What Should You Know for Effective Restaurant Mobile App Development

Over the past two years, the restaurant business has faced severe quarantine constraints. By the beginning of December 2020, more than 110,000 eating and drinking places were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, those business owners who aimed to stay afloat were forced to urgently do something that would return their previous income, regardless of whether the restaurant is open to visitors or not. One successful solution was a restaurant mobile application development, where users would be able to order food online to their home or office.

If you want to create your own restaurant app, we will gladly take on implementing your idea. Contact us now to discuss your project details.

General Market Overview

Before we tell you how to make a restaurant mobile application, let’s delve into the details of the current market state.

As we have already found out earlier, the restaurant business is going through difficult times now. According to Statista, the number of cafe visitors due to quarantine restrictions has significantly decreased during the pandemic. This means that companies are forced to look for new ways to return their previous level of income. In particular, many of them launch their mobile applications.

An important role in these applications is played by their compliance with current IT trends. Thus, using at least one of the technologies listed below will help you attract as many users as possible to your mobile solution.

Voice search

Voice search tools help your users navigate within your application hands-free with just voice commands. In most cases, this concept needs machine learning algorithms usage.

Artificial intelligence

AI-powered chatbots can replace dozens of live telephone operators. The only problem is to build the correct scripts for interaction with the app users.

Drones

Today, drones are actively used to deliver online orders, and the eateries delivery service is no exception. The main thing you need — to have a rental service for such robots in your city.

Big data

Big data processing tools analyze each user experience, every time better focusing on their previous preferences and helping in choosing the favorite menu items.

AR and VR

These technological concepts can provide a fundamentally new level of visualization of dishes presented in the menu and, thereby, increase online and offline sales.

Types of Restaurant Mobile Applications

Formally, there are five main types of applications for the restaurant business.

Restaurant-locator app

Apps like Yelp are designed to orient users to the area and help them find the best eateries according to their opinions. Such software is based on online maps with the ability to track the user’s current location, as well as a rating system based on feedback from real visitors.

Table-reservation app

OpenTable and similar applications allow their users to book places in cooperating restaurants in advance without calling the administrator. You can create a booking application for all willing restaurant owners or present this option as part of the other application functionality for a specific restaurant chain.

On-table ordering and payment app

You probably know several restaurants in your area that offer on-table ordering and delivery services via a mobile app. In order to create something like this, you will need to transfer your menu to a digital format, integrate a payment gateway into the application and, optionally, provide the ability to quickly register and authenticate through a profile in social networks. FlipDish app can be considered a particular example of such software.

Online ordering and delivery app

As you can see, food delivery to your home (office) is an excellent way for restaurant business owners to expand their customer base and increase sales. We’re sure you know at least a couple of restaurants that have already launched similar mobile apps. The Olo app, for instance, is the one that could help provide integration between the eateries and delivery services.

Loyalty program app

Many well-known commercial networks are introducing discount systems for their customers. The mobile application can significantly simplify the process of calculating the final cost of dishes from the menu, taking into account the discount, and can additionally be used for newsletters. Take a look at the Starbucks mobile app as an example.If you want to build a mobile app similar to the ones we described above, contact Interexy now, and we will offer you the best conditions for future collaboration.

Step-by-Step Process to Create an Effective Restaurant Mobile Application

And now it’s time to find out how to build a restaurant app.

Analyze the competitors and the target audience

No new product is complete without prior market research. This procedure will help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and better understand the needs of your target audience.

Define your budget and assess the risks

Before developing an application, you should clearly state the business goals that you want to achieve with the future application. Therefore, try to predict the profit and compare these numbers with the cost of making a mobile app for restaurants.

Find an experienced contractor

After assessing the potential risks and calculating the budget, you can start looking for a dedicated development team. We strongly recommend that you carefully review the portfolios of selected contractors to ensure they have the appropriate level of expertise.

Come up with functionality

Together with the contractors, you need to clearly define the functionality of the future application. At the beginning of your digital industry journey, it is better to limit yourself to basic functionality.

Start the development process

Keep up with the mobile-first world!

Get in touch to build a multifunctional, user-friendly, secure mobile app for your business.

Pre-estimate my app project

Now you can start to create a restaurant app while not forgetting to upgrade (if necessary) your restaurant’s website.

Launch your application

After testing the created solution, you can safely launch it to expand your client base and push your competitors out.

Don’t forget about marketing

Do not forget about promoting the newly created solution — popular influencers, as well as contextual advertising and other types of Internet marketing, will help you with this.

Analyze the reaction of the target audience

A couple of months after the release of the application, you will be able to evaluate its effectiveness and add new features as needed (or optimize those that are already in the application).

If you are looking for a restaurant mobile app development team that will complete all these steps, contact us and we’ll make every effort to ensure that your project starts to bring you a steady income.  Also, learn about our development process in detail.

Core Features for Restaurant Mobile App Development

Below we will tell you about the key features that should be present by default in the average restaurant application.

#1 Menu screens

This feature is needed to visualize your menu and should contain interactive elements (at least, an instant order button should be present under each item). Optionally, you can add the recipe button that, after clicking, will show the ingredients list to the user (for instance, to exclude the allergic reactions for a particular client).

#2 Online ordering and pre-ordering

These capabilities describe several features at once, including integration with payment gateways, developing a user profile, creating a shopping cart, etc.

#3 Table reservations

The table reservation feature will help your customers to book places in your restaurant in advance. Usually, it includes a seat map and a reservation button.

#4 Food delivery

This feature requires the integration of geographic maps and trackers to display the current location of the user and the courier.

#5 Locating restaurants nearby

Here you also need integration with map APIs that will show users the location of nearby restaurants from your business network.

#6 Loyalty programs

To implement a loyalty program, developers need to create a user account where the history of previous orders would be stored.

#7 Social media interaction

To implement this functionality, you need APIs from well-known social platforms. Integration with them will simplify the process of authenticating already registered users.

#8 Push notifications

These messages will help you stay in touch with users even when the application is inactive on their phones.

5 Tips on Effective Mobile Application Development for Restaurants

Finally, here are some tips to help you develop a restaurant application in the best way.

#1 Speed ​​up your product launch to market

The sooner your application goes public, the better. Therefore, do not confuse your contractors with the implementation of optional functionality. You can always add something new after the release of your MVP.

#2 Be careful with experiments

The same applies to experimental functions that may be ambiguously perceived by the target audience. You should remember that they will require additional development hours from contractors, and there are some risks that you just will waste precious time to stay ahead of the competition.

#3 Use trending technologies

Along with this, try to implement at least one of the trending technologies that are now on everyone’s lips (the top-5 list we presented you above). This will help your product stand out from existing solutions.

#4 Get the support of relevant influencers

Pay popular bloggers for the PR of your application to create additional excitement and increase the number of potential users.

#5 Find a development team that specializes in your business niche

You should not turn to the services of companies whose portfolio does not contain cases similar to your project. It is best to deal with experienced contractors who specialize in mobile app development for restaurants.

Interexy’s Expertise In Restaurant Mobile App Development

Our company has successfully launched more than ten on-demand mobile applications, including some that include location-based delivery services. The solutions created are distinguished by their availability, reliability, and scalability. Also, one of our strengths is a non-trivial approach to UI development. See for yourself by checking out our portfolio.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, restaurant app development can save most jobs even under strict quarantine restrictions. Also, thanks to this approach to expanding the range of services you offer, you can increase your income and strengthen your competitiveness. If you are interested in creating a mobile restaurant app or other types of on-demand apps, contact us and our dedicated team will gladly take on your project.