Best Online Business Ideas: Start an On-Demand Delivery Business in 2021-22

On-demand delivery business apps have been around for over a decade now but it is during the pandemic that they have reached a popular milestone. We have seen more new online business ideas popping up in the past year than ever before and this is saying something. 

The contagion has forced our hand towards using on-demand delivery business apps and not only has it benefited companies in terms of revenue but it has also helped them improve their processes to a great extent. 

Back in 2009, Uber came into play and transformed the cab booking industry. Today, it is one of the top names in the taxi booking service industry and continues to inspire many new businesses. 

Entrepreneurs often dub their on-demand delivery business as ‘Uber for X, Y or Z’ service, and many popular brands like GrubHub, and Grofers have taken their app model as a template to create apps for their own online business ideas in a different niche. 

On-demand delivery apps take an entire process into consideration and transform the traditional ways of operating into a mobile-friendly interface. Groceries, taxi booking, food and beverage delivery, pharmacy, electronics, and more enterprises have jumped on the on-demand delivery business model and improved their bottom line manifolds. 

Don’t believe what we are saying? Here are some facts to back up the claims:

• Approximately 155.8 million users will be ordering from online platforms by 2024.
• The average order value is expected to increase from $46 in 2020 to $48.6 by 2024
• According to an HBR survey, nearly 49% of on-demand customers are millennials
• The on-demand food delivery business alone has recorded a global CAGR of 14% from 2018-2020
• According to a Burson-Marsteller’s survey, more than 86 million Americans use on-demand delivery services

Impressive numbers, right? These numbers reflect the importance of online business ideas and reinforces why startups must operate with an on-demand delivery business model. 

Why Do We Need to Invest More in On-Demand Delivery Businesses? 

The future is all about providing convenience to your customers and online business ideas can offer that using an on-demand delivery business model. Let’s look at the top reasons why we need to invest more into online businesses:

1. Increased Efficiency:

On-demand delivery apps automate every aspect of your business. They eliminate the need for middlemen and reduce the time needed to complete a transaction. On top of that, apps decrease the need for physical interaction between sellers and customers.

For example, on-demand courier services save you from standing in long queues. Customers can arrange for a pickup and have their package delivered to their desired destination using an automated process on the app. 

2. Live Tracking:

Customers love to stay informed about their orders. Both customers and sellers can keep track of the goods in transit using an app. It brings more transparency into the process and helps people in staying informed about the package’s estimated time of arrival. 

The logistics arm of the business can use this feature to know the exact location of the delivery resources and improve the efficiency of the fleets by combining tracking with route optimization.

3. Reduced Costs:

Apart from the freedom of incorporating multiple payment methods like credit cards, digital wallets, debit cards, and more, on-demand delivery apps also help you reduce your overheads.

Increased use of automation in apps reduces the need of human resources and also functions as an in-built marketing tool. You can receive orders, track packages, respond to customer queries and more, to reduce the costs and generate a better ROI as time progresses. 

Best Online Delivery Business Ideas Worth Investing

With that being said, it is time to dive into the most interesting online business ideas that you can invest in 2021-2022. Remember that in order to launch a small online business, you do not have to invest in a full-fledged vehicle fleet. 

Smart business is all about bringing together different service providers and sellers onto a common platform and managing them effectively. Define the reasons for starting a business and then commit to making magic happen. 

Some of the most common reasons to automate a business include: 

• It saves time
• Customers can get multiple options to explore on a single platform
• Customers can buy products that fit their taste and budget
• You can offer transparent deals with reviews and ratings
• It is safer to order online than go out in crowded places

Here is a list of most promising on-demand delivery business ideas that you can invest in come 2021-2022:

1. On-Demand Food Delivery Business:

With global players like Zomato, GrubHub, and Uber Eats already in the game, you might wonder why it is a good idea to create another app. Isn’t it? 

Of course they have a strong market presence but at the same time there are many regional and local competitors mushrooming around the world. Ordering food online has moved from being a fad to an everyday necessity.

The pandemic forced Michelin star restaurants in London, known for their ambience and second by second prepping, to opt for food delivery via Supper App. The idea of Supper App was once ridiculed on National Television by some of the wealthiest investors but I think it was the app owner who had the last laugh.

Here are some growth factors involved in an on-demand food delivery business:

• High speed internet and access to apps via mobile devices in semi-urban and urban areas
• Affluent and growing generation Z that is now becoming paying customers
• Online food delivery becoming a lifestyle choice rather than a fad
• Demand for popular cuisines from across the world
• A thriving food scene in cities is supported well by deliveries
• Competitive pricing and discounts motivate customers to order more

 A local app can always gain the upper hand by providing more favorable terms with the restaurants featured on your app. What might seem like a small margin at first, can turn into millions of dollars with an increase in order volumes.

2. Pet Food Delivery Business:

Humans love their pets. In some cases, people love their pets more than they love their own friends. So, why wouldn’t they want their furry buddies to have the best nutritional products? The only challenge is that not all popular pet nutrition brands were accessible to everyone, until now!

The success of pet food delivery apps like NomNomNow, Petfood.com, PetSmart and Petco are proof that it is one of the growing market spaces and if you invest in the idea quickly, you can get an edge over the competition.

• Reasons why a pet food delivery app can work well include:
• According to American Pet Products Association, millions of Americans own a pet today
• The expenditure in the overall pet industry has increased to $45.5 billion
• Pet owners can easily store pet food in their garage
• Pet food delivery apps can easily take on additional pet products like pet beds, bowls, toys, supplements and more.

