How to build an app like Uber Eats
Two things share one search, and only one of them is software.
The app is a catalogue, a cart, payment, tracking and ratings. That is buildable, and today in a few hours.
The marketplace is a two-sided business with thousands of restaurants on one side and millions of hungry people on the other. That is operations, capital and years, and no tool delivers it.
The good news is that almost nobody making this search wants the second one. The searcher is usually a restaurant owner who wants their own delivery, and that version is available.
What you can build without coding
- a real menu: category, product, photo, price, paid add-on, required choice, and an item that disappears when it runs out;
- a cart and checkout by card, or payment on delivery with change owed;
- delivery fee and coverage by area, with a minimum order per area and counter pickup;
- opening hours that close the cart outside them;
- order tracking in stages, with a notification at each change;
- a courier area, where each one sees only the orders assigned to them;
- an owner's dashboard, with the day's orders, revenue and best-selling items.
That is the whole delivery app from the point of view of the person ordering and the person delivering.
What you cannot, said plainly
The courier moving live on a map. Assignment, states and receipts exist; the dot that moves on screen depends on continuous background tracking, with the battery drain and the permission that come with it. It is the most expensive item in a delivery app and the easiest to promise.
The marketplace with many restaurants. Technically possible, commercially another company: with no restaurants signed up the window is empty, and with no customers the restaurants do not join.
The customer base. It is what the marketplace charges a lot to lend you, and precisely what no own app brings.
The route that tends to work
- Start with your repeat customers. They would have come back anyway, and their commission is the one that hurts most.
- Publish on the web first. A link in the profile, a QR code at the counter, a voucher in the bag. No review, no fee, live today.
- Keep the marketplace. It is still the best discovery channel you have.
- Go to the stores later, once enough people use the app to justify it.
A prompt to start with
Build a delivery app for a burger place. A menu with categories, products with photo, price, paid add-ons and a required doneness choice; a cart; delivery areas with a fee and minimum order each, plus counter pickup; payment by card in the app or on delivery, with change owed; opening hours per weekday; discount coupons; order tracking in four stages with a notification at each change; and an admin area only I can see with the day's orders in a queue, revenue per day and the ten best-selling items.
The short version
- the app is buildable today; the marketplace is not software;
- live courier tracking is the item that is not cheap anywhere;
- your own app retains, the marketplace discovers, and running both usually pays more;
- start on the web, go to the stores when there is usage.
The sum against commission is in what a delivery app costs.