Category: How-To

COVID-19 has changed the way we live, work, and communicate, such as changes to educational institutions that are seeking for more practical and convenient ways to educate students. Luckily, to provide online education services, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, since E-learning already has proven solutions to offer. Such an e-learning platform allows you to run online courses and earn money for your knowledge. 

In this article, we tell you how to start an online learning platform, their types, and business models you can apply. We also highlight typical features of such a platform and share tips on how to develop an e-learning platform from scratch. 

Types of E-learning Platforms

There are three major types of online education platforms. To start your e-learning business, you need to choose among the following options:

• Open-source online e-learning platforms

Such platforms are ready-made solutions for online learning that have both free and paid tiers. As a rule, SaaS learning platforms have monthly or annual subscriptions. Online e-learning platforms, such as Moodle, Litmos, and BrainCert, are already equipped with many useful features, including interactive exercises, file uploading, books, support forums, online chat with students, and so on. 

With such a platform you can create your teacher profile, upload learning materials, and receive payments from students to your credit card or bank account via an online payment gateway. 

The main disadvantages of open-source learning platforms are lack of customization, online support only for premium members, and a limited number of modules with additional functionality. 

• Online course marketplaces

E-learning marketplaces, such as Udacity, Coursera, and EdX, include numerous courses from different universities and educational institutions. Online learning marketplaces provide both teachers and students with a variety of advanced built-in tools. 

You can upload your video course, create quizzes, grade students, and even give them certificates once they finish your course. 

However, on such a platform, you will have numerous competitors. Thus, to stay competitive and earn money, you should provide a unique course no one else has. 

• Custom E-learning content management systems

You, with your development team, can create an e-learning platform from scratch and empower it with all the functions your educational business needs. In this way, you have total control over your project. Moreover, you can add necessary functionality using third-party plug-ins and APIs at any time. 

[eLearning platform’s architecture outline by The APP Solutions]

This option has more earning potential, compared to previous e-learning software types. Apart from your educational material, you can integrate online courses from partner universities, charge students fees directly without intermediaries, run ads, and grow your platform over time. 

To sum up, all of the e-learning platform types described above are legit for online learning providers. Make your choice depending on your needs, such as customization, features, and future business perspectives.  

E-learning platform business models 

If you are serious about developing your custom e-learning platform, you can apply one of the business models described below.

• Freemium. You can provide students with a limited amount of courses and lessons for free. However, if your students want to receive full access to classes or get a certificate from your educational organization, they must buy a premium account. 
• Subscription. You charge a monthly fee from your students for a monthly or annual subscription. In exchange, you provide students with unlimited access to all courses, learning materials, forums, etc. 
• Advertising. You can run a cost-per-click or cost-per-view advertising campaign and show ads from your partners. However, we recommend running education-related ads, like e-books, workbooks, or textbooks, or at least ads from stationery businesses in order to not compromise your reputation. 
• Sponsored courses. You can charge other educational organizations for promoting their classes at the top of search results. 

Now, let’s see what features you should add to your custom-built e-learning platform. 

Common features of an online learning platform

While e-learning software varies in its type and business models, there are some core features that every online learning platform should include. Below, we list features of the e-learning system’s MVP, i.e., the first version of your project. 

Login 

Registration is the first thing both students and teachers will do on your e-learning platform. The ‘old-school’ way of registering on any website is a combination of email and password. However, most e-learning platforms also provide user authentication via social networks such as Facebook, which is a more streamlined option. Check out how Coursera’s login page looks. 

Profile 

Once the user is registered on your e-learning platform, one needs to fill in a profile. Here, the user needs to give such details as full name, photo, work experience, education, career goals, birthday, gender, and so on. 

Consider that the more the platform knows about your users, the more relevant course recommendations your platform will provide. Thus, you can add as many fields to the user profile as you need. 

Online payments

In this section, your students give information about their payment methods. You can choose among such popular solutions as:

• Debit/credit cards. With this option, the platform will charge fees directly from students’ bank accounts. 
• PayPal. To receive money using this online payment system, both you, your students, and teachers need to have a PayPal account with a virtual visa. Note that PayPal is not available in some countries.  
• Stripe. This payment gateway allows paying via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Alipay, and even Apple pay. Your developers will integrate it using API, which requires several hours. This payment gateway has a pay-as-you-go pricing policy (from 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction). 
• Braintree. This online payment provider allows accepting PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and most credit and debit cards. Braintree pricing starts from 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. 

[The payment gateway in Masterclass e-learning platform]

Home page

Here, users will see a list of course categories, the section with the most popular online courses, recently launched courses, and classes they are currently enrolled in. You can also add a section with Top Free Courses, as well as recommended courses based on the student’s preferences and interests. 

Search, filters, and categories

To make the searching process more convenient for platform users, you can integrate filtering features. In this way, users can filter search results by course level, duration, language, skills, and other parameters. 

Check out how searching filters work for the Coursera website. 

You can also divide courses by categories, which will help students in their search. 

Course page 

After the student has selected the course, they are taken to the Course landing page. 

This page will contain learning materials, a library of pre-recorded videos, a related materials section, grades, and a timeline with the student’s progress. 

To make this page information for your students, consider adding course description and skills it improves, instructor’s picture with a small bio, length of the course and number of students enrolled. 

It’s also handy to add a FAQ section at the end of a Course page where your students will receive answers on the most popular questions, and/or browse related articles. 

Notifications 

Notifications will keep students engaged. You can send notifications right to the students’ browsers, or to their emails. If you consider developing a mobile app version of your platform, you can also send push notifications to their mobile devices. 

Your goal here is to provide essential updates but not to become annoying. For example, the platform can notify students about the beginning of the course, upcoming payments, new courses on topics relevant to students, and so on. 

Quiz 

By using the quiz section, students can check their knowledge after each video lesson. This section could look like a simple test with Yes or No answers, open questions, or even a programming field if you have a developer-oriented e-learning platform. 

You can even integrate a tool with Artificial Intelligence, such as Gradescope, that will check your students’ work and automatically grade them. You can learn more about the use cases of AI in education from our previous articles. 

[Gradescope user interface]

Review and rating 

In this section, users that graduate courses on your e-learning platform can leave reviews about their experience and share how they liked the course. They can also rate the course and its instructor from one to five stars. Students’ ratings, and the number of reviews, will further impact the course position in the search. 

Teacher dashboard 

This section is essential if you allow other teachers and educational organizations to add their courses to your e-learning platform. Here, teachers can manage video courses, add descriptions, check the number of students enrolled, see students’ work, and grade them. 

The teacher dashboard should include a section to upload additional resources, such as PDFs, videos, and audio files.   

Admin panel

Even if you are not going to engage with other educational institutions, you still need an Admin panel to manage your platform. Here, you will control students’ payments, all information about courses, add new classes, maintain information about existing lessons, and so on. 

Now, let’s see how to start your online education website. 

Steps in developing an educational website 

Here we describe all the steps you need to go through for creating web-based training courses and launch a successful e-learning platform. 

Step 1. Create content 

You and your educational organization should create an educational plan for every online learning course, and break it down into lessons. 

Next, you need to start creating online learning content and record video lessons. Consider that such lessons should be both informative and short enough not to bore your students. 

Then, you need to create quizzes or tests for each lesson from your course. Also, think about additional materials and resources so students can receive in-depth knowledge of the topic.  

Step 2. Hire developers 

Finding a great web development team is always challenging. There are thousands of IT teams that claim to be the best in software development. At the same time, having a reliable and qualified tech partner is essential for your e-learning platform’s success. 

In the article about outsourcing web developers, you will find handy tips on how to research, select, and start working with developers that suit your project needs the best. 

For your search, you can use websites with client reviews, such as Clutch and Goodfirms. Don’t forget to check out the team’s portfolio and developers’ tech stack on the team’s Linkedin profile. 

Step 3. Develop an e-learning platform  

After signing an NDA, your development team gathers your requirements for the project and launches the Discovery phase.

During this phase, business analysts, project managers, and project architects will create technical project documentation. Such a document includes a detailed description and business goal of your project, its architecture, tech stack to be applied, and the project milestones and deliverables. 

Another deliverable of the Discovery phase is a clickable prototype of your project with essential elements. 

Once you agree on technical documentation, the e-learning web development team will start developing a project MVP version with only core features. 

To ensure timely feedback from you, and report about the work done, most IT development teams run demo sessions. 

Step 4. Launch eLearning website 

After a final demo, your development team will deploy your eLearning platform’s MVP to the live environment and make it available for your students. Your main goal at this stage is to get as many users’ feedback as you can. In this way, both students and teachers can share their experience with the platform, its usability, and even suggest other features to implement. 

You can gather users’ reviews by sending newsletters to emails, running quizzes in social media like Facebook, or using an integrated Feedback section on your platform.

Step 5. Increase partners network 

To make your e-learning platform successful, you need to partner with other educational organizations. There might be high schools, colleges, universities, other educational institutions, and so on. 

Thanks to such an approach, you will enrich your e-learning platform with unique content on various topics and bring new audiences. 

Now, let’s find out the costs to build an online learning platform. 

Cost of e-learning development

There is no single answer to this question because the cost of an e-learning platform depends on which features you want to integrate, the hourly rates of your software developers, and project timeframes.
For example, if you’re going to launch the platform within 3-4 months, which is half the normal duration of such projects, your team needs to engage two types more developers, which doubles the project’s cost. 

In our experience, the cost of e-learning development varies from $60,000 to $120,000, depending on its complexity.

Conclusion 

The need for online educational software, for all educational organizations, has emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. While there are several options for providing education online, only custom-built e-learning platforms have the most significant earning potential. Applying one of the aforementioned monetization strategies, you can turn your platform for online learning into a profitable business.  

From a developer’s point of view, online education platforms are sophisticated projects. Thus, we recommend launching such projects as MVP, which significantly reduces the time to market and development costs. Such an approach will also help you receive feedback from users and add only those features they need, thus avoiding unnecessary costs.

What our clients say 

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Today, as the Coronavirus outbreak comes to an end, economic activities are starting to normalize. More and more grocers are taking their first steps toward re-opening and customers start shopping offline with less fear. However, not all shoppers are ready to leave their homes to buy fresh groceries. The main reason is that crowded grocery stores remain potential places to be infected. Besides this, many shoppers have tried shopping for groceries via on-demand apps and liked it. 

Thus, you may wonder, “Should I start an app for ordering groceries after COVID-19? Would an online grocery delivery business bring profit once the pandemic is over?” The answer is Yes. And we have some figures to prove it. 

According to Bain & Company’s research, before the pandemic, only 3%-4% of customers used online grocery apps. During the pandemic, this number surged to 10-15%. As a result, established grocery delivery businesses such as Instacart had to hire additional workers to meet the demand. The Instacart app, in particular, received 300% more orders during the first week of March, compared to February’s figures. 

Besides this, 50% of grocery shoppers who currently use on-demand grocery delivery apps claim to continue using these services after the end of the pandemic. Since consumer demand is higher than ever before, it is time to reconsider your grocery infrastructure and adopt a new way of serving customers with an on-demand grocery delivery app.  

We’ve already written about on-demand service apps and apps like UberEats. Now, let’s concentrate on the development of grocery delivery applications similar to Instacart. Below, we’ll talk about types of grocery delivery apps, how they work, and features to consider for on-demand grocery delivery app development. Moreover, we’ll share tips to ensure safe grocery delivery amid COVID-19. 

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How on-demand grocery delivery apps work

Online grocery shopping apps connect buyers with local grocery stores to shop, then send a “personal shopper” to fill and deliver the order. 

Such platforms include three types of users- buyers, shoppers, and admins. Each type of use requires a mobile or web app with different functionality. Let’s look at the mechanisms of a grocery shopping app in more detail. 

• Buyer. As a buyer, you can log in to the app, create your profile, and fill in the delivery address. Now, you add groceries from the product catalog to the shopping cart. Next, you choose the delivery window and pay for your order via a credit card. Once the shoppers gather your order, you receive a notification with the delivery status and can track the delivery process via GPS in real-time. 
• Personal shopper. In the shopper app, you see deliveries ordered as well as lists of products to buy. Then, you start collecting products from the buyer’s list and pay the cashier with the buyer’s money. If the buyer’s list includes out of stock items, you can contact the buyer via the phone or built-in messenger to suggest similar products or return money to the buyer’s account. After you’ve bought all the groceries from the list, you change the order status from “Picking” to “Delivery” and deliver on-demand groceries to the buyer’s address.   
• Admin. From the Admin panel, you can manage both types of users (shoppers and buyers), product categories, new and processing orders. You can also do a money refund to the buyers and help users with any issue which arises. 

