Three Crucial Steps That Can Scale Your Instacart Clone App in the Market

“In just a couple of weeks, we were already ahead of this year’s goal. After a week, we were ahead of our 2021 goals,” says Apoorva Mehta, the founder and CEO of Instacart. The pandemic has appeared as a blessing in disguise for these grocery delivery apps. People were annoyed looking at the empty shelves of grocery stores with the fears of contracting the disease. To overcome this situation, apps like Instacart are offering doorstep grocery deliveries to people in need.

This massive success of the online grocery delivery platforms has opened the potential, yet an unexplored market for budding entrepreneurs. Several app development companies are sprouting to help entrepreneurs by developing their clone apps. In this blog, let’s take a look at an in-depth view of how to develop a top-notch grocery delivery platform.

‘The baby step- know your business model’

One of the initial stages of on-demand grocery delivery app development is to know your best-suited business model. Let’s discuss certain popular models here,

Aggregator model: This model is one of the most reliable and efficient. In this model, your app acts as a virtual platform connecting multiple grocery stores to people in need. This model dramatically conserves your cost to set up a warehouse.

Marketplace model: This model is similar to the aggregator model, except for the fact that vendors get to choose the price and products they sell. While customers choose from a variety of vendors, the quality of the product depends solely on the vendors and not the platform.

Single store model: This type of model suits best for an already existing grocery store. They can take their business online by providing doorstep grocery deliveries to their customers.

Grocery chain model: Walmart, the giant of the industry, runs this app model. The grocery unit has multiple branches spread throughout the nation. Customers can make use of the application to avail of doorstep grocery deliveries from a store that is nearer to them.

It is solely up to the business owner to decide the business model after assessing his/her resources.

‘The most crucial step - Integrating features’

No matter what, it is the features that scale the app among its target audience. The more unique the app, the higher are the chances of success. Hence, let’s discuss certain key features that can propel your app forward in the market.

Contactless deliveries: Amid the COVID-19 crisis, preventing disease transmission is highly essential. Hence, users can opt for contactless delivery options while ordering through the platform. This way, delivery professionals will place the order in front of users’ homes, as per their instructions, thereby breaking the transmission chain.

Multi-lingual support: Your app should let users access the app in the language of their preference. This is a critical feature to attract users towards the app. This increases customer engagements, leading to higher sales through the app.

Multiple payment options: The digitization of the world has pushed people to adapt to digital modes of payments. Hence, make sure your app houses multiple ways of transactions. In this unforeseen situation, disabling the ‘cash on delivery’ options in high-risk areas can significantly come in handy.

Geo-fencing: People prefer grocery apps as they offer timely deliveries. Hence, to monitor your delivery network effectively, integrate this geo-fencing feature in your app. With this feature, you can restrict the boundaries upto which your system operates. An alarm is raised whenever an executive crosses the boundary.

Call Masking: This is the recent technological advancement worth considering in your app. To ensure user privacy, users’ numbers are hidden to the view of delivery professionals or service providers. This prevents data misuse and theft.

‘The final step - Gaining revenue’

From an entrepreneur’s perspective, this is the most critical stage as it involves investment returns. Your Instacart clone app must generate revenue from different sources. The standard ways of gaining income include,

Commissions: Your app acts as a bridge connecting users with grocery stores. Hence, you can fix commission rates with grocery stores. This is a win-win situation because grocery stores enhance their business at the end of the day.

Delivery charges: Users’ convenience is your money. Users enjoy the pleasure of doorstep deliveries through your services. Hence, you receive delivery charges. By hiring freelance delivery professionals or professionals on the gig economy, you can save a considerable amount of money.

Advertisements: Popular apps in the market reap revenues through this marketing strategy. By displaying third-party ads for a fixed time, you can generate income through the app.

Peak hour charges: Where there is demand, there is revenue. There are specific duration's when your app experiences a maximum surge. To cope up with the demand, you can add an additional fare to the payment known as ‘surge pricing.’ This adds to revenue, as well.

You cannot generate commissions if you opt for a single store model. Hence, it depends on the entrepreneurs to decide ways of gaining revenue.

Wrapping up,

The pandemic situation has provided a paradigm shift for these grocery delivery apps. There cannot be an ideal time than this to venture into the market. Only three significant characteristics influence your development. Initially, choose your business model wisely. Then, opt for features that make your app stand-apart. And finally, determine the sources of income and scale your app. Get in touch with a well-established app development company, and develop your app like Instacart today!