In today’s digital world, small businesses need to branch out beyond their brick-and-mortar locations and reach customers where they like to spend time and money: their smartphones, tablets, and computers.
However, for most small business owners, developing a restaurant app development may not be at the top of the priority list. After all, it can take weeks or even months to develop an app, and costs thousands of dollars and is not all cheap.
But if you’re looking for a long-term ROI (Return on Investment), developing a mobile app can help you gain more visibility in the digital world while simultaneously driving sales and increasing brand awareness outside your physical location.
Here are our top recommendations for developing an app that can increase your visibility among potential customers while also helping you sell more goods and services.
Benefits of Launching an App Idea for Your Food Business
The statistics reveal how beneficial it is to develop an app for a food business. Here’s why: Since 2014, online ordering has grown three hundred percent faster than restaurant visitors. As per a survey, over 3.5 billion people are using smartphones.
According to 95% of restaurant businesses, technology has increased their business efficiency. 74% of restaurants believe technological advancement has improved their guests’ appearances. 87% of Americans using third-party food delivery services believe it helps make their lives easier.
Food Ordering Apps
Food ordering apps are huge in Asia, but they’ve been slow to take off in the U.S. This is a huge market opportunity for restaurant owners looking to stand out by providing this value-added service to their customers. The food ordering app will have a backend tie-in with the POS system in your restaurant so that when a customer orders on the app, it will automatically pull the order through the POS system and be ready for pickup when the customer arrives.
A food ordering app is a great way to increase visibility outside of your physical location as well as increase foot traffic in your restaurant. A food ordering app also gives you a competitive advantage against other restaurants that don’t offer this service or haven’t integrated a food ordering app into their POS system.
E-Menu Apps: The E-Menu is a digital menu application that allows restaurants to eliminate physical menu cards and instead provide an electronic menu. Because patrons worldwide want meal safety, restaurants are adopting mobile e-menu applications.
Restaurant Guide/Review Apps
If you own or run a restaurant or food-related business, you’re probably aware of the review sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and OpenTable. These review sites have become the modern-day method to research local businesses, particularly restaurants. Fortunately, these review sites also have apps, meaning you can reach out to customers in their environment.
Your restaurant guide app can allow users to search for nearby restaurants and then make reservations right through your app. Your review app can encourage customers to leave reviews for your business, review dishes at your restaurant, and also give feedback to help improve your business. Your restaurant guide or review app can go a long way in helping you expand your business and increase foot traffic outside of your physical location, especially if your reviews are positive.
Recipe and Cooking Apps
If you run a food-related business (e.g., a food truck, a bakery, a catering company, etc.), then you want to be able to share your recipes online. Doing so will allow you to build a following, particularly among home chefs and food bloggers who may want to feature your recipes on their websites and in their blogs. Your recipe and the cooking app can serve as a virtual recipe book, allowing you to upload and share your recipes consistently and encouraging your followers to bookmark your app to access your recipes easily.
A recipe and the cooking app can also be a marketing tool for your physical location, especially if you own a restaurant, food truck, or catering business. You can include information about your business and a link to your physical location and social media pages so customers can easily find out more about you.
Food Delivery Apps
If you own a restaurant that offers delivery, then an app can help you to streamline the process, better manage your business, and boost your brand’s visibility. Your food delivery app development can allow customers to order and track their delivery in real-time and access exclusive offers and promotions that might not be available through other food-delivery services.
Your food delivery app can also serve as a marketing tool for your physical location, particularly if you own a brick-and-mortar restaurant that attracts customers around the neighborhood. You can include information about your business and a link to your physical location and social media pages so customers can easily find out more about you.
Calorie Counting App
As the fitness freak pointed out, our bodies and, of course, our health are determined by what we consume. Give people access to a calorie tracker app to track their calories and another food intake in this age of excess. Calorie tracking and counting have become relatively simple, and numerous mobile apps enable users to keep track of everything they consume.
Restaurant Loyalty App
You might offer your customers rewards and loyalty programs if you own a restaurant. However, these programs are often not mobile-friendly, meaning that customers cannot access their points and redeem rewards when on the go.