With this in mind, let’s look at different business models and choose the one that will best suit you.

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Business models for a grocery delivery service app

You may wonder, “Why do you think about the business model before the app is developed?” The answer is that your business model will influence the number of features to add to your grocery shopping delivery app, the project’s complexity, and the monetization strategy to apply.

Below, we have gathered the most popular business models for an on-demand grocery delivery app, currently applied. 

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Aggregator model

The aggregator is your business model of choice if you don’t own a warehouse with groceries. Instead, you bridge the gap between grocery stores and buyers. Apart from order gathering, you will provide a delivery service from local grocery stores to the user’s doorstep. 

Instacart, an on-demand grocery delivery app leverages this business model. The app has a team of local shoppers who deliver orders from different stores and markets nearby. The app’s users can shop at major grocery chains, such as Mariano’s and Whole Foods. Besides this, Instacart users can shop by recipe, order on-demand delivery, or schedule their deliveries in advance. 

Store-pick model

With this business model, your users do not need to wait in long queues because your shoppers will buy everything from their list. The main difference between store-pick and aggregator business models is that store-pick does not provide delivery services. Thus, your customers can pick-up the order near your store. Peapod, an online grocery supermarket, applies this business model. Peapod has its inventory. Therefore, it works much like a standard grocery store but provides customers with more convenient shopping. 

[Peapod product categories]

Warehouse model

In the case of having your own warehouse or grocery store, you want to set up an online presence, this is your business model of choice. With this business model, your team of shoppers will pack orders from your inventory and deliver them. Walmart, one of the most popular grocery retailers, applies this business model for its Walmart Grocery mobile app. The app provides both an order pick-up option at the nearest shop and free order delivered within several hours. 

Now, let’s see how you can monetize your on-demand grocery delivery services.

How on-demand delivery apps make money 

To make your online grocery delivery app profitable, you can leverage one of the following monetization options:

Paid membership

Paid membership or subscriptions are popular among grocery delivery companies and businesses like Netflix and Youtube. The main benefit is that you can predict your revenue, thus, gradually invest in technologies for your grocery delivery app. The company that uses paid subscriptions is Shipt. To start using this app, you buy an annual subscription for $100 or a monthly subscription which costs $14. Then, you receive free grocery delivery on orders that exceed $35. If the order is less than $35, you pay a $7 flat-rate delivery fee. 

Delivery and service fees

This monetization strategy is valid for warehouse business models. It means you charge users fees for your shopping services and order delivery based on the order total and delivery distance. For example, the online grocery delivery app FreshDirect charges delivery fees depending on the buyer’s location. Delivery fees start from $6 on a minimum order sum that is $30.

Hybrid approach 

You can apply both monetization models for your on-demand grocery delivery business. For example, users who bought your membership pay fewer delivery fees than users who don’t. To get a better picture of such an approach, let’s look at Instacart. 

This grocery delivery app offers two types of membership priced at $99 annually or $9.99 a month. A paid subscription helps you to avoid extra fees that non-membership users are subject to. For example, customers receive free one-hour delivery, which is a paid service for non-membership users. Another example is busy pricing. This type of fee occurs when Instacart shoppers increase demand from customers. 

You can also shop at Instacart without a membership fee. But, you’ll pay higher service and delivery fees. The app calculates prices based on one’s subtotal, the delivery urgency, and the number of orders currently in operation. 

The next step after choosing your business model and monetization strategy is to gather features for your app. 

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Essential features for on-demand grocery app development

Since the app includes several types of users, you need to carefully select features that would be useful for buyers, shoppers, and admin applications. Below we offer feature lists for each app to meet the needs of each part. 

Features for buyers 

The buyer app should allow users to find necessary items, add them to a shopping cart, check out, and pay for the order via the app. Thus, consider empowering the buyer’s app with the following functionality: 

• Registration via email or social media (Google or Facebook)
• User profile 
• Product catalog
• Product search 
• Product categories
• Items list 
• Completed and ongoing orders 
• Shopping cart
• Payment gateway 
• GPS tracking 
• Notifications on the order status 

[Shipt buyer app screens]

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Features for shoppers

In a shopper’s app, the user should see a list of current orders, required products, contact details of the buyers, and delivery address. If you have a reliable group of shoppers, they can register in your grocery delivery app without additional validation. If you don’t, you should give access to shoppers to download your application only after additional validation. For this, shoppers should provide you with their details via a contact form on your website. In this way, you can build a database of your shoppers to avoid fraud from unreliable shoppers who will take the buyer’s money and disappear.     

• Registration via a website 
• User profile
• List of current and fulfilled orders 
• Order description 
• Barcode scanning
• Change order status 
• Built-in messenger or calling feature to contact the buyer via an app
• Built-in map to show directions 

[Instacart shopper app with barcode scanning]

Features for admin panel 

The administration will manage both buyers and shoppers via a web application and new queries from users who want to join your platform as shoppers. You also need an admin panel to manage finances, upcoming and fulfilling orders. It would also be handy to help users via an online chat. Thus, we suggest adding the following features to your admin panel: 

• Administrator login 
• List of users 
• Review user profile 
• Manage users 
• List of shoppers 
• List of buyers 
• Manage category list 
• List of orders
• Payment and transactions 

HOW MUCH DOES AN ON-DEMAND MOBILE APP COST?

Grocery app development cost 

Since the platform consists of three main components (buyer, shopper, and admin apps), we recommend starting such projects small. This means that for the app’s first version you should integrate only essential features. In software development, such a project version is called an MVP, or minimum viable product. With such an approach, you can validate your business idea without spending too much on grocery delivery app development. Besides this, an MVP ensures a faster time to market.

Below, we share an estimate in hours for an MVP we did for one of our previous clients who hired us for grocery delivery app development. The given app’s cost includes only the Android platform. 

FeatureScreen	Design in hours	BackEnd in hours	Android in hours
Architecture		40	24
Buyer application
Splash screen, tutorial	32		16
Login signup, password recovery	4	16	16
User profile and settings	12	24	16
Orders	12	36	16
Search	4	24	16
Category	8	8	8
List of items	12	24	32
Item page	8	40	24
Shopping cart	8	24	24
Payment	2	40	16
Text pages	8	8	8
Email integration	8	40	4
Shopper application
Login signup, pass recovery	4	8	8
Shopper profile and settings	8	16	8
Orders	16	24	16
Fulfillment order	12	24	16
Web-based administrative panel
Administrator login		4
Users list		16
List of buyers		16
List of shoppers		16
Category		24
Orders		32
Payment and transaction		120

When estimating the costs for grocery delivery apps, don’t forget about project management, quality assurance, bug fixing, and technical documentation. Technical documentation is the core of your project that includes technical specifications, project installation, deployment instructions, grocery mobile app development documentation, and even a clickable prototype. We write such documentation during the Discovery phase of the project. This phase may take from one to four months, depending on the project’s complexity. 

Related reading: 

Uber truck service development 

We can build your grocery app in 8 to 10 months, and approximate project costs vary from $60,000 to $80,000. To receive a more detailed estimate, use our project cost calculator. 

Handy strategies for grocery ordering app owners amid COVID-19 

The coronavirus pandemic is almost in the past. However, people are still afraid of being infected and continue to keep social distancing. To help your customers remain calm about their health, whilst also caring about other shoppers, we suggest using the following strategies. 

Provide personal protection measures

The safety of your couriers and customers is your top priority. To keep people safe, you should provide access for all your shoppers to personal protective equipment, including masks, respirators, gloves, and hand sanitizer. Also, workers should wash their hands when required and clean frequently used equipment once an hour.

Adopt contactless deliveries

Zero contact delivery allows your customers to choose where shoppers will leave their orders: near the doorstep, in front of their home, etc. In this way, you will limit any interactions between both parties, while ensuring safer delivery.

Increase partner network

Due to the pandemic, retail sales have gone down to 30% in the U.S., and many offline grocery stores do not have enough resources to take their business online. Thus, to support local grocery businesses, you can join hands with them, which is a win-win situation for both your grocery ordering app and the local grocery stores.

Provide high-quality services

Apart from protecting shoppers and buyers, you should also consider providing excellent delivery services. Such services might include late delivery, working 24/7, a wide range of delivery windows, and fresh groceries in every order. High-quality delivery services will matter, especially after safety will no longer be an issue. Thus, try to do your best to balance the demand and satisfy every customer. In this way, loyal customers will choose to shop at your grocery store delivery app even after COVID-related restrictions have ceased. 

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Success Story: The APP Solutions

Alfred Ibiza Case Study: How We Developed a Food Ordering Platform

Our main goal for the Alfred Ibiza project was to build a platform that would simplify ordering and delivering products on Ibiza island and help party goers to receive their orders on time. We wanted the platform to be equally useful for business owners, couriers, and customers.

We managed to develop the Alfred Ibiza platform within just three months, at a total project cost of $70,000, 50-60% cheaper than the average development cost of a food delivery app.

The platform includes an app for customers, couriers, an admin panel for restaurants with only necessary functions. Besides this, we also developed a marketing landing page to promote the Alfred Ibiza platform.

Check out our portfolio for more.

I like cooking. I don’t cook often, but when I do, I want to make something special. And meal kit food delivery companies are the best choice for people like me. Meal kit services, especially subscription-based, are quite popular. 17% of adults between 25 and 44 currently receive meal kit delivery services in the U.S. 

If you want to see the bigger picture of the growing fresh-food meal kits in the United States, here are some figures. 

The global meal kit delivery services market size was valued at USD 15.21 billion in 2021 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4% from 2022 to 2030? according to Market Analysis Report. 

The online segment dominated the market for meal kit delivery services and accounted for the largest revenue share of 63.2% in 2021. The offline platform is expected to register a CAGR of 17.8% in the market for meal kit delivery services from 2022 to 2030.

But wait, why is it so popular?  

The answer is because people want to eat healthy homemade food but have no time to go to grocery stores or supermarkets. For such people, it is more convenient to pay a company that will deliver fresh ingredients and recipes.

Below, you will find a ready-to-market strategy for starting a meal kit business in your neighborhood. By following the steps described below, you can create your own meal-kit business, find unique sales propositions, and even develop a website or mobile app. 

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What is a meal kit subscription service?

The idea behind a meal kit delivery business is simple yet smart. Such companies deliver pre-packed, and sometimes partially-prepared food ingredients with a book of recipes right to your doorstep. Meal kits already include all the ingredients to cook a dish. You can use ingredients and recipe cards to cook a meal within 30-40 minutes. So, you no longer stress that you forgot to buy milk or sugar, preventing you from cooking. 

Meal kit delivery business: history and numbers

Now, let’s make a quick overview of the meal kit industry, key figures, and issues meal kit business owners face. 

• Origins

The concept of meal kit delivery appeared in Sweden in the late 2000-s. This business model became popular and quickly spread to other Northern European countries. In 2012, meal kit delivery companies from Europe, such as Blue Apron and HelloFresh, entered the U.S. market and became popular among Americans. 

• Perspectives

In 2017, there were over 150 meal businesses in the U.S., and the meal kit business industry was estimated to reach $2.2 billion globally. Experts predict that in 2020, the meal kit business will make up 1.3% of food and beverage sales. 

Such growth of meal kit popularity concerned supermarket owners, who started to lose customers and income. In response, supermarkets began to make their own meal kits and sell them at their physical stores. 

• Main problems

Despite a rapid increase in customers, most meal kit business owners faced a low customer retention rate.

• New customers tried free meal kits from companies and never used this service again. 
• Most customers used the meal kit service for just 5-8 weeks. 
• Around 6-12% of customers continued using their subscription after 3 months. 

Thus, you need to concentrate your marketing activities on retaining your customers. 

Now, let’s find out how the meal kit delivery business makes money. 

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How meal kit delivery business model works

Most meal kit delivery businesses operate on a subscription basis. This means you pay a weekly, monthly, or annual service fee, and then, receive pre-packed meal kits and recipe cards. For example, let’s look at the HelloFresh business model. 

This most popular meal kit delivery service charges $7.49 in shipping fees. Five recipes per week for two persons will cost you $89.90. 

