Alcohol Delivery Mobile App Development

Selling alcohol is one of the greatest markets, eternal types of business. Free sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited only in a limited number of strict Muslim monarchies. In all other countries the authorities allow (and sometimes even encourage) the use of alcohol in compliance with the drinking culture. Total earnings in this sector of world economy experienced a big leap in the last decade and tend to further increase up to the demand. Sometimes the state budget of any country has a heavy dependency from the sales on this ideal market.

This circumstance gives life to a huge number of business projects serving this segment of consumer demand. It's no wonder that every alcohol business eventually acquire their own alcohol delivery app, and the development of services like them is experiencing a huge surge recently after increasing of global young adult demographic and demand alcohol delivery app. In today's technologically advanced era liquor industry and business online technology stack are generating high revenue growth despite the app development cost. Let's analyze the features of their work in more detail.

Standard requirements of liquor store owner

Every alcohol delivery business (alcohol store owners or restaurant partners) rightly believe that all the potential customers using the mobile app want to solve three main problems:

• find and choose the desired product (get their "online wine");
• to place an order without unnecessary difficulties;
• track it having at hand the necessary data for payment.

Mobile liquor delivery app of multiple liquor stores differ from each other, first of all, in the way they implement these 3 tasks. Let's try to evaluate what an ideal alcohol delivery app for ordering liquor should look like, based on the implementation of these tasks.

Find and choose in online alcohol delivery apps

The catalog of online liquor delivery app should be divided by product type but viewing all available products should be possible in one feed, of course. Sometimes it’s more profitable to have a stand-alone beer delivery app, for example. Mini cards with specific major features (different categories of wine, beer, whiskey, liquor, vodka) should contain information that will help connoisseurs in a given liquor make a quick decision, choose their favorite liquor. Color, strength, sugar content, country of origin and, of course, volume and even liquor reviews. At the top of the catalog should be tags - the most popular drink categories and properties of liquor products of this type. It should be possible to quickly filter the desired assortment by them.

It is better that the main filter changes, depending on each section - this will remove boredom when using the service. Somewhere let categories be added, somewhere new values. Filter properties must be related: when one is selected, lower-order properties that do not correspond to it are deactivated. (This is necessary so that costomer does not get confused in a large number of links). And it is very good idea to add related products to liquor delivery app - "alcohol chains": not only complimentary snacks but wine glasses or beer mugs.

It is better to build a product card on the principle “from the main to the secondary” and make it so that it covers all the parameters and contact details for a potential customer to make a purchase decision on single panel (on one screen). Gastronomic combinations should be marked with icons so as not to break the rigor of the design and not to burden the card with unnecessary pictures. After all the customer have to be able to see such additional feature as to view feedback.

On demand alcohol delivery and checkout

When you go to the basket in the delivery app, the data of availabe goods in the warehouse should immediately be updated, and if the selected item is no longer there (that is it cannot be picked up today) this card becomes inactive. After all the liquor delivery app should be focused on the implementation of pre-order and pickup. For the same reason the customer needs to demonstrate the shelf life of the goods. Placing an order request in online alcohol delivery app should not exceed the following number of stages (steps):

• two steps - for registered consumers (this is registration and confirmation of the order);
• three steps - for unregistered buyers (checkout, phone number, order confirmation).

And here is the time to remind about the main alcohol stores app features. In most countries the legislation prohibits the purchase of alcoholic beverages online, so no net banking, no any debit cards, no payment gateway, no acquiring - only the choice and order for delivery, and store earnings is generated when payment is realised at place (including delivery charges). The main word in frase "liquor delivery app" is "delivery".

Delivery app development solutions - tracking

During app development add to project requirements the feature that active, past and canceled orders have to be collected together in the "my orders" section . Both the number and order status should be available. If the status changes the customer should receive a push notification.

Data of active orders and all the add ons to them have to be displayed on the main page so that the "happy clients" do not need to search through sections.

Architecture and Integrations or how alcohol delivery app works

An liquor delivery app will always consist of a server side and a mobile user application:

1. 01

   The liquor delivery apps are the collection of interfaces united by an open algorithm for their interaction. For each platform (Android or iOS) the native languages of the libraries for which they are designed are used, moreover. The mobile apps development cost less than the server part, and app development is easier to adapt to mentioned platforms updates.
2. 02

   The online booze delivery software server part is responsible for interacting with CRM and with elements of the app owner. It is built on the principles of microserver architecture - it is divided into several services with a specific functions, e.x., a service for updating users, registering orders, updating data, loyalty programs, customer location, his favorite drink and so on. All components of the architecture communicate with each other through the online delivery platform.

Determining value for a mobile app development is the selected CRM system. Data on the products sold, orders placed, users, personal discounts, realised premium products and information about all the online deliveries provided under the loyalty program are received there. There is a caching database between CRM and server app (for example, PostgreSQL). The caching layer communicates with CRM, updates data on two types of requests:

• The list of goods and boutiques, the availability of goods in the boutique, as well as the list of users are regularly updated.
• Instantly updated requests for registration of new users, as well as ordering.

