How we restructured an operative food delivery application to resolve functional and technological glitches while supporting the growth of the business.

The client initially approached us to resolve their difficulties with their existing food delivery application. They wished to revamp their app to accommodate modern features and meet the requirements of modern customers. After going back and forth discussing the client's needs, we decided to conduct a product discovery workshop which would help us demonstrate our ideas and suggestions regarding the redevelopment of their application. In addition to ideas that would remedy their existing problems, we recommended incorporating a number of modern features to help their application function more efficiently. Impressed with our work during the workshop, the client decided to enlist our professional services for the reconstruction of their traditional food delivery application.

We supported the client in overcoming several business challenges thanks to our collaboration and regular communication. Here's how we approached it—

• The first challenge arising from our professional alliance was the communication barrier. The client was from Italy and spoke only Italian, a language our team was not fluent in. This language barrier proved to be a roadblock in our collaboration. To eliminate this problem, we resorted to employing a language translator who would facilitate smooth cooperation and help us conduct our business efficiently.

• Having a traditional mindset, the client failed to recognize the value it would add to their business performance to incorporate some contemporary features to their application. Our team put much effort into emphasizing the significance of a modern web and app development approach. Our team explained how a modern UI would deliver an excellent user experience, thereby retaining more customers and helping the business. Ultimately, the client agreed with our modern approach and recognized the result-oriented aspect of it.

• It should be noted that the problem with communication was not exclusive to our professional partnership. There was a flaw in the translation module of the client's existing application. It resulted in inaccurate translations of languages. This prompted us to build a customized translation module where data would be filled manually. It would even facilitate the accurate translation of every new language added in the future.

• The entire purpose of the application was to deliver food and other services to customers efficiently and on time. This required the development of a three-way tracking mechanism which was challenging to build. This system would provide tracking facilities to the customer, restaurant or service manager, and delivery executive. To accomplish this, we conducted in-depth research and enlisted the support and expertise of our senior developers.

• Our team recognized the importance of an easy mechanism for the placement of orders. It is key to customer conversion and retention. Having multiple options for payment is another essential aspect in this context. Keeping this in mind, we built a wallet to streamline order placement and boost customer experience.

• The next thing on our agenda was to build and customize a notification system so customers could receive notifications on their applications in real-time. Therefore, if a notification crops up while a customer is using the application, they can view the notification directly on the application.

• Providing customization options with every order and for every product proved difficult not just for the developers but for the designers as well. However, the correct usage of icons and buttons helped us establish a modern look. Moreover, we were able to code it along with attractive animations thanks to a few amendments we made in the plugins.

• Being a delivery application, the client’s app regularly dealt with large volumes of data which were confidential. This deemed it imperative to ensure data security and integrity, which our team executed flawlessly.

• Owing to the vast amount of data on the homepage, we experienced a hindrance with respect to the speed of the app. To fix this, we incorporated lazy load and leveraged proper image compression. In addition, we included a large number of animations which further lowered the load time. However, our technical team utilized their expertise to address and overcome this.  

• It was important to simplify the onboarding process for delivery executives as the entire business revolved around efficient deliveries. Our team achieved this by building an upfront and direct onboarding process where the only requisite was uploading appropriate documents on the part of the delivery executives. Once these documents were vetted and approved, they were free to start deliveries.

• Our team automated the payment mechanism to keep it simple and straightforward. For example, after receiving customer payments, the platform would automatically pay the restaurant managers within 6 hours of delivery after deducting the platform commission. Subsequently, the delivery executive was paid after the platform calculated the delivery charges based on the total price and distance covered. 

• To help the restaurant manager efficiently keep tabs on orders and availability, we designed an inventory system that would update stock records in real-time. We also built an option for the manager to get an overview of the inventory so that they could accept and deny orders accordingly.