Your restaurant loyalty app can help you stand out from competitors by offering a consistent rewards experience across all channels, including your website, mobile app, and physical location. Your loyalty app can also greatly increase foot traffic in your restaurant by offering incentives and rewards to customers who visit your physical location.
App to Reduce Food Waste
This is a wholly original app concept for your food startup company. A new business can only be started with the intention of giving its restaurants’ surplus food to cities’ impoverished and homeless residents. Additionally, you must watch out for food waste, whether you own a restaurant or a fledgling food business. Food producers always produce large quantities of food.
This proposal has the potential to ignite a social movement that will help the needy, as the number of homeless people and those living in poverty is rapidly increasing across many cities.
What would be the economic model for this kind of app and startup? Many people are usually interested in such a notion in business and industry. An application with a unique concept like this can always work with large corporations to share operational costs. Crowdfunding can also be a wonderful solution for the first cash needed to construct such an application.
App for Baby Food Suggestions
Baby users of this app often range in age from 4-5 months to 1-2 years. A restaurant might introduce this app concept to increase traffic to its website or app. This software includes the full baby meal plan, which assists new parents and informs them about suitable baby meals according to their age.
The app also includes a few treatments with specific treatments for babies. This software will help you bring in more customers online and boost your profit if you run a baby food store.
Home Cooked Food App
Gourmet dining stimulates a lot of different cravings, just like fast food. Sometimes, the flavor of a restaurant won’t fulfill this requirement. This is one of the best food apps for gourmands because it caters to the unique demands of people who desire home-cooked meals. This app lets users connect with freelance or mobile chefs to order on-demand dishes. Users can select their preferred menu or meal and make customized orders.
App for healthy and nutritious food
The number of health-conscious people is rising. People who are fitness enthusiasts concentrate on what vitamins and nutrients they are consuming and in what quantities. Additionally, before ordering meals from any restaurant, vegetarian or not, those who eat vegan, lacto-vegetarian, vegetarian, and halal food do a lot of research. It is possible to put an end to their suffering by creating a food app for foodies that provides insights about nutrition, ingredients, and cooking techniques with just one click. All you require is a reputable meal ordering app business.
Table Reservation Application
Restaurants see a huge demand at weekends because customers want to eat at their favorite restaurants. The Table reservation app is the most effective option for restaurants worldwide. For example, it can help manage crowds during peak times. The app can assist you in improving customer satisfaction. Restaurant Table Booking is a mobile app that allows your customers to make a reservation, schedule, location, and dates for the table, among other things.
You can use this app to help your clients keep a social distance. During the pandemic, more individuals will come to restaurants to ensure their orders are controlled. Consequently, the customer experience will be enhanced, while restaurant proprietors will have more time to cook the food and run their business from a smaller area.
AR-based App for Exploring Restaurant
The utilization of augmented reality is one of the newest trends to keep an eye out for when it comes to marketing your restaurant and keeping patrons happy and interested. If you use the technologies, you can wow your visitors. No matter how wonderful the cuisine is, maintaining their satisfaction and building a relationship with them is essential to keeping your current clients.
Customized Food Ordering App
Just ordering meals is the only utility for this kind of software. This program allows waiters to take orders from customers and record those orders for invoicing purposes. It does not require a lot of documentation because restaurant workers use this app to take orders.
Additionally, it is useful because while papers can get lost, there are fewer chances of losing any specific information when order records are kept digitally. Said this program can reduce human errors.
Calling a Waiter App
Customers of yours can place immediate meal orders using this type of software. A QR Code Scanner is the only device a user needs to use this system. The waiter can also connect a smartphone or smartwatch to the code scanner for notification purposes.
Customers enter a restaurant, peruse the menu, and then place an order by scanning a QR code, which alerts the waiter to the service and the table number from which to accept the order. Both restaurant owners and guests will find this software to be useful and simple to use. Additionally, it makes ordering food simpler.
Bottom line
Overall, developing a mobile app can be a great way to expand your brand’s visibility in the digital world and help you attract more customers to your physical location. A mobile app is a valuable investment for any small business, particularly if it can be used to drive revenue and increase sales.
It is time to start planning and strategizing if you’re looking to develop a mobile app for your restaurant or food-related business get best food delivery mobile app development services from an experienced company.