How much does it cost to build an app like Zepto?

With grocery delivery applications, you are venturing into an industry where magnates like Amazon, Instacart, and Walmart, among others, are already making great strides. But that doesn’t mean there’s no scope for a new player to enter the market.

The online grocery market size is expected to cross $3396 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 24.6%. Compare this with the current market size of 2023, which stands at $377 billion. This means there will be almost 100% growth in the next decade in this industry. So, all you have to do is build the best grocery delivery app, and your brand’s name can also be up there with the top companies.

One of the questions we often get from our clients is the cost to build an app like Zepto. Zepto is an online grocery delivery application that has made headlines in India. In eight funding rounds, Zepto has raised over $1.3 billion. So, with this said, let me take you through a Zepto-like grocery delivery app development cost guide.

Must Read: The Ultimate Showdown for creating a Scalable on-demand Food Delivery App

The Functioning of an Online Grocery Delivery Application

To build a grocery delivery application, we first need to discuss how to execute the online orders. In other words, you must decide how you wish to operate the model.

• Operator-Based Delivery Model

A third-party vendor builds the application for online grocery delivery along with a technology platform to administer and manage everything from a single place. This vendor partners with local grocery stores and lists all the items on the customer’s application.

This way the vendor doesn’t have to invest in inventory and easily makes the existing local stores, dark stores, and supermarkets their infrastructure. The differentiation this vendor provides is the delivery network. This means the vendor builds a fleet of drivers, or they can even partner with existing courier networks, but the former option is preferred.

• Company-Based Model

The second popular model will have you invest in building a supermarket or a dark store and operate your own fleet of drivers or partner with an existing fleet. The key requirement here is curating your own inventory of products, like Amazon Fresh, Walmart, etc.

Here you will have control over the entire supply chain, can set your prices, and optimize the network as you deem fit. Even though this model allows for a greater integration of additional services, you will need a significantly large upfront investment.

Since our topic for today’s discussion is the cost of building an app like Zepto, which is an operator-based delivery service, we will focus on the first of the two models.

Key Factors Influencing the Cost of Online Grocery Delivery Application

The cost to build any application, not just a grocery delivery app, depends on several factors, including;

• Application features the development complexity: You cannot ignore the core features like product catalog, shopping cart, checkout, etc., no matter how complex they are to develop. This means the cost of the application can increase based on the level of these features.

Smart features or advanced technology-enabled functionalities can also increase the cost. Integrating AI and ML-like technologies into the application will certainly make it better, but it will also increase the cost. So, if you are thinking about adding personal recommendations, real-time analytics, etc., to the application, be prepared to see the cost increase.

• The platform you use for application development: If you come to us for grocery delivery app development services, one of the many questions we will want to know is the platform on which you wish to launch. Will it be for Android, iOS, or both (cross-platform)?
• Application Design and User Experience Expectations: Here again complexity plays its role as a complex design takes more work and time, hence higher costs. In addition to design complexity, unique branding requirements, and gamified design elements also play a role here.
• Your or the Developer’s Choice of Tech Stack: The programming languages, frameworks, and additional tools can also affect the development time and cost. In addition to this, the complexity of the interaction between the frontend and backend infrastructure can also influence costs.
• Team Size, Type, and Location: Costs can vary with the type of team you choose for the development project. There are two options here, one is that you hire an in-house team, where you have to hire designers, developers, and all other professionals to work under your roof.

Then, you have the option of outsourcing the work to an on-demand grocery app development company like Mobmaxime. Let me make this clear here that outsourcing is a better option in terms of cost savings, experience, time savings, and industry talent.

• Development Time and Team’s Expertise: Generally experienced developers will charge more for the same amount of work as a junior developer. But the cost you pay to a senior developer is to reduce the development time and their expertise to help you build the best possible application in one go.

Then there are ongoing costs which will include regular updates, application monitoring, and security patches, among others.

Cost Breakdown of an Online Grocery Delivery Application

Taking the discussion forward from the previous section, here I’ll talk about the aspects of the best grocery delivery app and the costs associated with it.

• Frontend Development

  Frontend development begins with UI/UX designing, where designers create intuitive interfaces that are not only appealing but also functional and interactive. An important reason behind Zepto’s success is its implementation of strategic UI/UX design principles.

