In a bustling city like London, starting a food business can be both an exciting and daunting endeavour.
With such fierce competition all around, it is important to find ways to stand out and connect with your customers.
Creating a food app is one way to establish your unique identity in the crowded restaurant scene of London.
We list the 6 best food app ideas that you can use to start your own restaurant business.
From delivery applications to meal plan apps, there are many mobile app ideas to get your food business up and running.
But before we look at the top mobile app ideas for the food business, let’s look at some statistics about the industry.
This will help you analyze why the food industry is a good business opportunity.
Why You Should Develop A Food App
The food industry market in the United Kingdom is rising at an exponential rate, as evident by the Statista report.
The ease of use, convenience, low cost, and great user experience all contribute to the continuous growth of the online food industry.
There are a lot of startups and innovative businesses opening up in the food space.
Here are some statistics to convince you to join the food industry in the UK yourself:
- Revenue in the Food segment of eCommerce is projected to reach $346.30 billion in 2023.
- Revenue in just the Online Food Delivery market will reach $39.04 billion in 2023.
- The global food delivery mobile app market was valued at $6,752.32 million in 2020. It is projected to reach $62,836.97 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 25% from 2021 to 2030.
- The user penetration for the restaurant delivery market is expected to hit 19.9% by 2027.
As evident from these statistics, the food industry market is booming.
And the most significant segment is the food delivery segment which includes the delivery of cooked meals and groceries.
After all, who would not like to relax and eat their favorite dishes without any effort?
The food delivery app ideas are, therefore, the most popular and profitable.
This has also seen a growing trend of deliveries of all household items, from groceries to alcoholic beverages.
Recently, there is also an increase in the demand for on-demand farm produce delivery apps.
Due to people’s increasing focus on healthy, sustainable eating and living, there is a growing niche in the food delivery business.
Thus, there are many segments where a food app business can thrive. You can develop a winning mobile food app by hiring an app development company in London.
6 Profitable Food App Ideas to Start Your Business
A lot of new food apps are being released every week in the app stores.
To have a successful food app business, you need a unique food application idea that solves a problem and is easy to use.
With the help of our business experts, we have curated a list of the 6 top food app ideas for restaurants in London.
Finding the right idea is the first step of mobile app development.
So, let’s look at the 6 best food application ideas for your restaurant business:
#1. Food Delivery Apps
Right now, one of the most popular food app ideas is the food delivery app.
Especially after the COVID pandemic, people are accustomed to ordering food online and getting it delivered. So a food delivery app is a great mobile app startup idea.
If you are a restaurant owner, you need to hire app developers in London today to build an on-demand restaurant delivery app.
This is the best way for your restaurant or cafe to increase its customer base.
You can start with food delivery app development even if you do not own a food joint.
There are many variations of the food delivery app that you can look into – multi-restaurant delivery app, on-demand grocery delivery app, alcohol delivery app, frozen meals delivery app, fresh farm produce delivery app, and much more.
The market is full of delivery apps right now.
But there are still a lot of untapped niches where your food app business can flourish.
In fact, the online food delivery market revenue in the UK is projected to reach 39.04bn US dollars in 2023.
With market research and an understanding of your local area and customer base, you can find a great food delivery app idea for a restaurant business.
Pro tip: With an experienced team of mobile app developers, you can get into on-demand food delivery app development for cafes, restaurants, farms, local shops, gourmet groceries, and much more.
Look no further! Talk to our team of experts and start developing your ideal food delivery app in London.
#2. Table Reservations App
Restaurants are generally packed and overflowing on weekends, holidays, and special occasions.
You have to make your customers wait or even turn down a few because you just don’t have enough space to sit and serve them.
A table reservations app would prove very helpful in such times for both your customers and your staff.
Customers can reserve tables and avoid waiting in lines. Moreover, they can also look through the menu and order food beforehand.
Your chefs can get the food ready in time for each table reservation. Your restaurant manager can manage staff shifts, divide the workload, and ensure your customers get the best dining experience.
This way, you don’t lose out on customers and provide everyone with top-quality food and service even during busy hours.
Pro tip: You can add the feature of “Personalize your order.”
The customer can make a special food dish request or add dietary restrictions and allergies while making reservations.
The chef can make plans and prepare personalized food dishes in advance.
#3. Meal Delivery Services App
One of the best food app ideas for restaurants is a meal delivery services app. Ready-to-eat box meals are all the rage right now.
You can offer multiple subscription plans to your customers for ready-to-eat box meals delivered right to their doorsteps.
Customers can buy breakfast, lunch, or dinner box subscriptions.
The food gets delivered automatically as per their plan at a pre-decided time. People can avoid the hassle of thinking about what to order every day.
