Delivery App Development: What, Why and How

Scopes of logistics serving retail and eCommerce like last-mile delivery are the most under pressure of customer expectations concerning their services and constantly raising competition.

To be able to keep track of their needs and fulfill them as accurately as possible it’s impossible to ignore digital transformation trends that are already changing industry internal processes and market operational conditions. Create a delivery app it’s a step towards the destination.

Review the definition of requirements for a delivery app for your business here.

Delivery app business plan: where to start

Any digital product development begins with the creation of the solution concept and the goal users and the company should be able to achieve with it. Commonly it implies comprehensive market research to detect the problem and explore the selection of existing solutions.

Here’s the process a bit simpler. When you decide to make a delivery app you already have the problem at hand. Now you need to understand what your ultimate goal is and how to achieve it. The research will still be a non-optional step to understand the needs namely of your customers and discover the best practices for their satisfaction.

The aim should outline your business needs. It can be like — to improve customer retention or new partnerships within the retail scope. The app features will define the path to its attainment. For instance, long-term cooperation with eCommerce stores can be arranged if you bring to the new level their order fulfillment releasing a food delivery app, for example.

The functionality of your delivery application is dependent on:

Service types

What are your offers? What goods are acceptable for shipment? Postal, courier or on-demand? Or you combine all types and even under multiple brand names? Each of them has own standards and specifics that should be reflected in your application.

Workflow specifics

What path every does parcel go through? What registration, packing, stages, depots it should go through to reach its final destination timely and in the appropriate condition? All the answers you already have but you need to present it in the algorithm form an app should be based on.

Focus on your business — a delivery app like Uber not always be a good fit.

Pricing model

If you want to provide the complete experience you should obligatorily implement the transaction arrangement and processing. It should be based on the cost calculation system and limit users neither in payment options nor in the variety of possible shipping variants.

Serving area

What region is covered by your company’s services? Is it limited to a city or it’s a provider with worldwide shipping? The wider area is the more complications will be brought to the implementation of the parcel tracking up to the creation of separate solutions for different regions.

Support

What assistance can get any customer? What the package return, refuse, etc. politics? Despite operating hours you should consider providing 24/7 support whether via request forms or in-app chatbot to ensure as soon as possible resolution of any disputes.

Devices

The most preferred platform for the solution is mobile. That’s why you should decide whether it’s gonna be a delivery app Android and IOS compatible or focusing on just one type of users. Such approaches as a cross-platform development allow covering the whole target audience without excessive time and money expenses.

The ultimate micro goal here is to provide the full customer experience in the digital environment without affecting the quality of services neither on the client nor on the provider side.

Delivery app features and structure

Unlike many other solutions, such a system implies multiple interconnected apps and namely three for each deal party: a company, an employee (courier) and a customer. It’s reasoned by the difference in possibilities and responsibilities that in some cases, in any way should be fulfilled or affected by others.

Let’s reveal what functionality each particular app generally embraces to outline the potential development scope for your in-house or remote team.

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