How To Make A Successful Online Food Ordering Website?

Are you really into the online food ordering and delivery platform? Across the world, more and more people prefer ordering food from delivery websites. Even when Doordash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, GrabFood or Postmates are now the top players, food ordering startups are still growing at a tremendous pace.

In the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, millions of restaurants have shut their doors. But as a restaurant owner, you can sell takeaway food delivery. The food ordering website will help your restaurant survive the pandemic as well as provide essential food supplies during the lockdown.

Thus, a food ordering marketplace platform is not only about feeding people around the world but also about how to make profits out of it. Nevertheless, to say, food delivery is an attractive market for many entrepreneurs & established business owners.

Whether you want to create a local food delivery website or food ordering system for your restaurant, we are going to show you how to step by step. But before diving in, let’s see how food ordering platform work and make money!

Read also: How to build food delivery app like UberEats?

1. Food ordering business model

You may think that the only profit of food ordering sites is sales they get for each restaurant? You’d be wrong! If you are planning to venture into on-demand food delivery services, here are 4 ways it raises revenue.

With the help of an online food app, customers can order food online by choosing their favorite food or restaurant and adding it in cart.

Then the restaurant where you choose to place order gets a notification. After that, the staff will prepare for delivery.

When your food is ready, the driver man delivers food to your doorstep. This brings about convenience for customers – with a range of choices: pay via card or cash.

1.1. Order food only

For example,  Zomato use this kind of business model. Customers can connect with a wide network of food restaurants and simplify their interactions via food ordering web. Checking the menu, seeing the restaurant’s review, and ordering food – all gathered in one app.

And how does it make revenue? Recently, the local restaurants deliver orders on their own and pay for delivery website 7 to 15 percent commission.

1.2. Oder food & delivery platform

Grubhub, Uber Eats, or DoorDash, for instance, is the food ordering and delivery platform that benefit both customers and restaurants.

Thus, delivery services cut 20 to 30 percent on the cost of each order and may charge an additional delivery fee to customers.

2. Top 7+ popular food ordering websites

With food delivery apps, your next meal is just a few taps away. That makes a huge competition and rushes in on-demand food delivery market with the same niche.

But there are hundreds of food delivery websites out there, how to find the best one? We’ve gathered all the essential info for the best food delivery apps for 2020.

2.1. Uber Eats: Food delivery and takeout

Uber Eats is one of the most food delivery systems in the world. Not only delivering great user experience, but UberEats is also an excellent option in terms of availability, even in small cities. Through this food delivery platform, customers can order food from local restaurants while being noticed about estimated delivery times and being able to choose cashless transactions.

Availability: currently in many cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles,  Singapore, Tokyo, Portland, etc.

Fee: UberEats charges 15% of an order’s subtotal for food delivery. Additionally, fees may vary based on distance and restaurants.

2.2. Doordash: Food delivery & takeout

Doordash focuses on food quality and on how the restaurants work well to get your food delivered on time. One of the unique features during the food delivery website is that you can add information like where to park and to call before delivering the food. Above all, Doordash also delivers drinks containing alcoholic beverages from the stores.

Availability: over 300 cities in 32 markets in the U.S. and Canada, including Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Toronto, Calgary, among others.

Fee: The fee varies by restaurant. The price typically includes the cost of your meal, as well as tax, delivery fees, and sometimes, some discounts for new users, also on special days.

2.3. Grubhub: Food delivery | Restaurant takeout | Order food online

Like many food ordering websites do, GrubHub offers an option to search for your favorite food or browse through the list of local restaurants. All you have to do is to choose food delivery from restaurants near you and order the food in just a single tap.

Availability: popular in more than 3,200 U.S. cities and London.

Fee: The app is free to use. Therefore, restaurants may charge a delivery fee.

2.4. Domino’s Pizza

Domino is a well-known pizza delivery app for food ordering. It is also the first fast-food delivery app to execute online fast food delivery. This delivery app allows you to make quick online orders and delivers within 30 minutes.

Availability: Domino’s operates 17,000 stores in more than 90 countries around the world.

2.5. Zomato

Zomato founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, is a global restaurant aggregator and food delivery platform.

Key Features of the Zomato Food Delivery Platform:

• Operates in over 10,000 cities across 24 countries, providing extensive food delivery services.
• Serves more than 100 million active users who can explore restaurants and share reviews.
• Users can log in to leave feedback on restaurants and dishes, helping others make informed choices.
• Restaurant owners can list their businesses, providing details like address, menu, photos, and more.
• The platform is available in multiple languages, including English, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, Slovak, Polish, Turkish, Spanish, and Czech.
• Accessible on both desktop and mobile devices for a seamless experience across platforms.

2.6. Just Eat

Just Eat is a prominent online food ordering and delivery platform, headquartered in London. Founded in 2001 by Jesper Buch, Per Meldgaard, and Henrik Østergaard, the company has grown into a leading player in the global food delivery market.

Key Features of the Just Eat Food Delivery Platform:

• Global Reach: Just Eat operates in 13 countries, offering its services across Europe and beyond, connecting millions of users with a vast network of restaurants.
• Restaurant Partnership Fees: In the UK, restaurants are charged a one-time fee of £699 to join the platform, granting them access to Just Eat’s extensive customer base and marketing tools.
• Commission Structure: The platform generates revenue by taking a 13-14% commission on each order placed through the portal, providing a significant source of income while ensuring competitive rates for restaurants.
• Platform Accessibility: Just Eat offers both desktop and mobile app versions, ensuring users can conveniently order food from anywhere, at any time.
• Restaurant Network: Over 100,000 restaurants are affiliated with Just Eat, ranging from small local eateries to well-known chains, giving users a wide variety of options for meals and cuisines.

