On-Demand App Development: Everything You Need To Know
19 May 2021
Technology has impacted our lives in more ways than we can imagine, and smartphones have a huge role to play in this shift. Whether it is about money transfer, shopping online, ordering food, and a lot more, we can do all of these with the swipe of our fingers. All of this to address the evolving customer needs and meet their expectations to get instant services.
And that’s why on-demand applications are becoming popular. As the name suggests, they satisfy the demanding needs of the customers instantly. The current circumstances are pushing entrepreneurs to add more potential to online shopping by including them in the business mix and achieving new heights.
Being a fiercely competitive market you will need an on-demand delivery app development partner to work with. They can help brainstorm, validate and test the idea to assess the potential. Further, they can also consult on the tech framework – tools and features needed.
So, if you’ve an idea and you wish to first-hand validate your approach, understand the next steps based on various parameters, then this blog is for you.
Let’s dive right into it!
Table of Contents:
- What are on-demand apps and how do they work?
- Different Types of on-demand Business Models
- Benefits of On-Demand Apps
- Key Features of On-Demand App
- How to Build an On-Demand Delivery App
- Tech Stack of an On-Demand App
- How Much Does it Cost to Develop an On-Demand Delivery App?
- Use Cases of On-Demand App Development
- Why Choose Rishabh Software to Develop an On-Demand App?
What Are On-demand Apps And How Does It Works?
An on-demand service app is a mobility solution. It works as a facilitator between consumers and different service providers. This comprises supporting services ranging from food delivery, car rentals, laundry, grocery, healthcare and more. The said custom apps are developed on platforms such as iOS and Android (or for both).
Here’s how on-demand apps work.
Step 1: The user places a request to avail of a specific service.
Step 2: The app connects the user’s request with an appropriate & available service provider.
Step 3: Provider authenticates the request and approves it.
Step 4: Payment gets authorized.
Step 5: The services that users request are quickly delivered to their preferred location.
Step 6: Confirmation of delivery takes place between the consumer and the delivery personnel.
Potential Growth in Global On-Demand App Services Landscape
According to the recent report by PwC, the market for On-demand mobile apps and websites is forecasted to reach a whopping USD 335 billion by 2025.
As per the Harvard Business Report, the on-demand market attracts more than 22.4 million consumers, where it spends around $57.6 billion annually.
Different Types of On-Demand Business Models
- Person to Person: The mobile app serves as an interface between the service provider and the person who wants it.
- Business to Consumer (B2C): This on-demand delivery app model connects the end-users with the enterprise directly.
- Business to Business (B2B): In this model, one enterprise sells products/services to other enterprises.
Benefits of On-Demand Apps
- Cashless payment facility
- Security & Scalability
- Offer unlimited business opportunities
- User activity analytics
- Measurable online presence
- Customer service enhancement
Key Features Of On-Demand App Solutions
For Service Providers
- User Profile: Easy registration of service providers via email ID, social media account, or even phone number through OTP.
- Push Notification: Service providers get an instant alert as a user avails for its services or products.
- Accept & Reject Request: This feature allows service providers to accept or decline requests within a stipulated time.
- Online/Offline Status: This feature provides an option to service providers to choose their availability for a service.
- Payment Module: Service providers must have a feature that helps them to keep track of their earnings.
- Chat with Customer: This feature enables the service provider to communicate with the user to coordinate about the services or any other queries once the booking is made.
- Panel for Service Providers: Vendors or service providers will have tools to manage their staffs, riders, services, billing and customers.
- Informative Dashboard: This must-have feature enables the service provider to view their performance, service histories, earnings, and related statistics on a unified platform.
For Customers
- User Profile: Customers can register and sign in to their accounts via email ID, phone number, or social media accounts.
- Book / Schedule Request: This feature provides the ability to search and book service requests. This may include the ability to even track the live status of the service providers and their staff’s availability. The consumer can schedule service as per their desired time and day.
- Instant Alerts: It is one of the most important features that notify the user about the latest offers, their order status, and essential alerts. It includes incentives like referrals, discounts, coupons to customers.
- Payment Estimation: Estimates the expense based on a predefined set of parameters such as fixed cost, dynamic cost based on distance, tax if any, and more. It gets defined in backend and the customer will see the final cost with break up before booking.
- Real-time tracking: The two core parts of any on-demand apps are the ability to search for services and avail them. This feature builds customer trust by keeping them in the know of the expected delivery, expected arrival in real-time.
- Secure Multiple Payment Options: Users can pay by using their preferred payment options such as credit, debit card, cash, wallets, and more.
- Reviews and Ratings: On-demand apps are all about credibility. And what’s more credible than customer reviews to drive your sales and take corrective measures. This feature allows customers to provide the exact feedback and ratings of a particular service/product.
- Order History: Users can check all their previous orders and refund information anywhere, anytime.
- Help and Support: Users can seek assistance from the help and support module in case of queries.
For Admin
- Interactive Dashboard: Easy to navigate and customized dashboard to manage and control both users and service providers.
- User Management: Admin can manage all customer’s information from payments, discounts, order cancellation charges and more.
- Service Providers Management: Manage the listing of penalties, earnings, discount offers, coupon codes and more.
- Service Tracking: The admin can view and track all the ongoing real-time services.
