Food delivery app that is extremely fast and reliable

Food delivery app that is extremely fast and reliable

What if you want to order food from a restaurant that has no delivery? You have to go there to buy it and bring it. But what if you can’t do it or don’t want to? This is where food-ordering apps come to the rescue. Then in order to plan a dinner for yourself, you do not need to spend time gathering food - you just need to open your smartphone, choose the food delivery application, select any available restaurant and the dishes you want, and then pick them up from the company's courier. 

But how can anyone choose the best app for you among so many offers on the market? Mifort has a solution for you. Read about our new project - the food delivery app and you will know how simple, comfortable, and safe online food delivery can be. 

CHALLENGE 

Let’s guess, most likely you also ordered food to be delivered this week. Right?  Online food ordering apps or websites are rapidly evolving today as no one wants to give up the ability to get the food they want online from the comfort of their home or workplace. That is why our purpose was to create an app that includes everything for the convenience and comfort of users. The Mifort team has done tremendous analytical work to find out what functions are most important for users and what users don’t like in the food delivery apps. Based on this huge analytical work our team has a purpose to create an app with such functions: 

- Two accounts. One for cafes and restaurants, one for customers

- Search engine by category (by type of cuisine, by the name of dishes, by the name of a cafe or restaurant)

- Intelligent order distribution system

- Specified price range

- Indicated delivery times and cooking times

- Specify the opening hours of the restaurant

- There is a photo of the dish indicating its ingredients and calorie content

- Taking into account personal taste. If there are allergies or dislikes for any type of food, the system will certainly notify the user about the presence of this ingredient in the dish.

- The ability to slightly change the composition of the dish (add something, remove or replace something) 

- Storing order history

- Maintaining a blacklist 

- Paid and free food delivery

- Constant control over the status of the order

- Heatmap analysis

- Chat with the courier or customer service

- High quality and strict control. Automatically controls the cooking process and ensures high quality and strict adherence to the established deadlines for order fulfillment.

- Save shipping addresses

- Online payment by card or via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal.

- Order by a certain time

- Order status change notifications 

SOLUTION

The team of 7 specialists worked on the project: JavaScript Developer, Quality Assurance Testing, two Back-end Developers, two Front-end Developers, and a Project Manager. The length of the project was 7 months. This application was written with multiple technologies. The Frontend was made with Vue.js, Vuetifyjs, VueDPlayer, and Webpack. The Backend was written with Java, Spring Framework, and MySQL. Testing consisted of two types: automatic and manual. We carried out automated testing using specially developed tests and manual testing to enforce high project quality. The developed solution is a Web Application adapted for mobile phones and tablets. It is working on both Android and iOS.  

The Mifort team creates an application with 2 accounts: for restaurants that offer food and for users ordering it. The restaurant's personal account is connected to the CRM system, which allows you to see information about all orders and their statuses: delivery address, order status, contact number, status, and type of payment when to deliver. 

The second account is designed for clients. Users in the account have personal information, and taste preferences, on the basis of which the system will recommend dishes to the user, linking the card, order history and status, the ability to evaluate the order and leave a review, the ability to repeat the order, all delivery addresses are saved.

Our application is an on-demand delivery service: the order is placed online using the application and is performed offline by contract workers. After the order is received, couriers who are nearby receive a notification and can accept the order.

For the convenience of users, the Mifort team has developed 2 types of filters. The First filter presents a selection according to criteria such as cuisine and dishes, delivery time, restaurant ratings, and novelties, the customer can also enter a dish, and all the cafes and restaurants that make this food will drop out, filter by name of the place, the rating of all establishments, the number of orders made by them is also shown, and it is also possible to read comments from past customers. The second filter is a word search. Using the cursor, you can hover over the dish you like and a picture of the dish with ingredients and calories will open. 

An important feature of the application is that the calorie content is indicated in the dishes, there is a picture and a full description of the ingredients of the dish. There is an opportunity to change something in the dish: remove, add or replace some components.

Another important feature of the application is that it indicates how quickly food will be delivered, an approximate range of prices, how to open a restaurant and its opening hours, a list of all dishes, and a filter by name.

Intelligent order distribution system. When distributing orders, the application takes into account the opening hours of the cafe and restaurants, the composition of the order, the load of couriers and kitchens, and even the situation on the roads.

Heatmap analysis. The visual image allows you to analyze factors such as the number of orders, the average delay of couriers, the effectiveness of advertising, and the average check by location.

Reception and processing of orders and integration with social networks. In the basic version, information about new orders and requests for a reserve is sent to the Personal Account and is duplicated to email and Telegram messenger. You can manage order statuses (New - Confirmed / Canceled - In preparation - Delivered - Completed) directly from an email or message in the messenger.

Maps and geolocation. Since food needs to be picked up from a specific point and delivered to a specific location, an important part of the application is the map. Our team used Open Street Maps (OSM) plus wrote their own functions to locate the device. The app also has the ability to track the order in real time - so customers will know that their food is on the way.

Payment verification. The mobile app had a special feature. An order with online payment is not formed immediately. The program is configured in such a way that it first checks the payment through the bank. Only then the order is sent to the restaurant, which in turn protects the restaurant.

A system of bonuses or cashback. Users will be able to receive bonuses when registering in the application when making orders, for invited friends; give your bonuses to another user.

Promo codes. With the ability to set the period of their activation and deactivation, automatically change the conditions of purchase when using a promo code, determine the amount with which the promo code will be valid, etc.

RESULTS

The Mifort team develops an application that includes a large number of restaurants and covers the full cycle of ordering, preparation, and delivery to the nearest places, with the support of customers, partners, and couriers, payment processing, and support for geo-tracking.

Another important element to consider is the administrative panel. The administrative panel will manage the entire application and control all activities as allows restaurants to track not only ordering actions but also makes it possible to issue reports thanks to a built-in analytical system in various aspects, such as average check amount, popular dishes, read reviews thanks to which you can improve recipes or kitchen work, peak orders, etc., etc. The restaurant administrator can view the report online or download it in PDF.

If your business has its own delivery service or plans to launch one, you just need a delivery automation mobile application. It is convenient for consumers to order and pay for the service through it, and for couriers to receive assignments and navigate the terrain. We have implemented more than 20 applications for delivery aggregators, which were integrated with restaurants, the number of which ranged from 10 to 200, mobile applications, and CRM systems for cafes and restaurants. We will help to bring any unusual idea to life and understand the development of applications.