In the current scenario, just a single tap on your smartphone can get you delivered anything and everything no matter where you are. From an iPhone to pizza, literally, everything can be delivered to your doorstep. On-demand delivery solutions have the power to sell an organization's services and products in the quickest way possible.
Now, these on-demand applications include healthcare and fitness, food deliveries, cab services, and many more services that can be availed in no time. One of the trends in on-demand delivery industry is a recently published report by PwC which says that the on-demand industry is likely to grow by $335 billion by the year 2025.
A part of its rise is due to the pandemic. The Covid-19 had pushed online shopping to the forefront. In 2020 alone, the food delivery market in the U.S. witnessed a dramatic growth of $26.5 billion - a good 204% increase since 2015. Almost 4 years since the pandemic began, the Coronavirus continues to have a major impact on on-demand and online consumer behavior across the globe.
As millions of people have stayed indoors from early March in 2020 to almost the 3rd quarter of 2021 (In some countries) to contain the spread of the virus, all the digital platforms have spread their wings to crowded stores and in-person shopping places.
In June 2020, the global retail eCommerce traffic had experienced more than 22 billion monthly visits, with ever-increasing demand especially for day-to-day essentials such as groceries, apparel, etc.
The on-demand delivery business opportunities have dramatically risen. The pandemic had a huge influence on the online usage, purchasing habits, and the overall consumer behavior of the future of eCommerce, and how the global retail industry is going to look like in the coming 5 years will depend on customers' buying behavior.
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Customer retention - the need of the hour
You cannot deny the fact that on-demand apps are the future. But with the increasing on-demand applications in the market, customer retention is getting more and more complicated.
For every on-demand business or app, there are 10 other such businesses and competitors. Do you think it’s easy to retain customers for your on-demand business? Not exactly because your competition will keep amplifying the costs of your customer conversions.
Are you putting enough effort and time to re-engage and re-interact with your customers? If you think once your prospect turned into a customer, they will keep buying things or services from you, then you couldn’t be more wrong.
If you haven’t ever tried to market to current customers after their previous sales, then now is the right time to do it. With the help of your team, you can develop some amazing strategies to enhance your customer retention.
Here’s why you should focus on customer retention while attracting new ones.
Competitiveness
Right now, on-demand businesses are competing with each other. If your customers choose your competitor over your brand, not only will you lose your loyal customers and reliability but also the chance for future business opportunities.
Saves marketing costs
Yes, it's true. The amount you spend on existing consumers is far less expensive when compared to the amount you spend on acquiring new ones. Wondering why? Cause even though your marketing campaigns are a huge success, there is still no surety that your generated leads will turn into paying customers.
In existing customers' case, they are familiar with your brand and the kind of services or products you offer, so all you need to do is remind them of your business and what more you can provide.
Distraction
No app is perfect. Users can easily find distractions that may divert their attention from your app to your competitor's. It could be their user experience or a simple push notification by your competitor that may prompt them to switch from your app to their app.
Your customers will be your brand ambassadors
Whether good experience or worst, people love to share their user experience with others, especially in a world where social media rules. When you treat your customers well, they will obviously talk about their experience with friends and family and refer your products and services to everyone. That is why customer retention = customer acquisition.
Now that we have seen why customer retention is essential to your on-demand business, let’s take a look at a few ways on how you can maintain your current customers.
User experience
A fantastic user experience will help you gain your customers' loyalty for a long, long time. But if you fail in serving your customers better than your competitors', then you may lose your valuable customers for a lifetime.
Some of the common ways to retain customers are:
- Provide 24*7 customer support to help solve their queries, inquiries, or complaints instantly or ASAP and that too with friendly responses.
- Take customers’ ratings into consideration and respond to their feedback to keep them happy and improve your current system.
- Offer special discounts, offers, etc. to your customers so that they can keep coming back to you for more.
Offers & discounts
Your competitors must be offering attractive deals and discounts so that they prefer to purchase their products and services instead of yours. So to keep up with your competitors, you should also offer something extra for your customers.
Take their feedback seriously
Every business collects customers’ feedback and reviews. But how many of them are actually considering those reviews or feedback and how many are actually implementing them? Hardly any business. Ask, listen, implement, and enhance. This is how you can meet your customers’ expectations.
Benefits of an on-demand delivery app
Honestly, there are a ton of benefits of an on-demand delivery app. A well-built application is needed for the efficient supply chain management. It is a complicated task to keep a track of all consignments manually in today's competitive market.
In order to accomplish what a delivery program could do on its own, it would need manpower of thousands. The below are some examples of how the software can influence the market:
Accessibility
On-demand delivery applications let companies and customers track the live location of their shipment. All you need is a smartphone with an internet connection or an internet-connected PC to track where your shipment is.
Optimized process
Other than the fact that the application or software is extremely easy to use, it also optimizes and streamlines various stages in the logistics process.
Route optimization and geofencing are the two top functionalities that make the process easier for administrators as they track their agents and their activities.
Once every team member has been assigned their tasks, they can instruct their on-site personnel.
Payment gateway integration
With social distancing, online payment is becoming more and more popular. Every small business and retailer has switched from collecting cash to digital payment methods.
Earlier digital payment required the beneficiary's account and the sender needed time to make the payment. But now, with Gpay and other instant payment applications, receiving payment from customers is no longer an hectic task.
Scalability
SMBs and enterprises should always prepare themselves for a surge or dip in demand. People can adapt easily to the ever-changing demand market with effective applications. No matter how big or small an enterprise as long as their logistics process is efficient.
