Did you know that the traditional brick-and-mortar way of grocery shopping is decreasing day by day so much so that it is, very soon going to get obsolete? (Well, at least in metropolitan cities). The industry experts state that this change in the e-commerce sector will increase rather significantly than now in the upcoming decades.

This is a major reason why the majority of grocery store owners are now thinking of building an online grocery store for their business. 

The offline stores, till now were only catering to customers in a defined radius. On the other hand, creating an online platform gives a business an opportunity to reach a rather larger audience and a bigger pool of potential customers. Thus, the traditional grocery shop owners find starting an online grocery delivery service an added advantage for themselves.

Facts lay that around 54% of the grocery retailers are integrating a range of new and exciting services into online grocery shopping through mobile applications.

Make Your Own Grocery Delivery Application Solution

Why invest in Grocery Mobile App development?

Since more and more people are getting technically advanced, using mobile applications for all kinds of shopping is becoming a norm now. Users of these applications are increasing each day, at a rapid rate, and in comparison to the past, all of us have witnessed a tremendous increase in grocery shopping through mobile apps and other delivery platforms. 

The most commendable factor about these applications is that people are now able to order their household items at any time and get them delivered to their doorstep at their own suitable time. And the cherry on the cake is that the customers can do all of this without the compulsion of visiting a physical store and waiting in a long queue for billing. 

This is probably the most common reason why there has been a drastic increase in online grocery shoppers. As a result of this, businesses, as well as technology companies across the globe, are showing immense interest in grocery mobile appl development.

Also Check Best Food Ordering Application

How does a grocery mobile app work?

The grocery delivery mobile app has very simple functioning. It offers its customers with all sorts of grocery items virtually and provides them a facility of applying filters to make their search of favorite items much easier. Once the search for items is done, the customers can add them to the virtual cart and proceed to the final checkout. In most of these applications, customers have an option to select a suitable time slot for their grocery delivery.

A detailed step to step procedure of grocery shopping through a mobile app is as follows:

1. The user signs up on the application by entering all the necessary details
2. Once the sign up is done, they log in to their panel through a phone number or email verification
3. User searches for the product they wish to buy
4. Select the products and add selected products to the virtual cart
5. Add address where the grocery items need to be delivered
6. The user confirms the order and makes the payment online (in most cases, the payment is made online)
7. Admin receives the order request on the admin panel
8. Admin forwards the request to the grocery store manager
9. Store manager that responds to the request. They are at liberty to either accept or decline the request
10. Admin then reverts to the customer by sending a notification
11. If the order gets accepted, the store manager generates the order
12. Admin is updated by the manager when the delivery person has collected the order
13. The delivery person successfully delivers the order to the customer
14. Delivery person updates the admin that the order is successfully delivered

Different types of Grocery Apps

The market for online grocery delivery mobile app is highly competitive. Since there are numerous competitors in the market, it is of supreme importance that you decide in the beginning about what kind of grocery delivery mobile app you should be building. Everything afterward, including all of your resources and operation management, depends on the type of application you are going to build.

If you are seeking to build a grocery delivery mobile app for your grocery business, you can select either of these options. Broadly speaking, the applications can be divided into two kinds:

1. Aggregator Grocery Delivery Apps

Under the aggregator model, you need to collaborate with local grocery stores. This is a preferred model by those who have their grocery stores (more than one in number) or can tie up with the other grocery stores easily. In this model, the user will have an option to select from several grocery stores on the application, and they can decide to purchase from either of the listed stores.

All the responsibilities, from order fulfillment to delivery, are of the store which the customer has selected. Here, you are just a facilitator between the customer and the store owner.

2. Dedicated Grocery Delivery Apps

This type of grocery delivery app has all the features of the aggregator model. The only difference in both of them is that in a dedicated model, you will have to manage the complete or facilitation.

To put this in easier words, different grocery stores will sign up on your platform and start selling the items. You will have your fleet of delivery boys. Your prime task will be to facilitate the order from its placement to deliver goods to the customers. Under this model, there is a rather bigger responsibility for the online grocery platform (that is you!) as it needs to have its fleet of delivery executives and manage them.