In a world where the number of pet friendly restaurants are increasing, investing in a pet food delivery app is certainly a no brainer with high growth potential.

3. Grocery Delivery Business

With a grocery shop around every corner, you can create a local grocery delivery app to bring all those stores together. 

People even used to pay extra to get their groceries delivered and there is a gap you can bridge. Speedy delivery has always been a concern for these stores due to the limited number of delivery personnel. 

AmazonFresh, Walmart Delivery Services, and Peapod are prime examples of how a modest grocery business can be organized digitally to make a fortune. 

4. On-demand Car Rental Business

Not many people wish to drive themselves today. Ever since the rise of Uber, passengers do not wish to make telephone calls to book a cab. On-demand car rental has become a way of life for many and if you can provide customers with something better, then it is a great business opportunity.

So, with the big boys already out there, what can be your USP? Here are a few areas where you can differentiate your car rental business:

• Automate the manual tasks for car rental companies to take the pressure off their staff
• Allow easy fleet management capabilities using driver, customer, dispatch and admin apps
• Providing automated customer service around the clock with chatbots
• Deploying an effective route optimization setup in your app for transparency and fleet efficiency
• Create an easy to use instant booking system for cab rental companies

5. Beauty & Personal Care Products Business

Beauty industry is no stranger to the eCommerce industry and is one of the popular online business ideas out there. But can you use beauty products to create an on-demand delivery business? Why not!

So, if you invest in an on-demand delivery app for beauty and personal care products, what trends will you likely see down the road? Let’s find out

• Sellers dealing in inclusive products that cater to a multicultural audience
• Social media tie-ups with beauty and personal care influencers to grow your delivery business
• Offering subscription-based delivery services for a wide range of everyday products
• A transparent process to organize buyers, sellers, and admins on a central dashboard

From an entrepreneur’s perspective, the beauty and personal care business is in a strong position and will only continue to grow. Leverage the ideas above to create the perfect delivery platform. 

6. Online Meat & Seafood Delivery Business

The meat and seafood business is largely organized around the world. Customers often complain of receiving old and stale meat products from the limited products available online.

This opens a wonderful opportunity to bring together the local meat and seafood shops onto a common eCommerce platform. Delivering fresh meat and seafood products using an on-demand delivery business is what the customers want today.

Existing players like Licious and Muscle Food are making a killing by delivering fresh meats to the locals everyday. 

Here are the features you can include in your platform and build a humble online business idea into a major brand:

• Offer convenient pickup and delivery through scheduling, dispatch, and last-mile delivery software
• Showcase products with detailed listings and descriptions 
• Enable a subscription-based selling platform for a weekly or monthly delivery of products
• Create advanced search filters to make it more convenient for the customers

An online marketplace dedicated to bakers is something truly missing from the eCommerce system at the moment. There are few players like Ferns & Petals that sell cakes and flowers online through their own single-vendor platform. 

If you are passionate about baking or just passionate about creating an on-demand delivery business for a niche, then cake & flower delivery should be your go-to move. 

Why is an on-demand cake & flower delivery business a lucrative investment? Let’s find out.

• It takes minimum investment, all you need is a delivery management system from NetworkON and you are good to go in no time
• It doesn’t need a lot of manpower to operate, you can simply organize different teams on your platform 
• Cakes & flowers will never go out of demand as there are plenty of occasions to get orders 

7. Furniture Delivery and Assembly

When IKEA delivers furniture on-demand, you know that it is more than a niche and marketplace with huge potential. 

On-demand furniture delivery is catching pace and leaders like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and more are leveraging this space to increase their revenue on a yearly basis. 

How can you benefit by starting an on-demand delivery business for furniture? Let’s take a look.

• Furniture delivery is the next step in DIY business mode and you can couple up the offerings with service plans to increase customer satisfaction
• Ease of ordering and plenty of options in marketplace ensure customer loyalty
• Modern shoppers prefer buying oversized furniture online to have them delivered and installed conveniently
• You can ensure seamless communication between buyers, sellers and administrators using a dynamic platform

8. Drone Delivery System

In a time dominated by contagion, drone delivery is the next logical step towards ensuring contactless delivery to customers. It is a potentially untapped market at the moment and if you are looking for an opportunity to invest, it doesn’t get any better than this. 

Drones are great when it comes to delivering products in semi-urban or suburban areas. But seeing the tide of time, we can expect the drones to take over delivery in the urban areas because of safety and privacy purposes. 

Future of On-Demand Business

Gone are the days when entrepreneurs needed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop an on-demand delivery business platform. Today, you can create a fresh marketplace for your online business ideas in a breeze by using NetworkON. 

And though smaller businesses will have to put in a little more effort into optimizing their last mile logistics, they can still compete with the big boys. 

The eCommerce industry is growing rapidly and Uber Eats alone saw a 30% increase in their independent driver network in 2020. 

As far as the future of on-demand delivery businesses is concerned, Apptopia reports that companies like Walmart, Isntacart and Shipt have already experienced a download increase of 160%, 218% and 124% on their websites respectively.

On-demand delivery businesses are now an inseparable part of our lives and no online business idea can survive without offering top-notch delivery services out of the box. 

Want to get on the on-demand delivery business bandwagon and start a marketplace of your own? Look no further. Create your own delivery platform using NetworkON and get access to cutting-edge features and technologies with a 99% uptime for your business.

To know more about getting started for FREE, get in touch with our team today. Email us at info@netwrokon.io or visit our website.