To attract new customers, the service offers discounts. So, if you visit the HelloFresh website for the first time, you will receive -$22.01 discount, and five recipes per week for two persons will cost you $67.89, while you save -$22.01 on deliveries. 

HelloFresh offers four types of weekly menu:

• Meal and Veggies
• Veggies
• Family and friends
• Low calories menus

The company changes the menu for each meal category every week in order to increase the customer retention rate. As a customer, you will receive new meals each week, thus never get bored eating the same food. 

If you want to skip one week, you can unsubscribe weekly delivery without paying any penalties. 

Now, let’s see what you need to do to start your meal-kit business. 

HOW TO BUILD A FOOD DELIVERY APP LIKE UBEREATS

The APP Solutions Experience: Success Story

Alfred Ibiza is an on-demand delivery mobile app that connects restaurants, stores, couriers, and customers in Ibiza. The app allows customers to order from restaurants, pharmacies, and supermarkets, listed on the platform.

Our main goal for the Alfred Ibiza project was to build a platform that would simplify ordering and delivering products on Ibiza island and help party goers to receive their orders on time. We wanted the platform to be equally useful for business owners, couriers, and customers.

We managed to develop the Alfred Ibiza platform within just three months, at a total project cost of $70,000, 50-60% cheaper than the average development cost of a food delivery app.

The platform includes an app for customers, couriers, an admin panel for restaurants with only necessary functions. Besides this, we also developed a marketing landing page to promote the Alfred Ibiza platform.

You can find more fascinating stories in our portfolio.

WHAT TECH STACK TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR PROJECT

Launching meal kit delivery in 5 steps 

You can launch an ingredient and recipe meal kit service even without significant investment. However, starting a meal kit delivery startup still requires some operations as listed below. 

Step 1. Get Legal Licenses

The first thing to do when launching a meal kit delivery service is to get all the licenses and prepare other legal documents from your government. 

Below, we list essential legal documents for U.S. citizens. 

• Business License

To open and operate your business in the United States, you need a business license that legitimizes your company as a legal entity. Each state has its regulations for issuing business licensing and related fees that could be a flat rate or a percentage of your total sales. 

To get a business license, search for your state + business license on Google search. Then, follow the application procedure on your state government’s site. 

You’ll need to pay approximately $50 for the registration and $25 to $7,000 for the license. The total cost will depend on your business type and expected profit. 

Don’t forget to renew your license each year and pay for it on time. 

• Employer Identification Number (EIN)

EIN, a tax ID number, is the document you need to get from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You can apply for an EIN through the IRS website. You can also apply by fax, phone, and even mail.  But don’t expect immediate results. The IRS only issues one EIN per day. The good thing about EIN is that it is free. 

• Food Service License

You can receive a food service license from the city or county health department. The health department will inspect the place where you are going to make meal kits to check out whether your business complies with all restaurant food safety regulations or not.

To receive this license, you need to apply to your local health department via the internet or in-person. During the application process, you need to give the name of your food service, an address for a permanent kitchen facility, and the owner’s personal information. 

A food service license cost varies from $100 to $1000 depending on your location and number of employees. 

Now, it is time to analyze your competitors. 

Step 2. Analyze competitors

By knowing your competitors, you can make a bullet-proof business plan. 

Let’s analyze the biggest food kit services in the U.S., such as HelloFresh and Blue Apron, with half of the whole U.S. meal kit market share. 

HelloFresh 

HelloFresh was launched in 2011 in Berlin. Now the company has 850,000 customers and operates in nine countries across three continents. Its 2,000 employees work to deliver 9 million meals a month. 

The reason for such success lies in HelloFresh’s business model. The company delivers groceries right from farmers, cutting out all the middlemen, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. 

In such a way, using HelloFresh meal kit delivery is 75% cheaper than shopping for ingredients at grocery stores.

In 2017, HelloFresh, together with other meal kit services, was criticized for using wasteful packaging and viewed as environmentally unfriendly. 

Since 2018, the company has tried to reduce food waste by keeping and preparing ingredients in the appropriate proportions. 

Blue Apron Inc. 

Blue Apron has operated in the United States since 2012. The most successful year of Blue Apron was in 2017 when the company received $881,19 million. But, with time, the company’s income has decreased. 

In 2019, the company generated $455 million global net revenue, down from $668 million in 2018. Currently, the company receives 2,482 orders per month, with a $258 average revenue per customer. 

In 2017, the company also received extensive criticism for wasteful packaging. In response, the company has tried to limit environmental impact by using recyclable ice packs and packaging. Besides this, BlueApron has a portion control that calculates the portion of ingredients to reduce food waste. 

Step 3. Build your brand

Since you are serious about opening a recipe kit delivery service, you need a unique sales proposition (UCP). In plain words, you need the answer to the question, how you differentiate from other meal kit companies.

Below we gathered several ideas on how you can differentiate from your competitors. 

• Eco-friendly meals 

Since your competitors were criticized for being not eco-friendly, you can turn this into your advantage. Moreover, the continually growing number of eco-friendly and environmentally aware people only proves that this is a win-win idea. 

You can implement this UCP by selling veggies from local eco-farms, packaging meal kits in eco-packages from recycled cardboard, and delivering your meal kits in an eco-friendly way – exclusively on bicycles. 

• Recipes for any occasion 

Your menu can include meal kits for special occasions, such as birthday parties or outdoor activities with friends. 

In a B’ day meal kit, you can include only recipes that take about one hour to cook. This is a great idea because most of us believe that you need to spend at least 3 hours to cook something for your guests. 

As for outdoor menus, you can deliver meal kits to individual’s homes and nearby locations where people make barbecues. Thus, your meal kits can include mushrooms, sausages, corn, cabbages and steaks for the best outdoor party. 

• Special diet meal kits 

You can turn preferences in food and cultural differences into your unique sales proposition. For example, your menu could include gluten-free ingredients. Another option is to sell kosher, vegetarian, or halal meal kits to locals. 

FUNCTIONAL VS NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS: MAIN DIFFERENCES & EXAMPLES

Step 4. Gather meal kit recipes and find suppliers

Once you know the core mission of your meal kit business, it is time to gather recipes that will reflect it. 

You can rate recipes with stars by the level of their complexity. For example, meals that are easy to cook will have one star, and the most complex – five stars. Don’t forget that you need to gather as many recipes as possible, so you can change the weekly menu and always surprise your customers. 

During this step, you also need to think about where you will get ingredients. Thus, you need to find grocery and meat suppliers among local farmers and vegetable warehouses.

Step 5. Develop a meal kit app or a website

For selling and delivering meal kits, you will need a mobile app or website that will charge your customers’ subscription fees and send you their details. We already have an article on how to hire the development team, so check it out. 

Once you select the development team, ask them for a quote. If you will develop your project with us, the software development process will look like this:

Pre-sale

You fill in the contact form, and our business development managers get in touch with you to clarify your requirements for the project and send NDA (a non-disclosure agreement). Next, a business analyst analyzes your requirements, breaks your project down into modules and features, and sends it to a developer for an approximate estimation of your project. 

After you agree on this estimate, we will start the Discovery phase. 

Discovery phase

We need around 1-3 weeks to create a technical specification for your project. We also suggest the app’s or website’s architecture, mockups, and even clickable prototypes of the main project screens during the Inspection phase. 

Project initiation

Once you have a project specification at hand, we will develop more detailed project development costs. After we agree on the project costs and essential features to implement first, we will send you an agreement to sign. Then, we will arrange a small video call to introduce you to our team. The typical team composition includes developers, project managers, quality assurance specialists, and designers. 

Project development 

Next, the team will break-down all project features into iterations to schedule the project development process. One iteration length is 1-2 weeks. 

Once the new functionality is implemented, QA specialists test it, find bugs, report to the project managers so that the developer can fix the bug. 

Then, the developer deploys the code to the project’s prominence, with the rest of the projects developed parts. 

During the project development process, we send you reports every two weeks. In such reports, we explain how much work was done, and what features the team is going to implement next. 

After the team implements all features, we will run the final demonstration session for you, and give all accesses to your project so that you can manage it without external help. 

HOW TO MAKE AN APP: LIFE CYCLE OF MOBILE DEVELOPMENT

Launching an online meal kit delivery business: the final word 

The meal kit delivery services industry is a very prospective niche for investment since it is expected to grow in the next few years. At the same time, to start a food and recipe delivery business, you do not need significant investment. 

There are only two main objects of expenditure – receiving necessary licenses and web or mobile app development. At the same time, you can create unique sales propositions, write a business plan, gather recipes, and find suppliers without hiring extra specialists. 

What our clients say 

We no longer associate the word “marketplace” with grocery shopping early Sunday morning. Now, thanks to Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, marketplaces are strongly associated with digital shopping websites, where you can buy any product you can imagine. But why are such trading websites so popular?  

Two-sided platforms offer small businesses an effective selling channel. In such a way, marketplaces eliminate the need to spend money and time maintaining their own online shopping store. 

For such a service, site owners change commissions and earn money without actually selling anything. 

If you can’t wait to launch your own marketplace business, you are in the right place. This article is about developing a marketplace start-up in six steps and turning it into a profitable business. 

But first, let’s define the ultimate meaning of a digital trading platform. 

What is the digital marketplace?

A marketplace is a platform that gathers retailers who offer their products and numerous buyers who buy from them. In a nutshell, the website performs as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. Such a website could be in the form of a website or mobile app, targeted to different users. 

Types of marketplaces

You need to select the type of marketplace and define end-users. There are B2C (business to clients), B2B (business to business), and P2P (peer to peer) marketplaces. 

Let’s look at each marketplace type in more detail.  

• Business to clients

B2C marketplaces serve small businesses and individuals. While some marketplaces, like Amazon, offer products, others, such as TaskRabbit, offer services.

• Business to business

There are also B2B marketplaces, which means sellers and buyers sell and buy wholesale products. The list of B2B marketplaces includes websites like RapNet that sell diamonds and Alibaba B2B.  

• Peer to peer

Don’t forget about P2P marketplaces, where both buyers and sellers are individuals. One example is Airbnb that offers apartments and houses for rent. 

However, the market of trading platforms is even more granular, and each project varies with the products and services it includes. 

There is a marketplace for selling used products such as Decluttr and Ubup. 

There are also job marketplaces, like UpWork and Fever, where you can find freelancers for various tasks. 

Let’s concentrate on developing true online marketplaces where vendors can sell physical products to consumers.

But how does such a marketplace differ from a regular e-commerce website? 

Online marketplace vs. online store

You need to be aware of six differences between the marketplace and an e-commerce website:  

• The number of sellers. As an online store owner, you perform as a single seller at your e-commerce website. As a marketplace business owner, you do not need to sell anything to receive profit, since many sellers offer their goods, through whom you can earn money. 
• Product variety. Typical online stores offer up to 10 product categories, but marketplaces include products from different industries. For example, Amazon, the biggest online marketplace, counts 36 categories and over 12 million products, including books, media, wine, etc. 
• Features. The online store consists of two parts – an admin panel to manage users and products, and a customer profile to add products to a shopping cart and complete the checkout. The two-sided platform includes features for three types of users. They are an admin panel to manage users; a seller profile to list products, manage orders, receive payments; and a buyer profile, which has the same functionality as one in an online store. 
• Traffic load. Even popular online stores hardly count over 10,000 users per month. Online marketplaces should be powerful enough to handle substantial traffic loads. For example, Amazon counts 5.7 billion shoppers each month. 
• Tech stack. To build an e-commerce website, you can leverage e-commerce platforms. But to build a vast marketplace, those platform capacities wouldn’t be enough. Thus, consider using such popular marketplace builders as Zielcommerce, 3Dcart, Arcadier, or Yo!Kart. If their features are still not enough for you, you can hire developers to build a project from the ground up. 
• Monetization. When you are managing an online store, direct purchases are your primary source of income. However, owning a marketplace opens new streams of earning money, including service commissions, promotions, etc. We will look at them later. 

In a nutshell, an online marketplace is like an e-commerce website on steroids. Such platforms include more products provided by multiple sellers and substantial monthly traffic loads. 

Now, let’s see how to develop a marketplace start-up from scratch or using existing platforms? 

Building an online marketplace website: SaaS vs. from scratch 

When building a marketplace you can leverage an existing e-commerce platform with pre-build features. Such platforms are known as SaaS solutions, which means the software as a service. You also can hire a development team to build an online marketplace from scratch. 