General Features to include while developing a Grocery Mobile App

There are always at least three separate entities that use the grocery delivery app. Thus, a grocery delivery app has a basic set of features and functionalities for its distinct entities. The three entities in a grocery delivery mobile app are customers, store owners, and admin. The features for each of them are as follows:

Grocery App – Customers Panel

1. Registration: The registration process has to be very simple for the user because this is going to be the very first step and the first impression on the customers. The customers will be asked to add their basic details like name, email, contact number, and address.
2. Browse Products: Customers must be enabled to browse their needed products from the range of food products and grocery items.
3. Advanced Search: For the ease of users, you can add the feature of applying filters. This makes the search process quicker and easier.
4. Payment Mode: You must provide your customers with vast options of payment options. They must feel secure while paying on your application. The most common and user-friendly payment options include Paytm, UPI, Paypal, and Google Pay.
5. Schedule Delivery: Your grocery delivery mobile application must allow the customers to select a delivery time slot, keeping in mind their convenience.
6. Order Tracking: To keep the customers informed, they must receive alerts through SMS and emails, and they should also be able to track real-time order status.
7. Settings: Users should be at liberty to modify the settings. This means that they should be able to edit their information like contact number, email address, and more.
8. Reviews and Ratings: The users should be able to leave feedback for the products they have purchased or their overall experience while using your application. This is a significant step as it will help you to identify the loopholes in your application or your operations and allow you to rectify them.

Grocery App – Store Owner Panel

1. Store Locator: The store owner should be able to relocate their store on the maps, whenever they are changing their physical location.
2. Store Pickup: Under a case when customers prefer to pick up their orders from the store, they should be able to do that. In this situation, the customer will use the application to place the order and pay for it (payment can be made at the store as well). Then, they can opt to pick-up their goods from the store themselves. This helps the offline grocery business of a company improve.
3. Managing Profile: The store owner must have the liberty to manage their store profile. The owner should be able to add or edit their details like store name, email address, phone number, and more at any time and from anywhere.
4. Live Tracking Path: Store owners should be able to track the real-time status of the delivery person either through GPS tracking or Google Maps on the entire route when they have gone out to deliver the goods.

Grocery App – Admin Panel

1. Store Management: Admin should be allowed to manage all the aspects of the store from a single place. Even in the case of multiple stores, all of them will be managed by the admin.
2. Co-ordination with Store Owners: Since admin is managing all the stores, they must be able to establish communication and coordination with each of the stores to maintain a smooth workflow.
3. Product List Management: Admin must be allowed to control and manage the list of products and adjust product prices, keeping in mind the market standards and store owner demands.
4. Order Tracking: Admin should have their eye on each processing order and ensure that each order is going through a smooth delivery process.
5. Customer Management: Admin should maintain strong communication with the users. They should be able to manage customers and attract them towards their needs, by sending them regular notifications and alerts.
6. Feedbacks: Admin makes a record of each review and rating provided by the customer and acts on it to improve the customer experience.
7. Notification: Admin should be able to send notifications to both store managers and customers to keep them informed about the status of orders.
8. Payment Management: The admin panel for an online grocery shopping solution also manages the payments received from the customers and later distributes them to the stores.

Advanced features for Grocery App Development

Once the basic features of a grocery delivery application are implemented, it is time to make your application stand out in the fleet of your competitors. This can be done by adding some advanced features. Here is a list of such features that will ensure that you stay ahead in the competition.

5. Push Notifications

These are a kind of alert notifications that appear on the mobile screen when you are not using the application. Through push notifications, you can deliver relevant and personalized content to the customers, at the most appropriate times.

5. Real-Time Tracking

This means sending frequent live tracking updates to a GPS enabled device (most commonly, a mobile). Using this feature, the drivers deliver the products within deadlines and in case of a delay, the customer will not have to wait with uncertainty because they will be able to track the driver on their mobile phone.