  Senior Product Designer at Zepto has a passion for creating intuitive and user-friendly designs. He has been working on improving Zepto’s last-mile delivery experience, which has proven instrumental in the app’s success.

  Zepto has focused on incorporating modern designs, and from what I have observed, they have followed the industry’s best practices with some innovative designs.

  The application’s UI/UX design is a part of the frontend development process;

  Graphic Designing	This includes creating logos, icons, and branding of the application with the motive to create an appealing interface and a memorable brand.
  User Interface Design	UI design begins with a low-fidelity representation of the application, leading to the creation of its layout and structure. Using these as the basic structure, designers create interactive mockups and clickable prototypes to simulate how the application will work and check for user experience.
  User Experience Design	UX includes checking everything about how the user interacts with the application. From observing the application flow to tracing the path a user takes to complete the action. UX designing is about adding convenience and functionality to the design while following principles of simplicity, consistency, and accessibility.

  Furthermore, front-end development costs and time can vary according to the tools used. Some popular design tools are Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD. On the other hand, there’s the choice between development frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.JS, among others.

  It all comes down to your or the design and development team’s choice of tools and how comfortable they are in integrating other tools for the work. Both of these aspects will vary in the time required and cost.

• Backend Development

Backend or server-side logic development of an online delivery application is one of the most complex aspects. This part handles the business logic and defines how the application will perform when processing orders, communicating with customers, giving instructions to delivery partners, and so on.

The backend of a delivery application has to take into account for three segments;

• • Customer Portal
  • Delivery agent portal
  • Local store portal

The customer portal is where customers place their orders. For instance, Zepto customers have access to a different portal where they find all the products available with the local partner stores. They can place orders, make payments, track their deliveries, and interact with the customer care team.

Then there’s the delivery agent portal accessible by the drivers who will pick up the order from the store and deliver it to the right address. The delivery agents app is geolocation enabled, which means the order delivery request is sent to the person nearest to the pickup and delivery address. The delivery agents will find information like orders they have completed, earnings, customer support, etc.

An important part of backend development is API integration. APIs make it easier to add payment gateways, delivery features, and much more. We can customize the APIs even further to help improve the app’s functionality.

For backend development as well, popular tools like NodeJs, Python, Django, Flask, and Ruby on Rails can also determine the cost and time of building the application. For instance, working with Flask is relatively cheaper, but it’s not recommended to use for highly complex applications.

These nuanced details are considered by the best grocery delivery app development company to build the application.

• Cross-Platform Development

Cross-platform app development takes a different route, as you have to write the codebase only once. This code is rendered for multiple platforms using platform-specific compilers. Some of the most popular frameworks we use for Zepto clone app development services are React Native, Flutter, and Xamarin, among others.

The codebase you write will include business logic, UI components, and APIs for additional services. Even though you have to write the code once and have the same code logic across, there may be some platform-specific components you need to work on. This includes the platform’s native modules, including camera, GPS, and push notifications.

This development model is faster and more cost-efficient, no doubt about that. However, issues might arise with UI components and user experience. In any app, you will find that UI/UX elements are better in a native application development system.

The second concern is performance. Cross-platform applications cannot match the performance of native applications. However, this does not mean that cross-platform applications lag or have glitches. They can still run seamlessly but with the right development approach.

App Development Segment	Time Required (In Hours) – Estimated	Cost of Development (in $) – Estimated
Frontend Development	820 to 1080 hours	$20,000 to $100,000
Backend Development	800 to 1000 hours	$50,000 to $120,000
Cross-Platform Development	600 to 800 hours	$25,000 to $100,000

Looking at the cost comparison, you may wonder, “If I am spending $100,000 on cross-platform development, isn’t it better that I take the native road ahead?” 

Well, hear this. In cross-platform, you are only spending up to $100,000 (it can be even more) on the entire application. But with the native option, you are spending the given amount on the front end and back end separately.

How do Features Affect the Cost to Build an App like Zepto?

Application features have a big impact on the cost. At the end of it, every application we build is a mix of different features and functionality. Apart from design, everything we build in an app, like login sequence, security system, payment gateways, etc., are all its features.