In both cases, you end up with your own two-sided platform. But, there are essential differences between these approaches to pay attention to. Before deciding in favor of a platform-built or custom-built marketplace, consider the following: 

• Customization

By customization, we mean adding features and changing the design to meet your business needs. In the case where you need a UI/UX design tailored to your brand and a bunch of sophisticated features, consider building a project from scratch. If, however, you want to create a simple project with essential features and template design, you can use a pre-coded platform. 

• Traffic load

A high traffic load negatively impacts marketplaces that are not ready for it. Thus, they can crash and cause inconvenience to users. If you expect your platform to handle around 10 000 users per month, a platform-built site will perfectly meet your needs. 

However, if you are going to develop a marketplace like Amazon with a high traffic load, you need custom marketplace development. In this way, developers will create the infrastructure on cloud servers that automatically expand operating capacities. So, the project architecture can work without downtimes, even with 1,000,000 website visitors per second. 

• Timeframes 

In case you expect to launch your platform in 1 or 2 months, rely on existing marketplace builders. Thus, you need to make very few changes to the SaaS marketplace to launch it within a short period. 

When timeframes are not your main priority, build such a project from scratch. 

• Addons 

Take at least some time to research the additional features you can add after launching your trading platform, since, as your business grows, you will need something more than just a shopping cart and checkout for buyers, and a product catalog for sellers. 

Investigate whether your platform’s store has add-ons for email marketing and advanced product recommendation tools, as you will need them sooner as you think. 

In the case of needing more add-ons,  developing a custom online marketplace will work the best. 

Once you find room for new features, your development team can code and add it to your custom project within several weeks. Thus, you receive total control over marketplace website functionality. 

• Tech complexity

If you have at least a basic knowledge of coding, know how to buy a domain name, and set up a server, choose SaaS. 

If you have to google what  “server” means, then hiring web developers is your option of choice. Even if you are not going to create a unique marketplace and the primary SaaS platform meets your needs, we suggest you team up with a development team to set up your marketplace. 

Now let’s see what it takes to launch such a project. 

How to start an online marketplace in 6 steps  

Creating a marketplace includes numerous activities. You need to define your business model, make a feature list, and hire developers. Let’s find out what it takes to develop such a project. 

Step 1. Choose your revenue models 

The first thing you need to do is decide on how the website will bring you money. You need to select your monetization plan among the following options: 

Commission model. You charge a commission on any purchase made via your website, added to the product cost. Thus, when a buyer purchases a product, one also pays your commission during the checkout. Marketplaces that successfully use commission models are AirBnB, eBay, and Amazon. 

Listing model. You offer retailers to place a limited amount of products for free. If they want to extend their product catalog with more goods, they must pay you for such an option. For example, eBay allows vendors to place 50 products for free each month. In order to add more products, the platform charges retailers 5 and 30 cents depending on the product category. 

Paid promotions. Vendors pay you a promotion fee so their products appear first in the search results. Promotion fees work great for marketplaces with numerous products within the same category and are currently applied by Etsy, a platform with DIY products.  

If you don’t know which strategy will work for your marketplace, ask your development team for additional business analysis. 

Step 2. Gather core features 

Below we have listed must-have features for all types of users – buyers, sellers, and administrators. 

Features for a customer app 

The customer application should include all the functionality to find products, add them to the shopping cart, and checkout. Thus, the main features of a customer’s app are: 

• Buyer profile with personal information, shipping address, and bank details
• Search bar to find products 
• Shopping cart to gather products one wants to buy 
• The payment gateway for buying products during the checkout 
• Review and rating to share one’s experience with a particular vendor or  product 
• Push notifications to track the order and delivery status 

Features for a seller app 

To list and sell products, the seller app requires the following functionality: 

• Seller profile with detailed information about the seller, one’s location, and bank account details
• Product catalog to add, edit, and delete products
• Product page to upload product images, set the price, and add product description 
• Order page to manage upcoming orders 

Features for an admin panel 

The admin panel is aimed at managing communication between both sellers and buyers. Thus, your admin panel should include the following functionality 

• Dashboard with information about new and completed orders 
• User management to add, edit, and delete users 
• Product management for changing the information on the product page 
• User analytics to show the number of buyers and sellers, buyer purchase patterns, etc. 

Now that you have a business plan and feature list at hand, it is time to hire your development team.  

Step 3. Hire a development team 

We advise partnering with a development team for both custom marketplace development and setting up a SaaS website. If you are looking for tips on finding a reliable tech partner, check out the article about hiring web developers with handy tips. 

Once you select developers with relevant cases in their portfolio, you need to contact them and explain what type of project you want to receive. You can also send your idea about monetization models and features you want for your project. 

At the APP Solutions, we can estimate your project based on your feature list and monetization models. 

Our customers receive a more detailed project estimation at the end of the Discovery phase. It is a 2-3 week period during which we conduct an in-depth technical and business analysis of your project, create project documentation, suggest architecture components and technologies that apply. 

After we send you the final project estimate, we arrange a kickoff meeting with you and our development team members. During the meeting, we will define the high-level project goals and agree on the communication plan. 

We schedule demonstration sessions to show you our progress in the communication plan. Next, we start creating designs for your website or searching for the most suitable design template. 

Step 4. Create UI/UX design 

The design defines how your marketplace is convenient for users. Besides this, the design should also reflect your unique brand and be recognizable. Thus, even template designs from SaaS platforms require personalization, such as changes in color scheme, adding your logo, and others. 

If you decide to develop a project from the ground up, designers create the look of your website that meets your business needs within the following steps:

• Wireframes. We create the layout of all elements, define how product categories will look, and design elements for the home page. 
• Clickable prototype. We gather all the elements and emulate the customer journey and several project scenarios in a clickable prototype. To create such prototypes we leverage Figma, a professional online tool for mobile and web designers. 

[The APP Solutions clickable prototype]

• Polishing the result. Apart from critical scenarios, we also create other screens for your platform, such as the vendor cabinet, checkout, admin panel, and its features. 

Once the design is ready, we start the coding process. 

Step 5. Coding the MVP 

The MVP means the minimum viable product, the first project version. It includes core features enough for sellers and buyers to use the platform and rate it. 

We define the functionality for the project’s MVP during the discovery place. In such a way we reduce the time for the development and the project costs. 

Thus, you can receive a ready-made website within 2-3 months, whereas the development of such a project with bells and whistles requiring 6-8 months can cost you a fortune. 

• Our solution architect defines the core project elements and considers technologies for the project infrastructure. 
• Developers set up the architecture on the cloud or on-premise servers. 
• Developers begin to add features from the technical documentation. 
• Once the new functionality is built, quality assurance managers test the code and fix errors. 

• Developers deploy the tested functionality to the life environment for the rest of the project.
• Developers integrate third-party services via API, such as payment gateways and shipping tracking tools. 

After we ensure the project works without bugs, we run a demo session with you. We show you how the seller,  buyer, and admin panels work during such a demo. If needed, we can also create instructions on how to manage your project.  

Step 6. Launch the marketplace 

We make your two-sided platform available for users and give you total access to the project’s code, infrastructure, and third-party services. 

We also provide technical support during the first month after the project launch to fix any errors. If you want us to monitor the site performance for a longer time, we can sign a support agreement for two or six months and even a year. 

Now you have a marketplace with all the necessary features and a development team to maintain it. So, the last thing remaining is to attract buyers and sellers. 

As you can see,  marketplace development requires both time and resources. But only partnering with a reliable development team ensures a decent result. Thus, finding good web developers with relevant tech expertise is the only way to successfully launch a project. We can provide you with full-cycle web development services – from project documentation to technical support after the marketplace launch. Our team is here to discuss your business idea and suggest top-notch solutions to bring it to life. 

What our clients say 

Related readings: 

Calmerry Telemedicine Platform Case Study 

Nioxin Consultation App for Coty-owned Brand Case Study 

When you want to buy or rent a house, would you choose to hire a real estate agent or browse a real estate website? Most of us prefer to search for a property via real estate websites to save time and get access to a vast amount of options. During your search, you may visit Zillow, the leading real estate and rental site in the U.S. This website gathers real estate agents, buyers, and sellers, helping them buy and sell real estate property. 

How did Zillow manage to become so popular? What steps should you take to develop a real estate website like Zillow? How much will a real estate two-sided marketplace cost? 

In this article, we will answer all these questions and give handy tips on how to build a real estate website without spending a fortune. 

The story behind Zillow’s success 

The Zillow story began in 2004 when two former top Microsoft managers, Lloyd Frink and Rich Barton, joined forces to launch a website that could estimate a home’s value and rental rates for homes. The following year they launched a website with real estate data from 300 cities. In the first three days, a million users visited the site to “Zestimate” the value of their homes. 

Since its launch, Zillow has become something more than a property listing website since its monetization strategy includes running ads and promoting brokers and agents. As Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Zillow Group says, “We are a media company. We sell advertising. Having a large audience is critical.” 

How does Zillow make money?

To earn money, Zillow provides users with the following promotion services:

Premier Services for real estate agents who pay the website for running ads and receiving leads. Agents are charged:

• Cost per ad impression, i.e., the cost per 1000 ads views
• Cost per lead varies from $20-60.

Selling Promotions aimed at real estate companies. The website charges property management companies cost per lead, cost per click, and cost per lease for running ads within the Zillow Rental Network, which includes AOL Real Estate, Trulia, MyNewPlace, Yahoo! Inc., Hotpads, and MSN Real Estate websites. 

The advertisement sales model includes selling advertising space to lenders, mortgage professionals, and other businesses. The platform charges a cost per lead fee. 

Subscription model for mortgage services, which means the website connects custom quote services and lead management platform. 

In a nutshell, Zillow has become the ultimate real estate platform across the U.S. that connects home builders, rental professionals, buyers, investors, and agents. The website includes unique features and tools that help buyers to find the perfect home,  real estate agents to promote their business. 

Now, let’s dive into the real estate website development process. 

How to make a real estate website like Zillow: essential features 

As we can see, Zillow is the industry leader that others are trying to keep up to. However, it is almost impossible to duplicate  Zillow’s feature list without going bankrupt. According to an Aberdeen report, in 2018 alone, Zillow spent $20.8 million on technology. In view of this, we offer you to take you on your own path in the development of your real estate website. Below, we have gathered essential features for a real estate listing website MVP that will save time and stay within budget. 

Property listings and databases

Databases with properties are an essential feature for a real estate marketplace. If your real estate agency already has its database of properties located in your city, region, or country, the web development team will integrate it into the website’s back-end. But, if you have no databases, what should you do? Let’s find out.  

If you want to develop a real estate marketplace in the U.S., you can follow the Zillow example and integrate databases from:

• National Association of Realtors (NAR)
• Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

These sources of real estate databases list properties across the U.S., however, this is the most complicated option. You will receive access to MLS and NAR only if you get a real estate license in each U.S. state, which requires both time and money. Are there other ways to integrate property databases to a Zillow type website? Let’s see. 

• Zillow API

You can integrate Zillow API to your website and get access to homes posted for sale. According to Zillow data and API Terms of use, the company allows integrating its API to websites, but not to mobile apps. 

• Post by owners

Since you are going to develop a two-sided marketplace, you can allow landlords to place the information about their real estate for sale. 

• Listing syndication platforms

You can enter the data-sharing agreement with one of the national real estate companies and list their property directly to your marketplace. To achieve that, you may choose among the following real estate platforms: 

• 365 Connect, a technology provider for the housing sector
• RealBird social media and mobile listing marketing platform
• JBGoodwin Realtors a marketplace with broker listed property

[Zillow property listing]

CASE STUDY: PERSONALIZED TRAVEL RECOMMENDATION CHATBOT

Filtering Algorithms

To allow users to find the property they are looking for more conveniently, you need to integrate a filtering algorithm to your marketplace. We suggest you consider the following search parameters:

• Location 
• Price

[Zillow “Price” filter]

• Type 

[Zillow “Home type” filter]

• Area
• Number of bedrooms 

[Zillow “number of beds” filter]

• Floor, etc.

[Other Zillow filters]

CASE STUDY: SEMANTIC SEARCH FOR IMPROVING CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Mapping and geolocation 

Your marketplace users will want to learn about the area they are moving to beforehand. To achieve this, you can integrate Zillow API that contains neighborhood boundaries, and a bunch of other APIs with the neighborhood and geographical information, including:    

• GeoNames, a dataset that includes over 10 million geographical names
• Google Places API that provides info about local businesses, such as restaurants, sports clubs, and supermarkets
• MapBox to build your custom map with property listing, market data, videos, and photos. This tool also allows users to draw a polygon on the map for better search results. 