2.7. Deliveroo

Deliveroo is a UK-based food delivery platform that operates in over 200 cities across Europe, providing a reliable and efficient service for both customers and restaurants. Founded in 2013 by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski, two American entrepreneurs, Deliveroo has grown to become one of the leading food delivery platforms in the region.

Key Features of the Deliveroo Food Ordering Platform:

• Access for Restaurants Without Online Presence: Deliveroo enables restaurants that do not have their own online ordering system to reach a wider audience by listing their menus on the platform. This allows smaller establishments to tap into the growing demand for online food delivery.
• Dual Revenue Streams: Deliveroo generates revenue by charging delivery fees to customers and earning a commission from each restaurant partner for orders placed through the platform. This model ensures a steady income while providing value to both customers and restaurant owners.
• Multi-Platform Accessibility: The platform is available on both desktop and mobile devices, with dedicated apps for Android and iOS, allowing users to place orders anytime, anywhere with ease.
• Delivery and Takeaway Options: Deliveroo offers both home delivery and takeaway services, giving users the flexibility to choose whether they want their food delivered to their door or picked up at the restaurant.
• Food Categories and Personalized Recommendations: The portal organizes food into various categories, including Comfort Food, Desserts & Sweet Dishes, Healthy Options, Deliveroo Editions (exclusive restaurant collaborations), and “Our Picks” for easy ordering. These classifications help users discover new options based on their preferences and needs.
• Office Catering Services: In addition to individual orders, Deliveroo offers office catering services, providing businesses with a convenient way to arrange food for meetings, events, or daily lunches for their teams.

3. How to build a successful food delivery website

You’ve known about top delivery websites. All you need to do next is download the app from Play Store, App Store and then order away from their website. Or together with us, dig deep into tips & features on how to quickly start a successful food ordering business.

3.1. Custom built website

If you don’t have any ideas about how your food ordering website will look like, let’s get inspired by other platforms solutions. But to succeed, you need much more. You should choose something new and focus on building a unique identity. To clarify. it might be the user’s preference, your feature idea, and current trends.

The more feature-rich and secure website is, the more trust people put in you. And don’t forget about the advantage of custom design and programming.

Find out more: Top 8 UI/UX Trends For Mobile App Development 2020 

3.2. Target audience

It is always advisable to start with a small area.

• Less time to gather feedback and public reviews
• Opportunity to test your services before scaling up
• Getting adequate expertise and earning a good reputation on the market
• Then it’s time to push your business further

So that is the reason why researching your market is really important. This will help you learn more about how to satisfy your customers, understand the ever-changing demands, which is a strong base to stand out on the market.

3.3. Great UI/UX

Platform design, usage convenience, and loading efficiency – All of these aspects lead customers decide to place an order or not. As the result, the better design, the more users engage with your app.

For example, the basics design process consists of the following: research, analysis, UI/UX that refers to design, development, testing, and branding.

3.4. Marketing

• Tune SEO

SEO will act as a free source of constant traffic to your food ordering website. But expecting such features by default in a food delivery system will not be wise. Only an expert team of designers, programmers, and app developers backed by an experienced SEO and ASO team can develop such a system.

• Friendly to social media channels

Therefore, you should start with social media. People like to spend there more and more time sharing news, getting likes, checking someone’s statuses, etc.

And they also share food ordering experience from your delivery service? On the other side, they can check the rate and reviews of the restaurants for a better choice.

As our experience, we think you should entrust your tech team as well as the whole creative team to help you make it a reality.

3.5. Local demands

So following these essential ideas will come handy:

• The operations in one city might not work in the other. According to different types of customers, you will have a different strategy plan based on market research.
• The database and category vary as local cuisine preferences.
• The payment system should be secure, fast, easy-to-use, and maintain multiple popular payments varying from city to city and country to country.

3.6. Additional features

Check out these handy points for more insight:

• SMS live chat integration
• Review and rating system
• Advertising on 3rd parties sites
• Advanced search option
• Real-time tracking status

3.7. Mobile app version

According to a survey by eMarketer, US smartphone food delivery app users have increased from 13,9% (2018) to 16,3%(2019) and it is growing. By 2021, more than 20% of US smartphone users will use a food delivery app. With a food ordering app, you can utilize native mobile features to give a better experience to users. Thus, it is an up-and-coming innovation for restaurant owners in the future.

4. How much does it cost to custom the food delivery website?

In fact, the cost of the online food ordering platform depends on many elements, including the feature list, the number of integrations, and so on. Let’s see this formula of web development cost:

Estimated Time x Hourly Rate = Total App Development Cost

It is essential to choose the right development company, who will help you make your food business ideas into reality. With an experienced team, AgileTech would understand your objectives and thus implement updated software to bring out the best idea.

About AgileTech

By providing multiple needs and services, AgileTech is here to ensure your technology project as a successful element of your omnichannel strategy.

We have expert Project Managers along with excellent teams who have delivered the best products to customers in more than 10 countries, namely the U.S, U.K, Germany, France, and Singapore.

As a leading mobile development company in Vietnam, we have huge experiences in many fields including e-commerce, car-sharing platform, health care, Livestream, and many more.

Our dedicated software development team is ready for your custom requirements. You can contact us at contact@agiletech.vn or via (+84) 936 281 059 for more information.