Such requests should be enough to ensure that the user always operates with up-to-date information, without unnecessary load on the app. The use of such architecture and integration helps in a comfortable mode for the buyer to navigate the assortment and choose his "favorite bottle". By the way, if necessary the app can be further scaled, and new functions, services, and interfaces can be added.

What does Alcohol Delivery App Development include?

The algorithm for creating a valid app on demand alcohol delivery should include:

1. 01

   Integration with the customer's commodity circulation system (CRM) through the CommerceML protocol. Even very simple liquor ordering app needs in it.
2. 02

   App development and development of a server part with an admin panel for orders.
3. 03

   Design development for both iOS and Android platforms.
4. 04

   Creation of a mobile application for iOS.
5. 05

   Creation of a mobile application for Android.
6. 06

   Development of technology for registering accounts in the AppStore and Google Play.

In addition, special attention should be paid to:

• UI/UX design including the creation of those elements that you need: restaurant/store pages, reviews section, order history, etc.;
• Frontend application development for delivery. With React Native, you can create apps for iOS and Android with the same code, which allows you to reach a wider market of users on different operating systems;
• QA testing.

Key features for a delivery app

But before choosing the main features for the application you need to determine the business model, target audience and their needs. Here is a list of questions to think about before starting:

1. 01

   How are you going to cooperate with suppliers/restaurants? Do you plan to take a commission and do advertising?
2. 02

   Will you deliver from specialty stores?
3. 03

   Will you employ in-house couriers or use a third party delivery service?

After these questions are answered you can start working on the first version of the delivery service. It seems it's usefull to make separate applications: for customer; for restaurant; and for delivery agent. A separate demand alcohol delivery app version is needed for different operating systems - iOS and Android. That's too much even for large liquor store and leading alcohol delivery services! But truly qualified app development company has multiple ways to solve this problem: instead of 6 apps, you can build only 3 or even one, but divided on three interfaces. Here is a list of features that must be present in such app:

App for clients:

• Page for registration/login. Make sure you don't create it too long - customers don't want to spend more than 3 minutes filling out fields that are useless to them.
• If delivery from stores is expected, then you need to provide a catalog of these stores with filters and ratings.
• Place of delivery. Two elements are needed here - the ability to put a pin on the map (plus, integration with GoogleMaps) and enter the address in the search bar. Then choose from the options. It's wise to add email templates, contact number - better to write it down.
• The consumer has to be able to get the details about shipping in app chator to give customer feedback. It doesn't have to bee too difficult - free advice for online liquor store owners: any action in app or on a liquor store cite should be carried out for just a few clicks.
• Push notifications to keep customers informed their liquor delivery. Using push notifications, you can firstly - send to user promotional code to return them into the app and increase the retention rate (CRR), and secondly - politely specify the customer's delivery location (if need).
• Liquor delivery history.

App for delivery agents:

1. 01

   Registration form for delivery agents (try not to make it too long).
2. 02

   An up-to-date database of orders where you can select the delivery status of the order, for example: “ready to receive at the restaurant”, “on the way”, “delivered”.
3. 03

   Information about this specific delivery agent liquor orders completed and payments received.

App for a restaurants or liquor stores:

• Administrative panel for managing orders.
• Push notifications to inform couriers about the readiness of the order.

That's just no virtual cash desk and online acquiring (even with debit card): no cashless transactions, no online payments, no multiple payment gateways, no online net banking - no any multiple payment options.

Liquor delivery business - summary

On the technical side building an efficient, user-friendly app is relatively easy. But it only seems so, and only at first glance. In order not to make typical “childish” mistakes developers should:

• have experience with JavaScript, Angular, TypeScript, CSS and HTML5;
• be proficient in programming languages: Ruby on Rails, Go, Scala, С++ and some others;
• have experience with NoSQL and SQL databases;
• own DevOps tools at the level of a confident user.

But that's not all for the present. It is in this area that an IT specialist is also required to be a highly qualified marketer who understands the needs of the market and is able to implement the answers to these requests in a specific software client. Except the best liquor delivery the qualified developer has to think about sucurity to prevent customer base stealing. It is also necessary to think over the inventory management system, consider other details and business requirements. Readymade app must have features of full-fledged liquor shop where you can order alcohol "of your dreams". The best app should promote to increase sales, and not be similar to minimum viable product. In that case only sales of your wine store will grow cardinally and business becomes to a highly profitable venture.

Initially, it may seem that a team of existing programmers can easily cope with writing application code, however, if you add marketing requirements to this, it becomes very clear that without the involvement of developers specializing in these tasks, it is impossible to launch a working application on the market will come out. Don't "reinvent the wheel" - hire the right people from Alfee and you can start development right away without wasting time. In addition the deadlines for completing the task by our specialists will certainly please you.