View property

A detailed representation of property is one of the essential functions for real estate websites like Zillow. To show website users the excellent visualization of real estate objects, you can use: 

• Photos

[Source: Zillow]

• Videos 

[Source: Zillow]

• 3-D models 
• 360° panoramic images

[Source: Zillow]

Cloud infrastructure 

Since your real estate marketplace will include a considerable amount of high-quality photos, videos, and even 360° panoramic images, to keep all this data you need powerful hosting. Otherwise, you will face issues with image system scalability, performance, and disaster recovery challenges. 

In this case, the best option is to follow Zillow’s example and integrate a cloud-based infrastructure from the very beginning. As for Zillow, the company uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to store over 100TB of data, over 1 billion objects, and 300 million images. “Maintaining an object count in the billions doesn’t work so well on a traditional file system. We would have to split those objects across many file systems, which would be a management nightmare. The scalability of Amazon S3 seemed like the right technology for us,” says Nick Michal, Unix systems engineering manager for Zillow Group.

Since you are now aware of the essential features of a real estate website, let’s find out how much it will cost. 

CASE STUDY: DOOGOOD – AN APP FOR DOING GOOD

How much does a real estate website like Zillow cost

The development of a real estate website is a complex project, not only because of API’s integrations, but also because it includes different user roles, such as buyers, sellers, and admin. Therefore, the development team should build your real estate website for three types of users. To save you time and money, we recommend launching such projects as MVP, a website with only the main features. In this way, you can discover whether or not your business idea has to earn potential. Below, we have gathered the main features for building a real estate website MVP. 

FeatureScreen	Functions required	FrontEnd	BackEnd
Architecture/DB		16 hours	40 hours
Design		450 hours
Deployment			40 hours
User interface
Home page	– Search by the address	24 hours	24 hours
Menu bar	– Menu options	8 hours
Registration	– Account creation – Registration	16 hours	16 hours
Login	– Login by Facebook, Google – Restore password	8 hours	20 hours
Search Results	– List of properties with images	24 hours	8 hours
Search filter	– Search filters (rent, sale, budget, home type)	16 hours	16 hours
Map for search results	– Google Map API integration – Define the user’s location	16 hours	8 hours
Listing information about house/property	– Fill the information about the property – Insert images	16 hours	16 hours
Applications for listed property	– Application details for listed properties	16 hours
Property page	– Information (static) – Features (static)	24 hours	8 hours
Maps directions	– Direction to the property (only for authorized users)
Static pages( About us, help)	– Static text (not editable)	32 hours
System rules, authority rules	– Authorized users and non-authorized users have different level of rights (directions to property)
User account/profile	– Edit profile, account – User settings – Applications	16 hours	40 hours
Real Estate Agent interface
Log In	– Login, logout, password recovery – Account creation	8 hours	20 hours
Home page	– List of requests from users	24 hours	4 hours
Requests	– Requests details – Requests from consumers	24 hours	20 hours
User account/profile	– Edit profile, account, settings	16 hours	8 hours
Contact Us	– Static text (not editable)	32 hours
Admin Panel
Admin Login	– Login		4 hours
List of users	– Manage the list of users – Manage user information		16 hours
Property List	– Review the list of properties		4 hours
Property page	– Review information about properties		20 hours
Total		Front-end from 786+ hours	Back-end from 332+ hours

How to build the real estate marketplace with The App Solutions? 

Before we start making a real estate website MVP, we will launch the discovery (inception) phase, to explore and elaborate on the project idea. Moreover, we will also define the scope of the project and the possible solutions to be implemented. The main goal of the inspection phase is to identify the project’s scope and the requirements and create an Inception Technical Documentation, which may cost from $4000. 

Next, using technical documentation, the team will compose a list of requirements of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) features in the form of User Stories. The business analyst will clarify User Stories by splitting them into Use Cases Investigation and analysis of third-party system integrations. Then, we will start planning and projecting the future project MVP server architecture. When all these documents are ready, our team will launch the MVP development stage. 

The cost to create a real estate website MVP starts from $45,000, while the cost to build a real estate website with an integrated calendar, payment gateway, and other bells and whistles will cost from $100,000 to $200,000. 

However, the costs to develop a real estate app like Zillow are only approximate, because the final estimation of the real estate website will depend on website requirements and the number of features. 

To find out more about real estate website development costs, you are always welcome to contact us for a free quote. 

Related articles: 

CHATBOTS FOR REAL ESTATE: HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

HOW TO DEVELOP AN APP LIKE NETFLIX

HOW TO BUILD A FOOD DELIVERY APP LIKE UBEREATS

We live in a fast-changing world that brought a considerable amount of stress humans didn’t face before. Thus, to reduce daily stresses and improve our mental health, we should apply modern technologies, including meditation mobile apps.

At the same time, the example of the Headspace app, with more than $100 million annual revenue, shows that the niche of so-called “self-care” apps is quite profitable. Moreover, a Statista report showed the meditation market in the U.S. was estimated to be worth around 1.21 billion, and now is predicted to be worth 2 billion by the year 2022.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reported that 18 million U.S. adults (8%) use meditation to improve their mental health, since it  is a working method to improve  attention, mental health and increase creativity and other benefits:  

To give you an idea of how to create your own meditation app, we have gathered tips on how to develop a profitable and scalable app, its essential features, and app MVP estimation. 

WHY CREATE A CUSTOM MENTAL HEALTH APP

Steps to develop a Headspace app clone

To succeed in meditation app development, you need to go through the stages described below. 

Step 1. Decide on your business idea 

Before hiring the app development team, you need to clarify the concept of your app, i.e., decide on the app type. Currently, there are the following types of relaxation meditation apps presented on the market: 

Guided meditation apps. Such applications include a playlist of pre-recorded guided meditation tracks, divided by topics like anxiety or stress-reduction, SOS meditations, and so on. 

One example of such an app is Headspace. The app welcomes new users with short animations of meditation techniques explained and provides a library that includes numerous meditation courses, as well as short meditation lessons.

[Source: Techsoup Canada]

Mindfulness morning meditation apps. As a rule, such apps include a list of relaxation sounds or even mantras to meditate on. Another app feature is a timer to track the meditation sessions’ length and information on breathing exercises. 

The most popular mindfulness meditation app is Calm. Apart from the features, we have described above, Calm users receive access to sleep stories, customizable sound settings, mindfulness reminders, session history, and Calm online communities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

[Source: App Store]

Meditator network apps. As for average social networks, such apps for meditators are aimed at creating communities of locals where users can share their experiences with others. Such apps have groups on different topics, an FAQ section for beginners, and even geolocation features to find other meditators nearby. 

Insight Timer is a network app for meditators that includes all the features described above. Insight Timer has a library of podcasts with mindfulness experts on neuroscience, psychology, and teachers from the University of Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford.

[Source: Insighttimer.com]

HEALTHCARE APPS DEVELOPMENT: TYPES, EXAMPLES, AND FEATURES

Step 2. Select the right approach to UI/UX

If you consider developing a meditation app aimed at helping people with anxiety, stress, and depression, you need to be selective when it comes to the app’s design. After analyzing meditation apps like Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer, we gathered the following design tips: 

• Avoid bright colors. Instead, use a more natural palette of pastel shades.  
• Do not use too many design elements at once. Overloaded patterns distract app users from their initial goal – to get rid of stress. 
• Use animations instead of text. Animations work best for welcome screens, meditation technique explanations, and updates on the user’s progress stats. 

Step 3. Choose the mobile app platform

If your budget allows, you can pay for the development of apps for both Android and iOS. But if your budget is limited, you need to select the platform carefully. Android and iOS users have different demographic profiles. Thus, you need to choose the app platform depending on the information about your target customers, their preferences, location, level of income, education, and so on. To find out more, read our article IOS vs. Android app development. 

The alternative approach is to develop a cross-platform app using React Native, Flutter, or Xamarin programming languages. The drawback of such an approach is that the app should not support native OS features, as authorization via Apple ID. 

HOW TO MAKE A MEDICAL APP IN 2022: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

Step 4. Consider Gamification for user engagement

To gain the first thousand app users is not a big deal; you can do this using marketing campaigns and an active social media presence. The plan is to encourage people who downloaded your app to use it daily. Otherwise, users will delete your app, and your monetization strategy will fail. 

To avoid this situation, think about how you can use gamification in your app beforehand. For instance, you can integrate gamification elements, such as points, to motivate app users to listen to meditation sessions each day and make progress. After each meditation session, users receive points and collect them to unlock the next level of the meditation program. 

[Headspace gamification example]

Step 5. Use the MVP model

If you want to validate your business idea on a meditation app without spending a fortune, consider creating an app MVP, an app version with minimal functionality. In this way, you will not only save money but also analyze user behavior to add the most demanding features during the second development stage.

In building a meditation app MVP, we strongly advise avoiding sophisticated features, such as in-app payments, chats, and video streams. Instead, your meditation app MVP might include: 

• Registration and sign in
• User profile with progress stats
• An introductory course in the form of a short video or animation 
• Limited library with pre-recorded meditation sessions   
• Gamification for entering a new meditation level

Now it is time to find out how much a meditation app will cost. 

HOW MENTAL HEALTH CHATBOTS HANDLE STRESS?

How much does an app like Calm cost?

Unfortunately, there is no single answer to this question since the app costs consist of the number of features and OS platforms, the development team composition, and the hourly development rate. However, we can estimate how much time our development team needs to make a meditation app MVP. 

To make this info easier to perceive, we have split the estimation in hours into crucial app blocks:

Feature/Screen	Design	FrontEnd	BackEnd	Android/iOS
Create/edit/delete categories of meditations			6
Gamification	12	6	32	6
Home screen	8	16		12
User registration, login, pass recovery, log out	16	40	32	40
User profile( edit )	6	16	16	16
Public user profile page	8	16	4	16
Library			8	16
Library Management				32
Animation				40

To receive a more precise estimation, use our project cost calculator. 

Also, take into account the following essential components of the app development process:

• QA from 50 hours
• BugFix from 20 hours
• Project Management from 40 hours
• Project Documentation from 30 hours

To sum up, the meditation app development cost starts from $30K per platform. 

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP AN APP: DETAILED FEATURE BREAKDOWN

Development of meditation mobile app: things to consider

Before hiring an app development team to create apps like Headspace, you need to consider vital elements for further app monetization, scaling, and adding advanced features. So, what are these elements to consider before building apps like Calm?  

Architecture 

While your app MVP will include only a limited amount of pre-recorded meditation tracks, their number will increase in the future. To avoid issues related to mobile app scaling, we recommend developing mobile backend services using cloud solutions, such as Google Cloud. In this way, you receive a scaling architecture for sharing and processing data from multiple users and storing large files. Moreover, such an approach has the following benefits:

• Reduce on-device data storage
• Synchronize data across multiple devices
• Send notifications and messages
• Minimize battery drain

Live Streaming

The number of meditation mobile apps increases each year. To stand out from the crowd you should give your users additional value. Thus, consider a live video streaming feature as a unique selling proposition (USP) of your meditation app. 

Luckily, you can empower your app with broadcast-quality live linear stream across iOS and Android devices using:

• Google Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, and Cloud CDN for infrastructures 
• Anvato SDK for high-performing live streaming 

In this way, you can integrate a live streaming feature in the existing mobile app back-end on the Google Cloud platform without extra costs. 

As a Google Cloud Partner, we are ready to help you with mobile app backend services and live streaming solutions provided by Google Cloud, so do not hesitate to contact us. 

WHAT TECH STACK TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR PROJECT

Monetization strategies

There are several business models used for mobile app monetization 

Subscription	Most apps of this type use this monetization model. When the user downloads the app, one receives from one to two weeks as a free trial. At the end of the trial period, the app user should buy a paid subscription to continue using the app or receive access to a more advanced app version.
In-App Purchases	With this model, your app users will pay you to unlock premium content, such as specific session packs or paid features like video streaming with a meditation mentor.
Pay Per Download	The paid app is the least popular monetization model for meditation mobile apps. Still, apps like Buddhify continue using it. The logic is simple – to download your app, users should buy it in the App Store or PlayMarket. Here you need to consider that both platforms charge transaction fees from 25 to 30% of the app’s cost.
Ads	You can charge other businesses cost-per-click or cost-per-mile for running ads on your platform. However, this monetization model works only for apps with a significant amount of active users.