According to Statista, the meal delivery market is projected to have 40 Million users by 2027. That is a largely untapped market in the food industry right now.
Daily meal delivery is one of the best food app ideas to try for new restaurant owners. This is also a great way for cloud kitchens to grow their business.
An on-demand meal delivery service app will help you:
- Increase awareness of your restaurant
- You get a fixed daily/monthly revenue from your app
- Create a regular customer base.
Pro tip: Consider partnering with multiple local restaurants to provide multi-cuisine meal options for your customers.
#4. Food Subscription App
In a similar vein as the meal delivery app, we have the ready-to-cook meal box food app.
It basically contains a recipe for a meal and all the necessary ingredients, including vegetables, spices, meat, and herbs.
You can curate recipes with the help of chefs and deliver all the necessary fresh ingredients off the market in a single kit.
The customers can cook a healthy, nutritious meal at home in just minutes.
Food subscription apps have a huge market in the USA and South Korea.
There is a lot of promise and potential growth in this food app business idea in London.
This is a very lucrative app idea because people want to eat home-cooked meals but cannot do so because of a lack of time.
By eliminating the need to buy groceries, deciding on a recipe, and getting all the food prep done, your app can reduce the cooking time to a few minutes.
Your app can offer weekly or monthly subscription plans or pay-per-meal plans. There can be special meal offerings such as vegan, vegetarian, weight loss, protein-heavy meals, etc.
Pro tip: You can have special occasions weeks for Christmas or Thanksgiving with special recipes.
People are very nostalgic and want to eat healthy, home-cooked food during festivals.
#5. Food Wastage Management App
Food wastage is one of the major problems in the food industry. A lot of the fresh produce gets rotten, and good food dishes get wasted.
You can develop a food waste management app that helps restaurants and cafes control their waste.
Only a particular part of the vegetable or meat is used in the recipes, and the remaining is thrown away. Moreover, due to poor inventory management, produce can also rot before it is used.
In addition, there is a lot of wastage because of portion control and customers not eating the whole dish.
A food waste management app can help with inventory management for restaurants and help donate the remaining food to nearby shelters before it goes bad.
Pro tip: Your app can also have a feature to suggest recipes for the remaining produce at the end of every week.
This way, restaurants can create delicious dishes for their customers at no extra cost.
#6. Personalised Diet Plan App
A personalized diet plan and food delivery app is a great mobile app idea for food businesses in 2024.
Imagine an app that can create a custom diet for you based on your vitamin requirements, dietary restrictions, allergies, and likes and dislikes.
You can customize a protein-rich meal without eggs or a vegan meal for a lactose-intolerance person, whatever you prefer.
A personalized food recipe app is a very promising idea for starting a food business. Anyone who requires a special diet will use your app to get a daily meal plan personalized by experts.
This meal-planning app can create custom diet plans for babies, patients in hospitals, aged people, people with serious allergies, and health enthusiasts.
Not only that, but you can also partner with local groceries and food joints to provide ready-to-cook meals through the app.
Pro tip: You can add a feature for weekly food planner ideas in your app.
The app can automatically create weekly meal plans based on the user’s preferences and diet plan.
How to Build A Successful Food App?
Building a mobile app is a long process.
But thankfully, you are past the most difficult stage – choosing the idea for a mobile app.
Now that you know which food app you want to develop, all you need is a good development team with you.
Your app needs a user-friendly interface, secure payment gateways, attractive designs, and easy functionalities.
There is no point in investing thousands of dollars to build an app that users do not like to use.
So spend enough time and money to get the app features working right.
Here are the steps you need to follow to build a popular food application:
- Sketch out a business plan – Get the basics out of the way. Research the market, get a feel of the customer base, and get the funds for app development.
- Set a timeline – set deadlines for yourself to ensure everything is on time and on track.
- Hire a great development team – Let’s be honest; there is no business without an app. Hire app developers and designers who understand your vision.
- Start app development – Discuss and plan how your app functions, what features you want, how the UI looks, and how the backend works. Start coding!
- Test and Repeat – Keep testing your app features, and run through iterations till you are satisfied. Then repeat till you are ready to launch.
- App Launch – Launch your food app into the market and start earning!
Conclusion
There are a lot of lucrative food app ideas for restaurant businesses to invest in.
With the right app idea, you can accelerate the growth of your restaurant and increase your revenue.
Whether you develop a food delivery mobile application or a table reservations app, you need to ensure your food mobile app is the best in the market.
There is only one way to beat the fierce competition, by providing unique features that solve the needs of your users.
Want to develop a user-friendly food app in London? Contact our team.
We have an experienced team that will guide you through the whole process of mobile application development.
Our dedicated app developers will help you convert your food app idea into reality.