Leading on-demand applications in 2024
Food delivery applications
Lately, the comfort of dining with just a couple of taps on a smartphone has made people download and use numerous food delivery applications. The growth rate of super-dramatic demand for food delivery apps shows how many people are preferring online food over offline and how it can exceed offline demand in just a few years. The days have approached where ordering food online is no longer a rare scenario, it has become a day-to-day act now for customers.
And that is why to keep up with the online demand, restaurant business needs an on-demand food delivery system and there’s no denial about it. A report says that the platform-to-customer market is expected to increase by $97 million across the globe by 2024. Analyzing the after effects of the pandemic, it is safe to say that this will further increase the demand in the coming years.
Read More: Stimulate Your Business Forward with On-Demand Food Delivery Solutions.
eCommerce
Another on-demand delivery market that is witnessing tremendous growth is the eCommerce sector. Customers across the globe are demanding the ability to purchase goods and services at any place and any time.
This convenience of ordering anything, even on the go is increasing more customers as buyers are choosing applications over websites since they offer high speed, flexibility, and convenience.
We could see the immensity of the global eCommerce market by looking at the number of people shopping online. A report by Statista says that the number of users in the eCommerce market is expected to reach 3.6 billion users by 2029.
Grocery delivery applications
The need for an on-demand grocery delivery solution along with the number of people using the grocery applications such as Big Basket or Grofers is increasing more and more day-by-day as customers are preferring to shop online. Currently, millions of people are using grocery delivery applications across the globe.
This upward trajectory is the major cause for the increase in demand for on-demand grocery delivery application development. With the ever-increasing industrial industry, grocery delivery apps are advancing in leaps and bounds.
Vendors, customers, delivery boys/girls, etc. are brought together by the grocery delivery application company. So the application will have three interfaces, one for vendors/dealers, one for customers, and one for delivery boys/girls.
Read More: Fully Featured On-demand Grocery delivery Solution
Medicine delivery applications
Of all, the medicine delivery solution market took time to witness considerable growth. According to a recent study, the telemedicine industry is likely to grow by $174 billion by the year 2026 at an annual compound growth rate of 21.4%.
Today, more and more entrepreneurs are interested in knowing how to develop an on-demand medicine delivery solution as in the post-COVID world, patients are connected via on-demand medical and healthcare applications.
Currently, doctor on demand application is an excellent example of mHealth on-demand application. Users can easily use mobile devices to connect and converse with doctors one-on-one wherever and whenever they want.
The consulting doctor or physician examines, offers suggestions, and prescribes medicines during the mobile consultation. The major benefit of mobile consultation is that doctors are available 24 hours a day and seven days a week, making them always available for the patients.
Read More: On-demand medicine delivery solution for pharmacies
Improve customer retention for on-demand delivery applications
The restriction of the movement during the pandemic has spiked the growth of on-demand app development. The revolution of on-demand delivery business has taken a drastic turn with the pandemic. If you have an on-demand delivery application, then now is the time to focus on customer retention while attracting new ones.
Below we have listed some of the ways on how to improve customer retention for your on-demand app business with a customized digital solution.
Real-time updates
Keeping your customers in the loop about the status of their delivery is essential to satisfy them. Saying 90% of customers today expect maximum visibility from the on-demand business is no overstatement.
With an efficient digital platform for your on-demand delivery business, you can easily let your customers help in tracking their orders in real-time and get periodic updates via text message or push notifications.
Fast and smart routes
Quick delivery is just as important as the quality of the service or product itself. Quick delivery can get you happier customers. Utilizing an on-demand delivery suite, as a business, you can seamlessly develop optimized routes and assist your delivery boys and girls to reach the customers at the earliest.
Other than this, you can also assign more than one delivery along a given route to your delivery executives so that your resources can effortlessly fulfill multiple orders in a single trip, therefore minimizing overhead costs.
Contact-less delivery
Given the pandemic situation, contactless delivery system is a must for everyone to avoid the spread of the virus. It is common for your customers to expect the same when compared to a traditional delivery setup.
As a responsible on-demand delivery business owner, you should promote zero-contact and produce digital proof of delivery by helping customers in making payments for their orders via online payment gateway integration.
Customer rating and feedback
If you think prompting your target audiences is enough for them to download your application and utilize your services, then you couldn't be more wrong. Encourage your existing customers to leave ratings, reviews, and feedback on various social media platforms after using your delivery services.
This will give you a chance to see what kind of problems your customers are facing and how you can improve your service and their experience for the better. It will raise your service standards which will also help you in customer retention and attracting new customers.
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How much would it cost to build an on-demand application for your business?
The cost to develop an on-demand app for a delivery business completely depends on features, functionalities, the platform used, the complexity of the app, and many other things. The cost of any mobile application is also calculated on the total number of hours required.
Considering the estimated time it takes to build an on-demand delivery application is around 1500-1600 hr, the cost varies from region to region. However, the average developer’s rate in Asia is US $40-$60 per hour. Also, depending on what type of niche you are into, there are various business models for the on-demand delivery business.
Final thoughts
Your current customers are undoubtedly the most valuable asset of your on-demand business. For your current customers, you don't have to market the way you do to attract new customers because they are already familiar with your business, they know your brand, they know your products and services, and they very well understand what value you offer to them.
Having said that, putting effort and time into improving the user experience of your current customers is the same as your new customers is also important.
So don't spend all your time, energy, and resources on getting new customers cause retaining your current customers could be a much better way to increase your revenue and profit margins.
You can talk to one of our on-demand app developers to discuss how you can improve your customer retention for your on-demand application using a digital solution. You can get in touch with our team directly to build an on-demand delivery management software.
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