On-Demand Food Delivery Platforms - Market, Trends & Opportunities
Contents
1. Who uses food delivery platform?
2. Why are food delivery apps so popular?
3. What do you usually order in delivery?
4. What are the business models of the on-demand economy?
5. Trends in on-demand food ordering and delivery
6. Food delivery platform features
7. How much does it cost to develop a local delivery app?
8. Stages of food delivery software development
9. Epilogue
10. FAQ
2. Why are food delivery apps so popular?
3. What do you usually order in delivery?
4. What are the business models of the on-demand economy?
5. Trends in on-demand food ordering and delivery
6. Food delivery platform features
7. How much does it cost to develop a local delivery app?
8. Stages of food delivery software development
9. Epilogue
10. FAQ
Food delivery platforms peaked in popularity during the pandemic years. Today, we see restaurants and retailers slowly recovering and focusing on integrating offline offerings with online tools. However, the ability to get any product at a convenient time with just a few clicks on a website or mobile app has forever changed consumer behavior.
According to Statista forecasts, revenue in the Online Food Delivery market is expected to reach US$429.95 billion in 2025 and show a projected market volume of US$563.39 billion i by 2029. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2025-2029 is estimated at 6.99%.
In this article, we look at food delivery trends for 2025 and answer the following questions:
- What is the outlook for the food delivery industry?
- In which countries is the delivery app market growing the fastest?
- Who are the top food delivery platforms?
- What features and services are customers looking for?
- How much does it cost to develop food delivery software?
- In which countries is the delivery app market growing the fastest?
- Who are the top food delivery platforms?
- What features and services are customers looking for?
- How much does it cost to develop food delivery software?
Who uses food delivery platform?
The National Restaurant Association reports that more than half (52%) of U.S. consumers believe that ordering delivery and takeout from restaurants is an "essential part of their lifestyle" – and even more Millennials (67%) and Gen Zers (63%) feel this way.
In fact, the users of online food ordering and delivery platform can be divided into 3 groups:
- Food suppliers (shops, restaurants, warehouses);
- Consumers;
- Couriers.
The last ones are the most interesting. They are also called the engines of the “gig economy.” These are independent contractors (e.g., drivers, bike couriers) who work part-time and determine their own hours of work.
✍ The gig economy is a type of freelancing (the word “gig” comes from the world of jazz and means “performance,” a one-time part-time job).
Many gig economy workers work for companies that provide high-demand services, such as Uber (18% of total gig economy employment), PeoplePerHour (12%), Deliveroo (12%), and Fiverr (10%).
According to 2025 data, the global value of the gig economy with an estimated annual growth rate of 17.4%. The projections for 2030 predict that the market will exceed $600 billion, turning this direction into a crucial part of the global economy. In the U.S. only about 36% of the country's workforce is involved in the gig economy.
Why are food delivery apps so popular?
Foodtech companies choose the delivery format because of the benefits it brings to their operations and revenue growth. With delivery, you are not limited by location, and with good delivery logistics organization, you can find customers anywhere in your city. See more benefits here:
What do you usually order for delivery?
Medical products
On-demand healthcare apps connect patients with physicians. They allow users to get comprehensive advice from their smartphones anytime, anywhere, 24/7.
Transport and logistic
These are the well-known Uber Freight and Uber Delivery, which allow you to get freight and package delivery services anytime. Why are they so popular? The benefits are as follows:
- Transportation of goods/parcels of different sizes without prior orders;
- Ability to exchange messages with the service provider;
- Fast cashless payments;
- Real-time tracking;
- Transparent pricing.
Taxi
We can't imagine not using the app to order a taxi. If you are in a country where such services do not exist, you feel unprotected and with limited options. The list of examples could go on and on: Uber, Yandex in CIS countries, BiTaxi in Turkey, as well as Lyft, Juno, Flywheel Taxi and many others. Why do we love them so much?
- GPS navigation and map navigation - never get lost;
- Communication between drivers and customers in the application;
- Feedback system that allows drivers and customers to share ratings and reviews.
- Ability to find the nearest taxi and save time;
- Transparent pricing.
- The ability to share a trip, share data and order for another person.
Domestic services
This is an ideal solution for those who need help with cleaning or any other work. They are not so developed in the CIS countries. But all over the world they are already using cleaning services or "husband for an hour" through applications such as TaskRabbit, Handy, Merry Maids, Homejoy and Slate.
