How can IoT Assist in Making the On-demand Delivery Chain Smoother?

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IoT the next phase of disruption hyperlocal food delivery  app

The new digital era is putting a lot of conventional definitions of things to rest and bringing in new meanings. As of now, “Hyperlocal” seems to be the favourite word that almost every business is revolving around. The initial definition of this word has now grown into something else, which revolves around the combination of using applications on mobile devices and the technology of GPS.

You can check out this blog for more information about the whole industry of Hyperlocal and its surrounding components.

Hyperlocal On-demand food delivery services and IoT

The growth of the whole on-demand delivery app system knows no bounds, for the better. Over time, more and more startups are being built to facilitate the Ising needs of the users and trying to make the profit out of it. However, is it that easy as it sounds? The truth is, it is the other way around.

Talking about on-demand apps, there are majorly four sets of users involved in the entire process; firstly, the users who receive the food, second, the agencies or companies that provide it, third, the delivery boys who work as the mediator and finally, the app publisher who earns every time their app comes into use.

This whole process at times becomes very complex to manage. Not to forget, that it is highly uncertain and you can never rely on the so-called facilitators.

If we talk about the numbers, in over three years, more than 100 startups in the domain of on-demand delivery apps have shut down because of not being able to cope up with the rising clutter and maintenance. The problem arises because the choices of the facilitator and the app do not match with each other. On the one hand, the restaurant would want the best quality of food and ambience for their customers; the app would want the quality and speed at the same time.

Now suppose this, we know the potential of the Internet of Things. What if these hyperlocal on-demand delivery services were to be mixed with the technology of the Internet of Things? The implication of these drives in the infrastructures of the kitchens of the restaurants would make them more efficient and smarter than ever.

Benefits of IoT in the Hyperlocal On-demand delivery services

Better productivity in the kitchen:

Smart kitchens as the name suggest work as the ones that have the intelligence to function on their own, meaning they would enhance the overall efficiency and ensure the quality of the food. Moreover, they could also make sure that the customers are getting everything at breakneck speed, which is what is expected out of the on-demand delivery apps.

There are cloud-based smart kitchen platforms (thanks to the Internet of Things) that not only connect the platform with the appliances in the kitchen but also allows them to communicate with each other.

For instance, a fridge that has an image recognition software can integrate with a recipe app and notify about the available ingredients for that recipe, saving both time and resources. Similarly, a smart microwave can work over different temperatures depending on the information that has been gathered from the recipe app simultaneously.

The next example is pretty known; a smart coffee maker can make different kinds of coffee based on what the user prefers at that time, according to the time of the day all by itself.

It is all about bringing all of these things together and being able to provide services in a faster manner because no user would want to wait for their order for a very long time!

Quality of food delivered:

There is one widespread problem that the users face while ordering food from on-demand food delivery apps. The problem is that the quality of food might not be up to mark and there is not enough room for getting their order changed instantly.

Unlike apps, this is the one thing that you can do if you go to the restaurant by yourself. Thanks to the Internet of Things solutions, apps have a solution to this problem too! There can be temperature sensors attached to the food that is being delivered to the customer, so that any point if the temperature of the food is rising above or below the optimum level, the delivery boy or subsequent restaurant can be notified of that.

This level is calculated based on different parameters:

The outside temperature, the property of the food, and most importantly the speed of the delivery boy and the distance that they need to cover.

Faster deliveries ensure faster money:

All the solutions that the Internet of Things aims to provide or does give one benefit; if faster deliveries are happening, that would mean more money for the business. This would happen without compromising on the quality of food, hence keeping at par with the requirements of both the restaurant business and the app.

Hyperlocal grocery delivery services

Now that we have talked about the spectrum of hyperlocal on-demand food delivery apps, there is another one that is quite similar to it. Users have become obsessed with the idea of getting everything delivered to their doorstep at the most reasonable price, and without having to face any trouble. For this, many businesses are changing their way of functionality just so that they can match the level of clutter that surrounds every industry. The most recent addition to this on-demand world its the hyperlocal grocery delivery apps.

We have mentioned that customers are getting used to the idea of having everything delivered to them without making any effort other than a straightforward click on their smartphones, be it shopping for clothes or food. Then why can it not be the case for ordering groceries as well?

Now even in this sector, IoT can be of great assistance. Because delivering groceries sometimes may turn out to be chaotic for the businesses. Suppose the customer has ordered something, and that is not available at the store at that time. Which would mean that the delivery boy has to go and purchase that item first from various stores and then make the delivery? Quite obviously, that becomes a long and hectic task.

Integrating the IoT devices with various merchants would mean convenience for the delivery boy who would then know exactly where to go for which item, saving the time.

Conclusion

Now that we have had full exposure to the whole domain of hyperlocal on-demand app development services, it is pretty clear how important it is to make a continuous change in improving the solutions that are provided to the customers.

Incorporating these latest technologies like the Internet of Things or Artificial Intelligence is not going to harm the output in any way, instead, it would only make the whole process faster and much more productive.

Businesses in both restaurants and groceries have already started to integrate their methodology of working with these technologies so that they can also produce some great solutions, but the full potential of the “smart” things has still not been considered adequately. It would still take some time given how new and complicated it can be at times to understand!

Hemendra Singh
Mr. Hemendra Singh, Managing Director, also the co-founder of The NineHertz is a visionary leader who oversees the corporate direction and successful growth of the Company and its employees, alike. With a career spanning nearly 10 years and a degree in Information Technology, Hemendra is the epitome of the new-age entrepreneurship in the emerging Digital India, who has catapulted The NineHertz to be counted among one of the foremost IT Companies in India.