5. GPS Tracking

This feature allows a business to deliver a highly personalized service to the customers. It collects information about the user’s geographic location and delivers results such as items to order, currency, famous grocery stores in the location, and nearby stores.

5. Behaviour Tracking

This feature enables tracking user response instances to ensure the delivery of better user experience. The instances include items that a user last ordered, most searched items by a user, shopping timing, and shopping pattern of a user. For instance, if you are currently in Italy, then the application will recommend Italian food items including Pasta, Lasagne, and more.

5. Real-time Analytics

It is a way of data analysis as and when the data gets available. This feature helps to monitor the activity of users, detecting the frauds, increasing the conversion rate and profits, and saving costs when possible.

6. Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are the best way to stay consistently engaged with customers. This helps in boosting brand loyalty. There are many types of programs. Some of them include redeemable coins, vouchers, memberships, physical gifts, gift cards, and other non-tangible rewards.

7. In-App Calling

This can be a very useful feature for consumers, store owners, and delivery executives. Both consumer and store owner should be able to call the delivery executive within the application. This feature is most commonly used in applications like Uber, Ola, and others.

8. In-App Chatting

Just like in-app calling, there should be a chat feature by which the delivery boy will be able to message both the store owner and the customer.

9. Number Masking

This is a newly added technology that is used to secure the customer’s privacy by connecting them with the delivery executive without exposing their actual numbers. You may also put a time limit for when the delivery executive or the customer will be able to make the call. This ensures a lesser possibility of inconvenience.

10. In-App Navigation

Navigation within the application, especially through Google Maps, helps users at all the panels easily track the order, the delivery executive's location, or the customer’s location. This helps in avoiding the chance of possible inconvenience.

11. Reviews and Ratings

Ratings (mostly out of 5) and reviews always help a business to identify its strengths and analyze its shortcomings. This feature helps the business to know the customers’ feedback and also helps other customers to know about the services of a store by its ratings.

12. Re-ordering

In case a customer wants to make the same order for the second time, then, using the re-ordering feature, they can place the same order without undergoing the hassle of adding items to the cart again and again.

13. CRM Integration

This feature can provide immense benefits to your business by helping optimize, centralize, and streamline your communication with customers. This must be done to gain a piece of better knowledge about customers, customer retention, increase segmentation, and numerous other benefits.

14. ERP Integration

When your business starts to grow larger, it might become a bit difficult to manage all of its aspects properly. This feature helps in streamlining all business operations and monitors them.

15. Business Intelligence

This feature is helpful for business owners to make well-informed decisions that are backed up with accurate data. Business Intelligence will ultimately help them in spotting new business opportunities, identifying inefficient processes that need reengineering, or cutting costs.

16. Custom Dashboards

Customizable dashboards provide a central platform to every entity of your business to interact, analyze, and interact with up-to-date information so that the business owners can make smart and data-driven decisions.

17. Visual Search

In can a user is unable to identify the written name of a product but wants to purchase the same from your application, then the AI-based visual search helps in this. This feature uses images, including screenshots, internet images, or photos, as the stimuli for online searches to give desired results.

18. Voice Assistance

Also known as voice search, provides the user with the flexibility to do grocery shopping on just voice commands, while simultaneously doing other tasks.

19. Recommendations

Recommending similar grocery items that a customer was searching on your application can greatly help in building a greater user experience and also increase sales on your platform.

20. Consider web application & PWA

Although the whole world is opting for mobile, many people still prefer to do grocery shopping on a widescreen, like a desktop. Thus, it is of supreme importance that you develop a web application for your business and also a PWA. PWA is for users who don’t prefer downloading an application for a one-time shopping.

TecOrb is a one of the reputed Mobile app Development Company prioritizing on developing intuitive mobile apps. Our few recommended application solutions are taxi app development solution, grocery delivery application, food ordering application, and OTT video streaming app etc. Get in touch with our experts to know more about our application services. We have a tech qualified team of developers, who work around our customer’s need and requirements and serve them the best system solutions by testing applications on real devices emulators, and simulators.