6 Steps To Develop Delivery Applications From Scratch

The global express delivery market was valued at $262.86 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $484.38 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 6.4% from 2021 to 2030 (Allied Market Research, 2021). Express delivery is the quickest method of shipping that involves the delivery of various goods and products via various modes of transportation such as air, water, and land. Personal and business items such as letters, documents, merchandise, consumer goods, and other non-palletized goods fall into this category. Several express delivery companies also provide value-added services like packaging, labeling, billing, payment collection, return, and exchange.

Because the industry is rapidly expanding and developing, how can you not be left behind by your rivals? One tactic that should be included in your growth strategy is creating mobile apps for delivery, so that your customers can use the services and be informed of their goods more conveniently. In this article, GCT Solution will suggest a 6-step process to build delivery mobile apps, from zero to hero.

6 Steps To Develop Delivery Applications From Scratch

GCT Solution will describe each stage of developing mobile apps for delivery, explain the timeframes, and suggest which roles should be involved in different stages.

1. Conduct Research and Analyze Your Rivals

Just knowing your rivals is not enough. You must thoroughly investigate their starting point, distinguishing features, and weaknesses in order to gain benefits from them. This will assist you in better understanding the wants and needs of your customers; then you can serve them well with a friendly-user delivery application. Furthermore, if you intend to push your product to go global, you should identify the target audience, local preferences, and, once again, the weak points. Once you have determined all points aforementioned, you can proceed to the next step.

Timeframe: 2-3 weeks.

Required roles: 

• Product Manager/ Project Manager (PM)
• Business Analysts (BA)
   

2. Define necessary functions

The next step is to construct the core of your application. Your team must create the architecture, source base and database. The key concept here is to minimize the number of functions, just keep the crucial ones. When you carry out the previous step carefully, then you already know what is available in other similar apps, you should brainstorm to customize your application to stand out.

Timeframe: 2-3 weeks.

Required Roles: 

• Product Manager/ Project Manager (PM)
• Developers/ Software Engineers
   

3. Plan Your Expenses

When estimating the scope of the budget required to build a delivery application, this step is critical for any logistics business if they do not want to waste money. Overall development costs may vary depending on the following factors:

• The operating system: iOS or Android
• The technology stacks
• Project timeframe
• Employment context: in-house or outsourced, the number of people involved, etc.

Timeframe: 3-5 weeks.

Required Roles: 

• Accountants
• Product Manager/ Project Manager (PM)
• Business Analysts (BA)

4. Define the UI/UX Design of Your Delivery Application

You must define the unique layout for your delivery mobile apps after analyzing and comparing the competitors. What will make you outstanding on the competitive market? 

It is critical to design a logo, colors, and interactive elements for your application. Layout should be straightforward. The navigation bar should be separated into sub-menu if there are too many categories.

Timeframe: 1-3 weeks.

Required Roles: 

• Product Manager/ Project Manager (PM)
• UI/UX designers

5. Form a Team and Complete the Requirements

With everything in place, it is the time to assemble a team to create the software for your application. Once your specifications are complete, you must reach an agreement with the team (developers, PM, BA) on all details, including clarifying your desires, business goals, and technical peculiarities. 

The development team will frequently offer to create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), which is essentially a test run of your product. To simply understand, MVP is a "scratch" of your future application to see how it "behaves" on the market. After agreeing on an MVP, the software is we

Timeframe: 4-6 weeks.

Required Roles: 

• Product Manager/ Project Manager (PM)
• Mobile developers (iOS or Android)
• QA engineers
• UI/UX designers
• Backend/frontend developers

6. Mobile App Testing and Release

After your development team has completed the software, it is passed to the QA engineers for debugging. The application can be released once it has received final approval from the developers. However, after they are released, all apps require extensive maintenance and upgrades. Any remaining bugs and technical errors must be resolved. Furthermore, upgrades help to ensure that your application provides solutions that maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Timeframe: 1-2 weeks (maintenance - ongoing).

Required Roles: 

• QA engineers
• Developers/ Software engineers
• Product Manager/ Project Manager (PM)

Final thoughts

The most important thing to remember if you decide to develop delivery mobile apps is that the industry is thriving globally, giving you a great chance of success. The IT market is quite flexible, and you can find experienced and skilled professionals all over the world, increasing your chances of getting quality software development to meet your business needs.

Gaining customer recognition and a good reputation is a difficult task due to market competition and high user expectations. Your application, on the other hand, has a potential to succeed if it has unique features, a friendly user interface, and various delivery options.

If you are seeking a seasoned IT provider, GCT Solution is the ideal choice. With 3 years of expertise, we specialize in Mobile App , Web App, System Development, Blockchain Development and Testing Services. Our 100+ skilled IT consultants and developers can handle projects of any size. Having successfully delivered over 50+ solutions to clients worldwide, we are dedicated to supporting your goals. Reach out to us for a detailed discussion, confident that GCT Solution is poised to meet all your IT needs with tailored, efficient solutions.