality, inaccurate descriptions or delayed deliveries surface to benefit the wider customer base. Meanwhile, establishments are incentivized to maintain standards knowing their online reputation depends on it.

Apps also leverage rating systems to verify user identities and flag potential fraudulent activities early. Safeguards like this boost confidence for using services involving home deliveries.

9. Push Notifications

Proactive mobile push notifications effectively engage users throughout their lifecycle with a brand. Food delivery players capitalized on this by using notifications for order status updates and targeted promotions.

Customers receive mobile and often SMS alerts for order receipts, estimated arrival times, delays and driver locations. This keeps them in the loop without extra effort spent checking apps.

Meanwhile, push deals showcase time-bound, personalized offers for freebies or loyalty points on upcoming spends. Proximity-based notifications too target users within delivery radii of partner restaurants.

Such consistent yet relevant communications drive habit formation with these apps versus alternatives. It also boosts average order values through impulse buys on deals.

10. First Order Discount Codes

New customer acquisition presents ongoing challenges. To ease trial burdens, many food delivery platforms offer targeted sign-up incentives like percentage or fixed amount order discounts.

Codes delivered via referral links, targeted SEO campaigns and paid user acquisition funnel new registrants directly into placing inaugural orders. Apps essentially bear partial costs to seed lifetime values through reduced first order margins.

psychologically compel budget-conscious users into first tries required to foster long term loyalty. And it lowers risks to the customer to experience delivery quality and timings.

11. Cashback on Referrals

Word of mouth remains a primary driver of organic growth for any business. But sustaining momentum requires perpetual incentives.

Food delivery platforms award existing users cashback or loyalty points redeemable against future spends when their referrals place qualifying orders. Incentive tiers scale with number of successful referrals.

Cashback programs optimize user acquisition costs by crowding in unpaid community leaders as brand advocates and sales reps. Viral effects amplify the customer base exponentially over time.

12. Festive Season Deals

Holidays like Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve and Diwali present ripe opportunities to boost sales volumes. Food delivery apps maximize these through curated regional menus and occasion-specific promotions.

Popular dishes, meal bundles or thematic curations promote celebrations without cooking. Prices are marked down or free delivery unlocked to ease associated expenses.

Seasonal campaigns shift more dining occasions to digital platforms by addressing communal tastes. Optimized volumes during peak seasons also compensate any general seasonal variances throughout a year.

13. Customized Recommendations

Artificial intelligence powers personalized recommendations on major food delivery applications. Algorithms analyze order histories along with broader demographic and regional trends.

Users then receive customized restaurant, dish and promo code suggestions tailored to past likings. New discovery is thus optimized versus generic pages. Deal pop-ups too follow individual order patterns and timings.

Personalization improves average order values through impulse purchases and discovery spend. It also prevents customer fatigue over repetitive generic deals. Higher engagement and satisfaction result.

Conclusion

The food delivery industry's widespread success stems from a keen focus on simultaneously optimizing customer experience, merchant values and platform margins.

Features like simple signups, attractive designs, real-time tracking, flexible payments, affordable delivers and tiered incentives addressed key pain points. Meanwhile, breadth of choice, ratings & reviews, notifications and AI-powered personalization enhanced core proposition.

Collectively, these UX-led strategies lowered usage barriers while increasing perceived value, discoverability and habitual usage of these on-demand meal platforms. The cumulative results saw food delivery rise from a niche to representing billions daily in online commerce.

As the business matures further, future innovations will likely center around hyperlocal delivery fulfillment, sustainability practices, integrated grocery/meal kits and blockchain-based traceability/safety tools.