Closing thoughts

Mobile apps may be used, not only for distracting you with endless push notifications but also as a guide to a more happy and mindful life. 

While the market of meditation apps is new, it has to encourage earning potential.

By using our tips on how to create a meditation app, you can create an outstanding mobile app that will meet user expectations.  

Imagine that you came home on Friday evening and are suffering from an awful stomach ache. What would you do? Put up with the pain for the rest of the weekend? This what may happen in a world without doctor-on-demand platforms. Thanks to telemedicine applications, you can schedule an appointment with a doctor, receive a consultation, get a receipt, and even pay for such a service. 

If you consider developing a doctor-on-demand mobile app, this article is right for you. Below, we highlight the main benefits of telemedicine apps, talk about the best telemedicine solutions, and list the main features of such an app. 

But first, let’s find out why there is a need for telehealth apps. 

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE ON MOBILE APP HIPAA COMPLIANCE

Why there is a need for doctor-on-demand app development

As we have said, telemedicine bridges the gap between patients and doctors. But why does such a gap exist? Let’s see. 

Need for telemedicine app from the patient’s perspective

A survey conducted in 15 major cities in the U.S. showed that new patients need to wait 24 days to get an appointment with a physician. For this reason, one of three patients said they have gone to the emergency department to avoid delays and the inconvenience of visiting their physicians. 

• 82% of patients agreed that developing technologies should make the process of receiving healthcare as accessible as hailing a taxi or ordering food 
• 77% of them want to contact their physician via text messages 
• 69% of patients prefer virtual appointments with their physicians using a mobile device over offline visits. 

WHY CREATE A CUSTOM MENTAL HEALTH APP

Need for telemedicine app from a medical professionals perspective 

At the same time, doctors are faced with the following challenges that telemedicine apps may solve: 

• The daily pressure of cutting costs
• Complying with regulations
• Maintaining a regular operation
• Time mismanagement off their schedule impacts their work-life balance

In a nutshell, telemedicine mobile apps are a win-win for both doctors and patients. That is why the market size of telemedicine apps is expected to reach 40 billion dollars by 2021, according to a report from Statista. 

Now let’s find out what benefits such digital health solutions bring. 

HOW TO MAKE EHR/EMR EPIC INTEGRATION WITH YOUR HEALTH APP

Benefits of developing a telemedicine app 

Like Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, and other on-demand service applications, telehealth apps allow providing better health service at lower costs, which result in the following benefits: 

Flexibility. Using doctor-on-demand-mobile apps, medical professionals receive more control over their working hours as well as the ability to respond to emergencies more effectively. 

Extra revenue. Such mobile doctor apps allow medical specialists to generate additional revenue for after-hour care, as well as the ability to see more patients, compared to office face-to-face appointments. 

Increased productivity. Doctor-on-demand mobile apps are more accessible for patients to get to, which minimizes wasted time due to traffic and other issues, thus improving the treatment outcome. 

Related readings:

Calmerry Online Therapy Platform

Healthcare App Development 

BuenoPR – 360° Approach to Health

Orb Health – Сare Management As A Virtual Service

How does a doctor on-demand mobile app work?

Each telemedicine app has its working logic. Still, the average flow of doctor-on-demand apps goes like this: 

• To receive a consultation from a doctor, a patient logs-in to the system creates an account, and describes their symptoms. 
• Next, depending on the user’s health condition, the app searches for the most suitable medical specialist nearby.
• After finding a doctor, a patient can schedule a video call via the app using a built-in calendar.
• During the video consultation, a doctor communicates with the patient, asks about health conditions, recommends treatment, assigns lab tests, and so on. 
• When the video consultation ends, the patient pays for healthcare service using a built-in payment gateway and receives receipts with prescribed meds and doctor’s recommendations. 

[How does telemedicine mobile app work]

HOW TO MAKE A MEDICAL APP: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

The most popular doctor-on-demand mobile apps

If you are considering developing a doctor-on-demand mobile app, you need to be aware of similar apps currently presented on the market and their features. To save you time and effort, we have gathered telemedicine applications below.  

ZocDoc telemedicine platform

ZocDoc, a mobile doctor app, is available in all the U.S. and serves 6 million patients every month. ZocDoc, includes appointment scheduling, reminders about upcoming appointments, search for a doctor using integrated Map, and others. 

DoctorOnDemand

Doctor OnDemand is a telemedicine application for health care that provides patients with video appointments, messaging, and even receiving prescriptions. The platform counts 1,400 state-licensed physicians across the U.S. The core features of this mobile app include online video appointments, search for a necessary specialist, appointment scheduling, patient data storage, a built-in payment gateway, and integrated maps with local pharmacies to buy prescription drugs.

WHAT IS AI IN HEALTHCARE?

HealthTap

HealthTap is both an app for iOS, Android as well as a website for virtual meetings with doctors. HealthTap users receive such features as online video consultation, secure in-app messages, payment gateway, and so on. 

Now that you are aware of the industry leaders and their features, it is time to select the essential functions for your doctor-on-demand mobile app. 

Healthcare Apps Development: Types, Examples, And Features

Essential Features of telemedicine mobile app

When developing a telemedicine app, consider these features for your app’s MVP:

Telemedicine app features for patients 

The patient side of the app should include the following features 

• User sign-in 

When a new user logs in to your app, one needs to create an account with information about chronic conditions, as well as provide information about age, sex, and insurance. 

• Search for a medical specialist 

When the patient wants to find a necessary specialist, one uses a search with geolocation to find the nearest doctor available to book an appointment. To make your app compliant with medical regulations, we suggest you integrate the Google Maps platform via a third-party API that determines the patient location and nearby pharmacies before a video consultation begins.    

• Video appointments 

Video calls are an essential feature of any mobile telemedicine app. Video calls connect patients and doctors and enable live communication. However, you need to consider using HIPAA compliant telemedicine solutions to keep your app safe from data breaches. Thus, to keep the app users’ information safe, we recommend using ready-made third-party API for video calls, such as Daily.co. 

• Payment gateway

After the consultation, a patient pays the doctor for the service provided. To achieve this, you need to integrate a payment gateway via API. In one of our previous articles, we have already described the process of payment gateway integration to an app. To learn more, follow the link. 

• Doctor review 

Once the patient has received medical treatment from a doctor, one can leave reviews and tell about the experience and rate the doctor.  

THE APP SOLUTIONS – CUSTOM HEALTHCARE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

Telemedicine app features for doctors 

• Doctor Panel

Such a panel is a part of the telemedicine app for doctors, integrated with electronic health records that contain information about patients, drug prescriptions, and a calendar with scheduled appointments. 

• Manage appointments

Once the patient finds the necessary medical professional, one needs to book an appointment via the app and place information about health conditions and medical records, if required. The app should automatically manage time slots and show when one or another specialist is available. 

• In-app messages 

To allow patients and doctors to send secure messages within an app, exchange prescriptions, reports, and x-rays, you need to pay extra attention to the technical solutions you will choose. All the information mentioned above belongs to patient sensitive data and needs to meet telemedicine regulations. Therefore, consider using GDPR and HIPAA-compliant messaging platforms, like Q-municate. This technological solution could be integrated into your app via REST-API or SDK. 

If you are still in doubt about whether to develop a telehealth mobile app for your health organization, just take a look at the statistics below. 

With this in mind, let’s see how to develop a doctor-on-demand mobile app 

HEALTHCARE CYBERSECURITY: HOW TO PROTECT PATIENT DATA

How to develop a telemedicine app

Below, we describe the step-by-step process of developing a doctor-on-demand mobile app. 

Step 1. Ask mobile app developers for a quote

For this step, you need to fill out the contact form or mobile project cost calculator and tell us as many details about your telemedicine software as possible. 

Step 2. Create the project scope for a telemedicine platform’s MVP 

Our business development manager will get in touch with you to sign an NDA, clarify project details, and create a project brief. Then, our business analyst and project manager will show you a list with app features for the project’s MVP, generate the project mock-ups, and prototypes.

Step 3. Enter the development stage 

When the MVP project scope is agreed upon, our team will break the app features into small user stories that are easier to implement. Next, we start developing the code, test it, and conduct bug-fixing iteration by iteration. 

Step 4. Approve the app’s demo 

When the app’s MVP is ready, our team will show you the result during the project demo. If you are satisfied with the results, we upload the project MVP to the app marketplace and start implementing more sophisticated features. 

Step 5. Launch your app on app marketplaces

When all the app features from the project scope are implemented, we run the final product demo and give your app the project-related data, including databases, access to app stores, mock-ups, and designs. Finally, your doctor-on-demand mobile app, with all the features available on the app marketplaces, is ready to serve your users. 

WHAT IS FEMTECH IN HEALTHCARE

The APP Solutions Experience: Success Story

A White Label Telemedicine Platform – Case Study

The client is the owner of a medical center in Berlin, Germany. After the COVID-19 outbreak, he faced the need to provide patients with a distance communication solution to decrease the number of offline visits, while enabling doctors to monitor vital patient health data and streamline communication with a laboratory. 

After working with us, the client received a white-label telemedicine platform with advanced features that took us two months.

The while-label platform brings benefits to both types of users:

Medical professionals can exchange files with patients via secured live chat, send, and receive laboratory tests in a more streamlined way. 

Patients can receive high-quality medical services in the comfort of their homes, schedule appointments with doctors, attend medical meetings online, get receipts for medication, and medical treatment plans with a daily schedule. The app also allows patients to pay for medical services online. 

Get ready for telemedicine app development

Telemedicine mobile applications improve the lives of both patients and doctors – while patients receive medical treatment in the comfort of their homes, medical specialists can provide medical treatment more effectively, while getting paid for a consultation immediately. 

To start the development process of your doctor-on-demand mobile app you need to shape your business idea with a monetization strategy, think about the app design and app layout, as well as HIPAA-compliant solutions to use.  

What our clients say 

We are living in a fast-changing world where things that were condemned yesterday have become tomorrow’s trends. This trend applies to the usage of marijuana, legalized in 33 U.S. states and forward-thinking countries such as Canada, Germany, and Israel. Thus, being allowed for medical and recreational use, medical marijuana is entering the business mainstream. But despite increased demand for medical marijuana, only a few licensed dispensaries provide users with on-demand medical marijuana online delivery services.

If you are interested in developing a marijuana app, similar to UberEats for ordering food, you are in the right place. 

In this article, we share essential business and monetization strategies for a medical cannabis on-demand delivery app, essential features, and a development guide. 

But before diving into cannabis delivery software development, let’s take a glance at medical marijuana market statistics. 

To enter this rapidly developing market with your cannabis delivery mobile app, you need to make additional preparations, listed below. 

OUTSTAFFING VS. OUTSOURCING VS. MANAGED SERVICES: DIFFERENCES AND BENEFITS

How to start a delivery service for cannabis like Weedmaps and Eaze

If you want to launch your cannabis delivery mobile app and make a profit without breaking the law, you need to do the following: 

Know government regulations 

Bear in mind that marijuana is illegal in the majority of countries. Thus, check your government policy for cannabis on the link. 

• The U.S. government decriminalized cannabis for medical purposes in 37 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia in 2022

• Canada officially decriminalized marijuana in 2018 for both recreational and medicinal purposes
• Western European countries such as Netherlands, Germany, Czechia, and Greece decriminalized medical marijuana for personal use 

If your government has legalized the medical use of marijuana, you can move on. If not – try to implement another business idea. 

Get a license 

To start selling Marijuana online you need to get a license or permission from your government. Consider that you will need to get different types of licenses to distribute, sell, or cultivate cannabis, which takes time.  

For example, let’s take a look at California, where medical cannabis was legalized in 1996. On the website of The Bureau of Cannabis Control, you will find different types of licenses, including Retailer, Distributor, Microbusiness, Testing Labs, and Cannabis Event organizers. To receive each type of license, you need to fill in about 14 documents. Luckily, you can save time and apply for a permit through their Online Licensing System.

If you are a Canadian citizen, you need to receive a license from the Canadian Health Organization. Consider that a cannabis license has different classes and subclasses that determine in which activity your business falls. The main license classes include: 

• Standard cannabis cultivation
• Micro-cultivation
• Nursery
• Sales for medical purposes
• Standard processing
• Micro-processing
• Analytical testing
• Research

To find out more, visit Cannabis Licensing Application Guide on the link. 