- Pricing and Commissions: The dashboard contains all the pricing and commission-related information. It helps the admin to manage the transactions within the app.
- Track Analytics and Reports: This feature provides vital business insights to make better decisions to improve your services.
Transform Your Enticing App Idea Into Reality
Partner with us to leverage next-gen mobile app development capabilities and build a highly interactive & intuitive on-demand solution.
How To Build An On-Demand Delivery App?
- Identify Business Needs & Target Audience
The first step is to identify the purpose. On-demand services can be applied to a variety of domains and services, and each service might have a separate set of rules, requirements.
So, it is wise to identify for what domain and purpose you are building the solution. The extensive research on the market helps-- Find the right target audience
- Pains and problems of the customers
- Competitor’s strategies, strengths, weaknesses and USPs
As an experienced on-demand app solutions provider, we can help you to overcome the gaps faced by competition. We help get things right the first time right by analyzing the innovative solution to overcome the challenges.
- Asserting Business Requirement
Once you know which industry and for what purpose you are building the solution, it’s time to list down the types of users and what platforms they will use. Focus on identifying the requirements based on if customers will use mobile apps and if vendors will use web panel and their staff to use mobile applications for location & service tracking. - Identify the Technology
The next step is to identify the tech stack needed to develop the app. Hire a skilled on-demand mobile app development team that is proficient with leading languages & frameworks like kotlin, swift, flutter, react native and more. Draw the list of all the features, functionalities, and constraints to build an efficient solution. - Development and Execution
Once you have the requirement and technology in place an experienced on-demand delivery app development company can draft and implement a methodology that suits the project and the cost associated with the project to help deliver the optimum output. - Test and Launch the App
Once the core set of features are developed, the mobile app development partner can carry out a pilot or beta run to test the performance & address issues. Based on the learning outcomes the solution is aligned without any errors to ensure the best possible user experience.
Tech Stack Of An On-demand App
Here is a list of core technologies required for on-demand service app development.
- Languages: PHP, Laravel, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, JavaScript, PHP, CSS3, JS, HTML5
- Frameworks and Libraries: Angular, jQuery, Node.js, Bootstrap, VueJS, React
- Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL
- Hosting Platform: AWS
- Analytics: Amazon EMR, Google Analytics
- Web Server: Apache HTTP Server, Nginx
- Utilities: Cloudflare, Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3
- Payment Gateway: Braintree, PayPal, Stripe
How Much Does It Cost To Make A Delivery App For On-demand Services
It depends on several factors and clarity on the following aspects will help you broadly estimate the cost.
- Modules, functionalities, or features of on-demand system
- Size and geographic location
- Design complexity
- Tools, frameworks, and tech stack
- Purpose of developing the system
- The expected outcomes
- Total platforms you wish to deploy your application on
- Backend infrastructure and administration
- Services and integrations
As a standard consulting practice, to draw an accurate on-demand app development cost, our team can work with you to analyze your business need, define goals/milestones and phase-wise segregation of how the project would proceed.
Use Cases Of On-Demand App Development
With that let’s review few of the many use cases of Rishabh’s mobile app development approach.
Business Case 1: On-Demand Food Order Management System
- Challenge: Manual food ordering process led to limited visibility into order & fulfillment process.
- Solution: We helped a US-based technology company to develop an efficient online food ordering and delivery software. It helps improve the workplace experience with a mix of convenience and customization to simplify day-to-day operations.
- Key Outcomes: 4x improvement in work efficiency with planned meal options.
Business Case 2: Easy-to-use Homecare Provider Portal
- Challenge: Lack of centralized solution for elderly care seekers to search, shortlist, pay, and receive care from the caregivers of their choice.
- Solution: Rishabh developed a custom intuitive platform for a UK-based healthcare service provider. It eliminates the time gap of finding the right carers for the elderly by almost 90%. The cross-platform mobile apps targeted for Android & iOS platforms made it easy for both the care providers & care seekers to collaborate.
- Key Outcomes: 80% improvement in senior care & 50% reduction in operational costs.
Business Case 3: Field Sales Force Tracking Management Mobile App
- Challenge: No centralized platform to manage massive influx and volume of customers and lack of real-time tracking of field sales individuals.
- Solution: We developed a mobile-based solution for a US-based business and technology solution provider. It enables easy tracking of the organization’s field workforce to better plan, manages, and close deals by integrating their contacts, locations, and calendars for higher productivity.
- Key Outcomes: 43% better sales prospecting & forecasting along with 20% faster deal closure.
Why Choose Rishabh Software To Develop Your On-demand App?
With over a decade of experience in offering full-cycle mobile app development services, we’ve built different types of on-demand mobile apps that are backed by our multi-domain expertise. We leverage our technical prowess and business acumen to identify, evaluate and deploy custom solutions that provide you with a competitive edge. It is across varied native and cross-mobile OS platform environments.
What To Expect From Rishabh Software As A Partner
- Agile approach to the development process for consistently delivering secure solutions.
- Expertise in creating an intuitive, functional and visually appealing interface.
- Highly qualified development team with exposure of cross-platform solutions
- Accurate business foresight, attention to minute details & dedicated support team with a 24×7 customer service
If you have an app idea or a specific requirement, we’re just a call away. As a trusted on-demand application development company, we can turn your idea into reality to level up your business on a global scale.
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