Our client is a tech & software startup that operates in the hospitality industry with its main product, a food delivery app. This solution allows users to pre-order their meals at restaurants, order to go, or get home delivery. What’s more, our client’s food delivery app offers users a chance to save money by saving thanks to their unique coupons and discounts. Finally, clients can use customer service chat to clarify information about their orders and delivery time. 

The company launched its food delivery app in 2022. This solution received positive feedback as it saved time and effort by providing users with a seamless dining experience. But the happiness did not last long. Customers started complaining that they faced technical issues when they needed to select a nearby restaurant as the app failed to sort them according to location. So the limited functionality and technical issues prompted the need for improvement. 

That’s why the client turned to Wetelo to achieve the following goals: 

• Enhance app performance
• Improve customer experience
• Improve sorting algorithms 
• Streamline payment operations.

Tech audit to identify areas of improvements 

Our first step was to conduct a tech audit to find the bottlenecks in the food delivery app and understand what improvements should be done to enhance its performance and ensure a better customer experience. So we made a decision to do the following:

• Upgrade the Ionic framework from version 3 to version 5
• Create UI designs
• Add logic to improve sorting algorithms 
• Integrate payment systems
• Integrate HubSpot
• Break monolithic architecture into microservices.

Updating Ionic 3 to Ionic 5 to improve UI and speed up app performance

Our second step was to upgrade the Ionic 3 version to 5 and get more benefits from it. As a result, upgrading to Ionic 5 has enabled better and easier customization of UI components needed to create new UI designs. We’ve got a new and vibrant color palette to make the app more attractive and catching. Additionally, upgrading the Ionic version as ensured better load performance and boosted the more efficient work of the app. Finally, upgrading from Ionic 3 to 5 was easily achieved with minor effort and saved much time needed to improve the solution. 

Creating UI designs to improve customer experience 

Our third step was redesigning the app to improve user experience by simplifying using and navigating and making it more user-friendly and intuitive. We designed the following app pages:

• Pre-order. This function provides users with the possibility to order food in advance to reduce waiting time. 
• Discounts & Offers. This function was needed to provide users with discounts and the best offers from their favorite restaurants. 
• All in one app. This function offers four different types of orders: ordering at a restaurant, table reservations, home delivery, and picking up. 

The implementation of these features has contributed to the improvement of customer experience by reducing waiting time, offering more ordering options, and making the app more advanced. 

Choosing and integrating payment gateways with the app to offer better payment solutions 

Our fourth step was to select and integrate payment gateways with the app to handle customers’ payments in a few clicks and ensure a fully resilient payment process in low/intermittent network connection. 

First, we selected Stripe because it helps accept payments and settle transactions with restaurants. With Stripe, we’ve made this app more user-friendly. 

Second, we integrated Swish because the company operates in the Swedish market. What’s more, Swish is cost-effective and doesn’t charge users for transactions. 

Third, we selected Bambora because it enables different payment methods and simplifies the process of adding payments. 

Integration of a few payment gateways into the food delivery app was a good solution as it facilitates expansion and optimizes payment flows. So our client can maintain a consistent, reliable, and quick payment experience for their app users. 

Adding logic to the app to ensure restaurants categorization 

Our fifth step was to enhance the app’s intelligence by implementing logic for restaurant categorization and localization. Adding logic was crucial to ensure that the application accurately classified restaurants based on users’ preferences and locations that fit them perfectly. Finally, by implementing logic, we provided users with a seamless experience in finding restaurants that perfectly meet their requirements. 

HubSpot integration for better marketing and sales management 

Our sixth step was to integrate HubSpot to manage their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts from one place. As HubSpot offers features to manage customer data, track interactions, and gain insights into customer behavior, it can help our client better understand users’ needs and preferences to deliver personalized experiences and build stronger relationships with them.

Continuous testing and QA to reduce bugs and ensure system uptime

Our final step was to conduct continuous testing and QA to evaluate software work and enable higher-quality and faster deliveries. As a result, we managed to reduce bugs and ensure system uptime. Now, it works well and shows good performance that makes the work of the app faster and more convenient. 

An upgraded, fast, scalable, and engaging food delivery app

After upgrading, the food delivery app works better and can be easily improved in the future. Users can use this food delivery app and enjoy its speed and more engaging and exciting dining experience. 

Adding more functions and integration of the payment gateways can create more business opportunities for our client, especially in terms of reaching new clients and market extension. What’s more, more functions mean more options for users and higher customer satisfaction. 

Our next step is to break the monolithic architecture into microservices. This decision is needed because microservices architecture will allow to add new features seamlessly and build more manageable services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. 

What’s more, together with our client, we’ve planned multiple changes needed to develop this solution. We keep working on the product and improving it based on user feedback.