Car sharing and car rental
Today, not having your own car is no longer a problem. With rental services like Turo, Avis Car Rental, Zipcar and easyCar, you can:
- Choose any available car;
- Receive roadside assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
- Request delivery or pickup.
- Book a car for an hour or a day.
You don't have to worry about maintenance or paying for parking. You just open the app, find the nearest car, and use it to get from point A to point B.
Flowers and gifts
Have you heard of Uber Flowers, UrbanStems, Gyft or Giftagram? This is a lifesaver for those who forgot or did not have time to buy a gift, flowers or cake. Order and the recipient will have everything delivered right to their doorstep in no time. What are the advantages?
- There are many service providers, which means a wide range of products available;
- Transparent pricing;
- Delivery at any convenient time.
Food
Grocery or food delivery anytime, anywhere is nothing new. Some of the best food delivery apps include Uber Eats, Instacart, Grubhub and Doordash, Wolt and dozens of others.
Grocery Ecommerce: How to Run a Successful Online Store. Instacart and Freshdirect example
In this article, we decided to compare two American services that provide food delivery services.
The benefits are not only for users who can get their favorite restaurant meals without leaving home. But also for restaurant owners who want to increase the number of takeout orders.
What are the business models of the on-demand economy?
Enterprise to Person (E2P) / Business to Consumer (B2C)
B2C applications help customers and suppliers complete transactions. Examples: McDelivery, Booking.com, Starbucks. For example, Starbucks Online allows you to order and pay for coffee in advance, bypassing the line. Other examples of this model: UberEats for ordering food, Amazon for shopping and delivery.
Enterprise to Enterprise (E2E) / Business to Business (B2B)
B2B applications serve to communicate between companies and enable global transactions. Examples are Cargomatic, Eventio and Catalant.
B2B applications can also be divided into:
- Vertical – serving one industry sector
- Horizontal – serving several industries
Next, we will present successful examples of such a business model. And here is our case for creating a personal account for B2B business.
New website and personal account for B2B
We created a platform for a company that imports and distributes electronic components.
Cargomatic is a platform that makes freight transportation easier for businesses by connecting companies in need of freight transportation with cargo owners, giving them access to available trucks and drivers.
Eventio is an application that helps companies and individuals find suitable event venues. Users can choose from a list of available venues and book additional services such as security, catering, cleaning, DJs/bands. Invited guests or the general public can purchase tickets through the app.
Catalant is a platform for project management and hiring freelancers. Companies can use Catalant to find specialized professionals on a project-based basis, allowing for more efficient task completion and workflow management.
Person to Person (P2P) / Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
These applications allow users on the platform to exchange products or services among themselves. Here all users are equal and are not considered entrepreneurs. This type of app is gaining popularity because it helps you save money. To avoid development pitfalls and security bugs read our article about launching a trustful P2P marketplace.
Successful platforms working on this model: BlaBlaCar, eBay and Etsy. This is how BlaBlaCar helps users find travel companions. They can search for or offer trips online, specifying details of departure and arrival, type of vehicle, conditions of transportation, number of people. When you find a suitable ride, you reserve a seat and the driver receives contact information for further details.
Olga V.
Business Manager
Having troubles while choosing the business model for a delivery app?
Trends in on-demand food ordering and delivery
Here are examples of how companies are leveraging the most common food delivery industry trends for 2025:
- Unmanned delivery by drones. For example, Amazon and UPS are experimenting with using unmanned drones to deliver products.
- Delivery using robots. Experiments are carried out by different market players. Starship Technologies is developing robotic couriers to deliver food and products over short distances. They partner with various restaurants and retailers.
- KiwiBot focuses on autonomous food delivery in urban areas. Their robots can navigate sidewalks and deliver orders to customers.
- Amazon is introducing robotic couriers called Amazon Scouts to deliver packages. These six-wheeled robots autonomously navigate sidewalks.
- Postmates, an American delivery service, introduced the Serve robot for autonomous delivery in urban areas.
- Domino's Pizza is testing pizza delivery robots in some regions.
- FedEx is developing SameDay Bot, a robot for autonomous package delivery in commercial and residential areas.
Delivery in self-driving cars.This trend will not be implemented soon, as these vehicles are still in the testing phase. But most likely, product delivery will be one of the first areas where they will be introduced. Currently, the following players are in the market: Waymo, Nuro, Uber ATG, Amazon Scout, Ford, Tesla and Baidu Apollo, which is developing the Apollo platform for autonomous vehicles and testing it in various scenarios, including delivery.