[Cannabis classes and subclasses of licenses, source]

Choose business models and monetization strategy for a marijuana selling app

There are two primary business models you can implement for your online medical marijuana delivery business. Each of them has a monetization strategy. 

Weed delivery app for a single dispensary 

This option is for those who are already growing marijuana and have enough stock to sell. In this case, you will need to develop a marijuana dispensary app with order delivery tracking. You can manage your product list from the admin panel and fill orders without third-party service providers. 

As for the monetization strategy of your mobile app, you can charge an extra fee for order delivery and run paid aids of related products. As your cannabis delivery business grows, you can invest in the development of delivery services.     

HOW MUCH DOES AN ON-DEMAND MOBILE APP COST?

Medical cannabis delivery marketplace

If you do not cultivate medical marijuana but want to launch a cannabis delivery business, you can develop a marijuana delivery marketplace. The best examples of such cannabis delivery apps are Eaze, Weedmaps, and Leafly. These apps allow users to find the nearest dispensary, order weed online and get same-day delivery. 

Such medical marijuana software includes different types of users: 

• Dispensaries that list products via  merchant accounts
• Buyers who can find the nearest dispensary via GPS, order products, pay for them in the app, and get the product delivered to their doorsteps
• Couriers get notifications about approved orders, see the list of orders to be delivered and deliver orders to customers. 
• Admin panel where you can manage users, monitor order activity, and analyze user behavior via analytics. 

To monetize your medical marijuana delivery app, you can apply the following: 

• Charge fees on every order made via the app 
• Provide paid promotion to cannabis vendors
• Run advertisements of cannabis-related products 

Key Features of a Uber-style marijuana delivery app 

Your cannabis delivery app will perform as a marketplace with different types of users. There should be a buyer app, a merchant app, a driver app, and an admin app. Below we share essential features to add to each user panel. 

Features for Buyers 

As a buyer, your app user should sign up to your app and verify the account through documents and a doctor’s receipt. Next, the user can find the nearest store via GPS, search for products, read product details, set the delivery address, place an order, and pay online. Thus, from the point of view of the buyer, the app should include the following features: 

Registration and identity verification	Before accessing the app’s content, the buyer should sign in to your app via email, phone number, or social media profiles such as Facebook or Twitter. Next, one should verify their identity via I.D. and upload their doctor’s receipt for medical marijuana. For this purpose, integrate ID.me SDK, a physician identity verification solution.
Product search and filters	Each marijuana user has personal preferences on cannabis type. Thus, to make buyers find products, your app should include different product categories and advanced product search with various filters.
Shopping card	Once the buyer finds the product, one adds it to the shopping cart that includes product description, order total, and estimated delivery cost.
In-app payments	To place the order, a buyer should pay for it via the built-in payment gateway. Based on our experience of marketplace development, we recommend Stripe as a payment solution. Such a payment gateway integration allows you to receive the commission from each order.
GPS order tracking	Integrate maps to allow buyers a live tracking of their order delivery. As a geolocation solution, we suggest using Google maps SDK. We did this integration for a couple of geolocation projects where Google maps solution has proved to be effective. As alternatives, you can choose another technology from the order tracking SDKs list.

Features for Sellers

If you allow unlicensed merchants to sell cannabis via your app you will be breaking the law. Thus, you need to secure your app from illegal activities. To achieve this, provide a merchant account only for sellers who upload their legal license for cannabis distribution. As for other seller account features, we suggest the following:

Profile	After the seller sends you a legal permit, one receives a merchant account. Here, a seller can edit their company description, address, contact info, photo of a store, and so on.  In this section, the user gives payment information to receive money from each order.
Product catalog	To list products, merchants should give a detailed product description, upload a photo, and set the product category. Also, dispensary managers should update the status of cannabis availability.
Order management	In the Order Management section, sellers will see the history of filled orders and manage the status of new orders.

Features for drivers

A driver is a middle man between the buyer and the seller, responsible for delivering the order. Thus, to avoid credibility issues, the delivery person should verify their identity. Only after the admin verifies user documents can the delivery person receive an account. 

Profile	Here, the courier can edit personal information like name, phone, email, and bank account details.
Tasks	In this section, the driver receives new tasks and manages order status. This might be En Route, Arrived, and Order Delivered. A driver gets information about the order number, buyer’s name, delivery date and time, and delivery address.
Maps and navigation	GPS navigation shows drivers the exact stores and customer’s addresses, as well as suggests the best route. This section may also include estimated time and distance to the destination.

Admin panel features 

The admin panel is an essential part of a cannabis delivery mobile app. Here, you can manage app users, approve order delivery, receive payments, and much more. The admin panel of a mobile app should include the following elements: 

Dashboards	On the dashboard, you can see user activity in real-time. It shows the number of active orders, the number of drivers that deliver them, and the total amount of payments conducted via your app.
User management	In this section, you receive documents for new app user verification, give verified users access to accounts, track order history, manage notifications, and so on.
Product management	As an admin, you can manage a product catalog of all merchants, edit product information and images, delete products, manage product categories.
Order management	In this section, you manage the order fulfillment process. The order management section shows orders pending to be picked, orders currently in progress, updates from drivers on the order delivery, completed orders, and payment status.

Medical Cannabis Delivery App Development Cost

While calculating cannabis mobile app development costs, consider that you are going to develop a two-sided marketplace with three different types of app users. To build a marijuana delivery app that works correctly, the development team should create complex project architecture, which might be costly. 

Our advice here is to use a ready-made CRM system for Admin Panel features. Also, we emphasize that the marijuana delivery app development takes both time and money. Thus, it is better to develop the project’s MVP first. The project’s MVP, which stands for Minimum Viable Product, contains only essential features to validate your business idea without spending a fortune on development. 

In the table below, we estimate the number of hours our dev team requires to build an Uber for weed delivery. 

	FrontEnd	BackEnd	Android	iOS	FeatureScreen
Architecture, DB			32	16	16
Login signup, pass recovery	4		8	8	8
User profile	4		8	16	16
History	4		4	12	12
Google Maps integration				12	12
Product list	16		16	24	24
Product page	8		6	16	16
List of dispensaries and shops	8		16	16	16
Seller profile	8		8	16	16
Shopping card	24		32	40	40
Payment	8		24	32	32
Delivery Page (Info about the delivery)				6	6
Integration with CRM		80

In a nutshell, the cost to develop an Uber for marijuana starts from $60k per platform and takes 6 months to implement. Consider that the estimated project cost is due to change. It depends on your project requirements, the number of features, the number of mobile platforms, and so on. 

Custom cannabis app development steps

 To be on the same page with the development team, you should be aware of the app development stages. Here is how we deliver mobile projects at The APP Solutions:

Step 1. Sign NDA

Right after you send us a project request, your sales manager schedules a call to find out more details about your Uber for weed app and submits a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which protects your intellectual property. 

Step 2. Start the inception phase 

After we receive your project requirements, we make rough project cost estimates and then confirm the results with you. Next, we start the project inception phase to gain a better understanding of your project architecture, tech stack, and so on. 

Step 3. Approve technical documentation and app prototype

We send you the main deliverables of the inception phase that are tech documentation and design prototype. Next, we make a more detailed project cost estimate and start the next step. 

Step 4. Enter app development stage 

Using technical documentation, we break down your weed app into smaller user stories, prioritize them, and our developers start building your app. We implement the project’s MVP scope first, send you weekly reports, run MVP demo, and enter the second development stage. 

Step 5. Receive app project-related databases 

After the final project demo, you receive all technical comments concerning the projects, databases, access to app marketplace accounts, and so on. 

What our clients say 

Related reading:

AI in the logistics industry 

How to develop Uber for trucking 

How to develop an application like Uber 

HYPR taxi app development case study 

As a woman, I want to wear makeup and keep my skin healthy. As a project manager, I want my team to create industry-relevant solutions that solve customers’ business challenges. What’s the point? 

Not so long ago, I participated in a brainstorming session with other development team members. A skincare brand owner hired us for the Inception phase. So, we needed to suggest relevant solutions to the business disruptions COVID-19 had brought him. 

After two-hour discussions and liters of coffee, we finally came up with a conclusion – we would integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning applications into his online store. We communicated this idea to the client, and he agreed. 

So, I decided to write this article because the client’s case is a mixture of my main passions – beauty products and intelligent technologies. Using the client’s business challenges as an example, I’ll tell you how COVID-19 has changed the face of the beauty and cosmetics industry. I’ll also describe how intelligent technologies can turn the beauty industry gaps into gains. 

What COVID-19 has changed in the beauty and cosmetics industry? 

The industry of beauty and cosmetics was one of the most rapidly developing markets. In 2017, the beauty industry revenue was worth $474,179 million, and experts from Statista predicted the beauty industry to reach a market value of $571,696 in 2023. 

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But then, the pandemic came. As for 2020, the beauty industry revenue is estimated at $483,338 million, compared with $504,501 million in income received in 2019.  

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And there are co-dependent reasons for the beauty market fall: 

Global lockdown. Governments restricted the work of offline stores and shopping malls. For established beauty brands, such a limitation wasn’t very stressful because they already had operating online stores. But for indie brands with retail stores located in one region – such a situation was a disaster. 

No consultants. As a result, the lockdown left beauty brands without an opportunity to provide a personalized skincare experience to their customers. But, personalized suggestions of skincare products keep customers ( including me) from using products that don’t suit our skin type. 

Face masks. Even after governments opened shopping malls and other public places, some issues remained. Here is one example. You can attend offline beauty product stores. But how can you try a new lipstick while wearing a mask? Selling beauty products offline became challenging also because the virus can travel from one person to another via breathing. So, trying lipstick after someone had breathed on it could infect you with the coronavirus.   

Less income. Since beauty consultants couldn’t recommend products to customers offline, upselling and cross-selling also decreased. In contrast,  online beauty retailers, who integrated AI-powered product recommendations before the pandemic, significantly gained from these technologies. In current circumstances, product recommendation via AI is the single available method to upsell and cross-sell beauty products online. 

Late delivery. Closed borders complicated the provision of skincare and beauty products to warehouses. In contrast, online beauty brands with excess product stock faced decreased demand from customers. Many of them lost their jobs due to retrenchment or bankruptcy and weren’t ready to spend their last savings on makeup. In this case, beauty brands met the need to quickly distribute makeup products with a short shelf life to profit.  

In a nutshell, the pandemic impacted the whole beauty industry ecosystem – from shipment to distribution. Luckily, we are living in the age of intelligent technologies. So, let’s see how machine learning and AI in the beauty industry can smooth things over. 

Related reading: 

NIOXIN Consultation case study 

Top 5 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications in the beauty industry that confront COVID-caused disruptions 

Before digging into details, let’s quickly clarify some basic terms:

• Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is a sub-niche of data science. AI algorithms are smart enough to behave without human intervention. Artificial Intelligence algorithms have a wide range of applications – from AR filters in Instagram and Snapchat to self-driven cars and voice assistants. 
• Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence. Machine learning algorithms leverage different learning models, depending on a particular business use case. In this way, machine learning apps can automatically improve through experience. Netflix and Spotify adopted machine learning to provide users with more personalized content suggestions. 

Over the past years, both ML and AI algorithms have penetrated the beauty and cosmetics industry. Experts predict spending for AI in the beauty industry will grow to $7.3 billion by 2022.

Here are five major beauty AI applications cosmetic brands adopt:

• Augmented reality apps for virtual makeup try-on
• Dynamic content personalization
• Voice assistant for product recommendation 
• AI-powered beauty product search
• Demand and supply forecasting tools

Such well-known brands as Coty and Shiseido already leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to adapt to the new normal and keep customers engaged. 

Let’s find out how intelligent technologies work in more detail. 

1. Augmented reality for virtual try-on 

Augmented reality is a technology stack that enables adding virtual images to real-life photos. Augmented Reality technology powers Instagram and Snapchat filters. But how does AR work? 

• The intelligent algorithm detects the buyer’s face by analyzing 100 focal points to find facial borders.
• The AI algorithm analyzes data points around facial characteristics to map the makeup on one’s face.
• AR adjusts digital objects to the size of the face and overlays them to a photo or video, so artificial items fit perfectly.

In terms of beauty products and skincare, Augmented reality enhances the online shopping experience with the ability to try lipstick and eye shadows virtually and even see the result of anti-aging creams by detecting wrinkles, spots, skin texture, and dark circles. 