The process we implement to add these features along with the UX design elements that go with them can vary the development costs. Moreover, the level of features, like if you want your application to have some AI-based smart features, the costs will certainly increase there as well.

To help you understand it better, here are the standard and advanced features you can add to an online grocery delivery application.

An operator-based grocery delivery application has three components and each of them is connected. Here are the basic and advanced features for all three.

• Customer Application

  • User Registration and Login: Allow your customers to create an account and speed it up with social sign-in. Further, let them add the basic details like name, phone number, address, etc.
  • Product Browsing and Search: Let the customers browse products available to buy through the application.

Smart Feature Addition: Use artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect buying behavior and patterns. This will let the app provide personalized recommendations to the customers. 

• • Shopping Cart: Allows customers to add and remove products from the cart and share information like total cart value, discounts available, delivery charges, etc.
  • Checkout Process: With multiple payment options, the customers can make payments through the application. They must also be allowed to choose from different delivery options according to customer preferences.
  • Track Orders: Integrate maps in the customer application, which is connected to the delivery agent’s portal. This will allow customers to track the orders and also find the order ETA.
  • Push Notifications: The customers will receive in-app push notifications and send real-time updates on orders, delivery time, delays, etc. This is to ensure that customers are always informed.
  • Customer Support: Provide multiple channels for your customers to make contact. Take note of all customer issues and fix them so that other customers don’t face the same.

• Grocery Store Application

  • Partner Onboarding and Management: Allow partners to easily create their profile and integrate their platform with different available integrations.
  • Inventory Management: Allow partners to maintain their inventory by updating the number of items and synchronizing the data between administration and customer portal.

Predictive Inventory Management: AI can predict demand levels according to the collective order history of the area they are operating from. Using this information, they can update their inventory as required to prevent understocking and overstocking. 

• • Order Processing: Make it easier for partners to process all orders efficiently to ensure it is picked up and delivered on time.

Real-time Analytics: As an advanced feature, the partners should get information on orders, customer preferences, experience, driver behavior, etc. This information is crucial for partners to measure their efforts and make changes to ensure their customers are always happy. 

• • POS Integration: Grocery partners must have Point-of-Sale integration for seamless orders and payment processing.

Dynamic Pricing: Dynamic pricing adjusts the level of products according to the demand and inventory levels. 

• Delivery Partner Application

  • Signup and Profile Creation: The delivery company must allow delivery agents to sign up and create their profiles while sharing verifiable details.
  • Route Optimization: The application must use GPS, traffic data, and geolocation to update the route to ensure quick and hassle-free delivery.
  • Order Pickup and Delivery: Allow drivers to select the orders they want to deliver

Surge Pricing: Depending on the demand of the delivery agents, which in turn is influenced by the number of orders per driver in an area, you can implement surge pricing. This is when the delivery price increases dynamically according to demand. 

• • Interact with Customer: The delivery driver’s portal should have the customer’s contact details but not their actual number. Following in the footsteps of other similar services, the drivers must call another number, through which the call is routed to the customer’s number.

Based on this information, the cost to integrate the basic features of a grocery delivery application can be up to $15,000. However, if you want to include the above-listed and more advanced features, the costs can rise to $50,000.

Well, there you have it, a detailed guide on the cost of building an app like Zepto. Even though we know the application type and features, the final cost can never be shared without first understanding your requirements.

Even if you want to build a Zepto clone, costs can vary according to the type of team you choose, the team’s location, and the amount of time you can wait for the application.

This is because a team sitting in the USA will cost you more than a team working from India, China, etc. At the same time, if you choose to have an in-house team as against the norm to outsource the work, the cost with the former option will be higher.

To Sum It Up

Zepto is an online grocery delivery application that partners with local stores but has established its delivery network. Even with existing players in the market, Zepto has achieved tremendous success because they were able to tap into the potential of this market.

If you also want to build an application like Zepto, come to us. Mobmaxime is the best grocery delivery app development company. Bringing our experience and expertise to the table we will help you create a better than Zepto online grocery delivery application.

We are available for a meeting right now. All you have to do is get in touch.