Subscription-based models. Take HelloFresh, a grocery delivery service that offers meal kit subscriptions and meal prep recipes. Or the similar Blue Apron. There's also Dollar Shave Club, a subscription company for razors and body care products.
Increasing number of payment methods. Today, customers expect a variety of payment options to make delivery services feel more flexible. Read about must-have variants here.
Virtual assistants and recommendations. Deep analytics and the ability to identify patterns in user behavior based on machine learning and artificial intelligence enable companies to make personalized offers to their customers.
Haunted/cloud kitchens. This direction, which is developing in parallel with ordering applications, will receive new impetus in the future. So among the predicted trends:
- Creation of specialized brands. Ghost kitchens may focus on creating concepts to cater to specific kitchen styles or foods, such as chains specializing in burgers, pizza, vegan cuisine, etc. For example, Virtual Dining Concepts.
- Opening small, highly efficient kitchens in strategic locations with high delivery demand to save on rental and management costs.
- Using data to optimize menus, prices, lead times and more to better meet market demands.
- Implementation of automated systems, robots and other technological solutions to improve the efficiency of preparation and delivery processes.
The most popular example in this direction today is CloudKitchens, which is a food delivery platform that provides infrastructure for creating and managing ghost kitchens.
More on-demand solutions for restaurants and retail are in our big trend report for 2025
Food delivery platform features
The most common practice is to create separate applications for each user: customers, couriers and business owners. Let's look at them all.
Consumer Apps
Apps for business
Application for couriers
How much does it cost to develop a local delivery app?
Do you want to develop your own grocery or food delivery app? Or maybe you're more interested in something like Uber, but don't know how much it will cost? Let's try to calculate.
Last year, we completed the development of a food delivery app for a fast-growing restaurant chain that served over 600 orders per day. In addition to a catalog of complex settings in the delivery parameters (combo offers, upsell, dish format selection, and filter search settings), we also provided synchronization with the user's geolocation, loyalty program, and promotional activities.
On average, the cost of developing food delivery software is $60-80k, depending on the complexity of the functionality.
Yapoki: mobile delivery app for the future of the Enterprise
Here we’d like to share our experience in developing a delivery application with big ambitions and complex architecture. It all started with the customer's dream - make it like Enterprise (the direct reference was Dodo Pizza).
In our other case, the development of a restaurant aggregator Tik-Tak, we offer users multiple delivery options: they can receive a purchase from the couriers to pick it up themselves. The business logic of the food delivery management software also included creating an app for restaurants to accept and track orders in real time.
In total, it took us 2,150 hours to create the app:
- backend development: 800 hours;
- iOS development: 300 hours;
- Android development: 350 hours;
- UI/UX design: 300 hours;
- QA testing: 400 hours.
The cost of launching the project with such complexity will cost $100k+
Olga V.
Business Manager
Come in for a consultation to get a complete estimate on food delivery software development
Stages of food delivery software development
First you need to decide what role you are going to play: an aggregator like Glovo, a restaurant chain, or a group of restaurateur friends banding together to make their delivery. Will you develop according to the Saas model or in addition to your brand? This generally does not change the development requirements, but it does change the priority in features.
Let's try to look at the main problems that delivery services are currently facing.
Logistics optimization
The main task of all times is to optimize the workload of couriers. With a minimum number of couriers, deliver products to the largest number in the shortest possible time.
What can we offer here? For example, build a solution on top of Mapsplatform using Google API. You can use Open Street Map and build your own logic. We’re experienced in both. It all depends on the task.
Most often, custom solutions are built relying on some geoservices (google maps, open street maps). There may be scenarios in which delivery is not lightning fast, but, for example, the next day. Or maybe you have tasks like: there are 4 couriers who are constantly in dynamics, and you need to manage the load between them in real time and determine from which points it is best to transport orders. Each business has its own logic, its own characteristics, so it is necessary to customize solutions for each.
Tracking couriers, production chains in real time
To control standards, analytics, forecasting, and better customer experience, it is important for us to understand at any given time where and what is happening with us.
In the case of online food delivery platforms, the chain looks like this:
In the case of online food delivery platforms, the chain looks like this:
- The order entered the system, then, depending on the process, (most often) the manager processed and accepted the order, and sent it to production.