The pioneers in AR applications for beauty products were Perfect Corp and Modiface. Software providers used a combination of augmented reality deep learning and computer vision technologies for a virtual try-on before it became a mainstream trend.

Perfect Corp has been on the market since 2014. The company Beauty SaaS – in-store consultation, a mobile SDK, WeChat mini-program, and listing your products in our award-winning app, YouCam Makeup. Such beauty brands as Yves Saint Laurent, L’Oréal Paris, MAC Cosmetics, and Macy’s used Perfect Corp technologies for customers to have a virtual try-on experience. 

Watch the video below to check out how you can try various shades of makeup for the eyes, lips, and hair using your smartphone, create your look and even download results as you use it as a reference for your makeup artist.

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As for Modiface, it started in 1999 at Stanford University when one student-initiated research on automatic facial analysis. The student’s name was Parham Aarab. He continued his research on face processing algorithms at the University of Toronto, and only in 2006 Parharm founded ModiFace Inc.

In 2018, L’Oreal acquired ModiFace and used its technologies for an AI makeup app with augmented reality in cooperation with Facebook. Using Modiface, you can virtually produce products with a smartphone camera and then move to the product page to make a purchase.

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2. AI-powered dynamic content personalization

Personalized is one of the most promising applications of artificial intelligence in the beauty industry. As Tapestry research firm’s study shows, shoppers spend 80% of the time in the pre-search phase, while only 20% of website visitors add products to cart and checkout. 

This means if you shorten their journey by providing them relevant items in the first place, customers are more likely to buy them. 

There are several ways to use AI in the beauty industry for dynamic personalized content:   

• Capturing and digitizing product, content, and customer data
• Tagging and organizing data into easily usable structured formats
• Optimizing costs through data-driven decisions

Lazada, one of Asia’s leading marketplaces, adopted a dynamic personalization and the result was inspiring. The marketplace increased customer engagement by 101%, overall revenue per visit by 9.4%, the overall conversion rate by 11.5%, and customer retention by 35%. 

3. Natural Language Processing for total makeover product recommendation 

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a sub-niche of Artificial Intelligence. NLP combines linguistics, data science, and AI algorithms to enable computers to understand human language. The difference between NLP-powered applications and simple chatbots lies in data input and output. 

While simple chatbots engage closed questions with “Yes” and “No” answers or simple commands, you can communicate with NLP apps more naturally and receive relevant non-pre-defined answers. 

Beauty brands utilize Natural Language Processing technology for smart digital assistants that suggest products in a more personalized way. Since voice-driven beauty services work best combined with visuals, beauty brands target such apps for devices with screens. “Let’s Get Ready”, an NLP customer assistant by Coty, is a vivid example. The application was created for Echo Show, Amazon’s first Echo devices with screens. 

[Artificial intelligence makeup suggestions]

Coty, a multi-brand beauty corporation, launched “Let’s Get Ready” in 2018. By using the app, buyers can create personalized makeup, hair, and nail looks for any event. 

The app has the following workflow: 

• The app asks for details about your look preferences, hair, eye, skin color, and the event you are attending, to get started. 
• The app creates your profile, used by Alexa to recommend curated looks, visual tutorials, beauty tips, and recommended products from Coty’s consumer beauty portfolios. 
• The app then offers you a personalized total makeover look from over 2,000 combinations of makeovers using Coty-owned brands products (Max Factor, Bourjois, Clairol, Rimmel, and Sally Hansen). 

You can check out suggested makeovers on a built-in screen and ask Alexa to order beauty products via the “Shop the Look” feature. 

4. AI-powered beauty product search

Providing personalized skincare and makeup product recommendations online is challenging. However, AI search algorithms simplify this task. AI search engines don’t look like a simple search bar. Instead, such algorithms interact with buyer information during a short quiz. 

One example of an AI-powered search algorithm application is My Beauty Matches, an online marketplace. The website lists over 400,000 products on skincare, makeup, and body care. 

• My Beauty Matches offers a quiz for new website visitors. With the quiz, the AI algorithm collects information about skin type and condition, hair structure, and preferences in fragrances. 

• The algorithm analyzes your data, finds relevant products in the database, and displays personalized product recommendations. 

Maybe this is how beauty consultants will look in the future? 

5. AI beauty supply and demand forecasting

The pandemic made product shipment even more complicated due to closed borders and quarantine measures. Such a situation caused significant disruptions in the import of food, industrial products, and the beauty industry. 

We already described why AI is useful for effective supply chain management in our previous articles. Now, let’s see how beauty brands use AI applications in demand forecasting software. 

Machine learning algorithms are the leading tech solutions for supply and demand prediction. ML algorithms analyze historical data and make predictions of sales and shipping volumes. But, supply chain apps can predict future demand in another way. 

Predictive analytics create forecasts when historical data is no longer valid. Predictive analytics algorithms analyze the combination of external factors, including weather, seasonality, and public holidays to predict whether you need to order more red lipstick for a holiday season or not. In this way, predictive analytics help beauty businesses to adapt to changing demand conditions. 

NARS Cosmetics, a beauty product brand from France, leverages demand forecasting applications and customer data to learn more about their customers, skin tones, and other preferences to build new products. 

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Shiseido, a Japanese multinational personal care company, is another beauty brand that keeps an eye on demand forecasting. As for November 2020, the company is looking for demand planning specialists in the New York area to forecast their inventory in-house. 

[Source]

Using machine learning and AI in the cosmetics market

Adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning has become more critical for beauty retailers in the past six months. Cosmetics brands should remain proactive and continue investing in technologies because this is the best time.

People are bored of sitting at home with no ability to travel, so why not entertain them with virtual try-on or AI product search? 

Even well-established cosmetics brands doubt their supply chain and leverage data analytics to have information to rely on. Thus, you can’t be too careful about staying relevant to your consumers and balancing your product stock.

Next step 

Do you work in the beauty industry? Are you interested in developing artificial intelligence technologies? 

By leveraging AI technologies, we can help you to innovate faster so you can crush your competition.

What our clients say 

Related reading:

Biudee Personalized Skincare App Case Study

Nioxin Client Consultation App Case Study

If you think that flying on a private jet is accessible only for celebrities or bankers with at least a billion dollars in their accounts, you are wrong. Thanks to an on-demand business model, a luxury private jet is at your fingerprints. Also, private jets are becoming popular among wealthy Millennials and young entrepreneurs because they want to eliminate discomfort and stress from their travels. Thus, those born in the mid-1990s to early 2000s are expected to be the essential users of business aviation in the coming years. 

At the same time, the market of private jets is expected to grow from $24.7 billion in 2019 to $36.4 billion by 2030, making a flight-sharing app a killer tech startup idea. 

In this article, we describe how Uber for private jets works, the app’s essential features, and app development cost. 

But before hiring private jet charter app developers, let’s find out what problems Uber for private planes solves. 

Why is there a need for a private jet booking app?

As said before, Millennials will be the primary target audience of private jet providers for the next few years. To provide them with the most appropriate service, you should know that Millennials value their time, often travel for work, conferences, meetings, and appreciate flexibility. Also, they expect shared private jet services to be as user-friendly as Airbnb or Netflix. 

At the same time, to book a private jet, Millennials need to choose among the following options: 

• To book a flight through a third-party broker, which requires time and does not suit unexpected flights
• To book a share in a jet, i.e., fractional ownership. In this case, you can only use your share for a particular number of hours that may run out, and you would not be able to make the flight. 
• To buy a membership card and use it during a specific time. If you don’t use these hours within a specific period, all unused hours expire. 

Therefore, conventional means of jet chartering do not meet Millennials’ needs. 

At the same time, an Uber for charter flights app solves all the listed issues. 

How do apps for private jet share work?

To build your Uber for a private jet app, you should be aware of the app’s essential components and booking options. As an example, we take Victor, the first app for chartering private jets, launched in 2011. 

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• After you register in the app, enter the point of departure and destination to book a flight
• Now you can see all the jets available, together with instant pricing and estimated length of the flight 
• You can pay for a flight using a build-in payment gateway 
• After the app processes the payment, you receive a push notification that your jet has been reserved successfully 
• If you want to dine on your favorite sushi during the flight or take your nine dogs on board, you can ask for additional services in the FlyVictor Concierge section. 

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XO app, powered by JetSmarter, is another mobile solution for chartering private jets. The app offers unique jet booking options, including: 

• Private Fly is for when you want to book the whole plane
• Shared Charter to share the flight cost with other passengers you invite
• Fly by the Seat to find and book a single seat, or create a crowdfunded flight 

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Now that you know how an Uber for jet app works, let’s learn how to make it profitable. 

Monetization strategies for an On-demand private jet app

There are two basic pricing models private jet booking apps adopt:  

1. Subscription is the business model of choice for XO and Magellan Jets apps. To receive access to flight-sharing services, app users should buy a monthly or annual subscription. For instance, Magellan Jets annual card for 25-hour costs from $108,750. 
2. Pay-as-you-fly is another payment model used by JetVictor and Private Jet apps. App users pay only for hours spent during the flight. The cost of one hour starts from $2,800. 

Since jet booking services do not own plans, they perform as a middleman between customers and jet owners. Charging transaction fees is the essential monetization strategy of Uber for jet apps. 

• JetVictor charges a 10% fee per flight and empty legs booked via the app. 
• XO app charges passengers’ $395 service fee per flight. 

How to develop an Uber for private jets: essential features

What features do you need to include in your jet booking app? 

• User registration 

Once the user has downloaded the app, one should enter their email and phone number to create a user account. 

• Flight search 

To hitch a ride on a private plane, the user should enter the number of passengers, one’s location, point of destination, departure, and arrival date and time. Next, the private jet app will show all available flights with costs. 

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• Booking and payment 

The user can book a flight in the app and pay using PayPal, Stripe, or other payment gateways. 

• Push notification 

Your app should send push notification to inform your app users about changes of flight, and status. 

[Source]

How much does a private jet booking app cost? 

The cost to develop a private jet sharing app depends on the number of features, third-party integrations, the complexity of the app’s UI/UX design, and other factors. To give you an idea about a jet booking app cost, we created this table with a project estimated in hours. 

FeatureScreen	Functions required	Back-End	Android/iOS
Project Setup		12 hours	8 hours
App development
Login signup	Registration info Phone Number Login SMS verification in Sign Up	32 hours	24 hours
Profiles	Edit user profile Change credentials Change password	16 hours	16 hours
Google Maps integration	Google Map API integration Define the user’s location and show the nearest airport for private jets	8 hours	8 hours
Push notification	Inform user about changed order status	32 hours	16 hours
Flight booking	Create booking Booking confirmation by email	24 hours	12 hours
Payment getaways	Payment systems integration	24 hours	80 hours
Project Documentation	Technical specification Installation and deployment instructions Development documentation		30 hours
QA	Test all app’s features  Create bug reports Conduct re-testing  Conduct regression testing		50 hours

In a nutshell, to create a jet booking mobile app, developers need from three to four months per platform. The estimated development price of such apps starts from $70K. To receive a more detailed project estimate, use our project cost calculator.  

The APP Solutions tips for a private jet app like Uber 

Before starting the development stage, take into account that you need something more than making an XO or JetVictor apps clone. As experts in developing on-demand apps, we want to share tips to make your app successful. 

Smart Pricing Algorithm

The pricing algorithm is a sanctum sanctorum of all on-demand services, shrouded in mystery. Since you will gather transaction fees from each jet booking, you need to create an AI-powered pricing algorithm that will automatically add your commission to the total flight cost, while keeping prices competitive.  

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API integration

From the developer’s standpoint, such applications perform as deal aggregators, similar to KAYAK. Thus, to show current flights you need to integrate the app’s back-end with jet provider databases via API. We recommend the following APIs of private jet booking services:

• Tukijets
• PrivateFly.com
• Stratosjets

Jet interior preview

High-quality images might not be enough to provide your users with more details about the jet’s interior. Thus, to win a competition, consider empowering your jet booking app with 360°panoramic images, 3D preview, and even Augmented Reality. In this way, you will not only fascinate users with the interior of planes but also increase the credibility of your private plane sharing services. 

The business jet industry will remain profitable for the next several years. To receive a profit from booking private jets, consider developing an on-demand booking app. To stand out from the crowd and meet the high standards of Millenials, you need to make your booking service streamlined and easy to use. If you have an idea for your Uber for flights app, you can receive additional consultation after filling in our contact form. 

What our clients say 

Read also:

• How to Develop a Luxury App for Boats and Yacht Chartering