- Order movement in the kitchen, here they use a solution for tablets, where each stage of production is tracked and moved, as if on a Kanban board.
- Couriers have their own apps, in which they see optimized routes, track orders pick up and set off. Tracking most often occurs by scanning a QR code on each order. So the flow looks as follows: arrived, scanned the package/box on each code and went to deliver.
Thus, we understand where each order is located at every second. Based on this data, we see and eliminate bottlenecks.
Rapid network scaling: hiring, training, quality control
For some reason, many people miss such a moment as hiring and training employees – this is also important in the food industry.
It is necessary to take care of training employees, familiarize them with updated regulations and menus, conduct periodic certification, monitor sanitary documents, and check how well employees know and comply with customer service standards.
All this can be on third-party services, or maybe inside your system. Some people still have it on papers and in notepads.
Getting to know the new range
Quite a lot of wine and food producers are faced with the fact that people get used to one assortment, and it is difficult to introduce new items into the assortment. Here, in addition to marketing, mechanisms automated in IT solutions can help, where, based on past data about the client, you can make him the best offers from new products.
Personalization
The topic is close to the previous one. But here we are not even talking about upsale, cross sale (you already know about them), but about regular purchases, when the client buys the same thing. Predictions of regular purchases based on purchase information, consumption rate and expiration date. And also the use of AI for recommendations, for example, in the case when a person does not know what exactly he wants.
Dealing with food that's about to go bad and leftovers
There are several trends in how food delivery app development can help you promote a more sustainable and responsible approach to food distribution and reduce food waste.
Charity and partnership platforms. Some food delivery apps partner with hunger relief organizations or charities to donate leftover food. This allows food that might otherwise be wasted to be used to support those in need.
Donation programs. Other apps allow restaurants and food providers to participate in donation programs where they can donate leftover food to charities or community kitchens.
Discount systems for balances. Platforms can implement discount systems or promotions to sell leftovers closer to the end of the working day. This encourages shoppers to purchase products at discounted prices, reducing the likelihood of food being thrown away.
Management programs. Applications can offer functionality that helps restaurants and cafes effectively plan and manage inventory, minimizing waste and excess inventory.
Product processing platforms. Some custom food delivery applications and platforms are developing schemes to recycle leftover food, for example by offering discounts on products that can be used to create new dishes.
Support for local manufacturers. Apps can actively support local producers and farms, which promotes the marketing of their products and reduces the risk of throwing away unsold goods.
Educational initiatives. Apps can conduct educational campaigns among restaurants and delivery partners, teaching them how to effectively manage leftovers and the nutritional value of food.
Loyalty programs
It is not necessary to implement a loyalty program “head-on”, although they certainly work. We have already shared various cases from our practice. But there are also subscriptions that provide unique benefits to visitors, and you – a permanent audience, which is more convenient to control and understand its size.
Epilogue
At the same time, I don’t think that things like chatbots and AI can greatly revolutionize the market right now. It's more of a fight for the last 5% of the audience. What is more important is service, brand, niche, region. If everything is clear here, you can think further.
Expand your delivery business now with our on-demand food delivery app development company. Drawing on our own experience in creating food delivery platforms, we will help you create reliable food delivery that meets the needs of both restaurants and customers. We'll help you stay competitive in the ever-evolving foodtech industry.
FAQ
What is Food Delivery Software?
Food delivery software is a digital platform that enables restaurants, food businesses, and delivery services to manage orders, logistics, and customer interactions. It typically includes features like online ordering, real-time tracking, payment processing, and automated dispatching to streamline operations.
Is Food Delivery a Growing Industry?
Yes, the food delivery industry has experienced rapid growth, driven by changing consumer habits, urbanization, and digitalization. The rise of mobile apps, cloud kitchens, and demand for convenience has fueled expansion. However, growth varies by region and market dynamics.
Are Food Delivery Services Declining?
While food delivery saw a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has stabilized in some areas. Economic conditions, shifting consumer preferences, and operational costs affect profitability. Some services face challenges, but overall, the sector remains strong with ongoing innovation.
How Competitive is the Food Delivery Industry?
The food delivery industry is highly competitive, with major players like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and local startups competing for market share. Success depends on factors such as pricing, delivery speed, service quality, and restaurant partnerships. Companies often invest in technology and customer experience to differentiate themselves.
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