From Dream to Digital: Chowman's Journey with iCoderz's Food Delivery Solution

Discover how iCoderz helped Chowman bring its real Asian flavours to the globe by creating an easy and quick food delivery app that improves customer satisfaction and business growth with each order.

 |   iOS, Android, Web
 |   India

Project Overview: Chowman!

Chowman, a Chinese restaurant chain, is based in Kolkata and has 13 outlets in Kolkata and new branches in Bengaluru and other cities. Chowman partnered with iCoderz to develop a feature-enhanced food delivery application to improve customer relations and the organization of food delivery services. It enables users to order food and manage their orders by personalizing meals and selecting varied payment methods.

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Proposed Team to be Involved:

2 Web Developers

2 App Developers

1 UI/UX Designer

1 Quality Analyst

1 Project Manager

Requirements

The client wanted a strong mobile application capable of customer ordering and delivery tracking. They needed the app to appeal to many customers so users could customize orders. The app also required basic features such as users’ preferences, reordered favourite meals, and multiple payment gateways for the in-app wallet. The delivery management and timely notification had to be enhanced to increase user value.

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Our Application Development
Challenges & Solutions

Challenge:

Chowman processes a high number of orders daily, which makes it perform poorly during traffic hours. This leads to the problem of order synchronization with Pet Pooja. Another factor that must be controlled is the server load used in order processing.


Solution:

Among the changes we made, we set up a load balancer to share incoming traffic among various servers. This approach reduced the burden on the server when it was busiest and guaranteed that if one server was down, the others could take over, increasing system availability and reliability.

Software Development

Challenge:

While using the support chat, we faced a challenge: some images were lost. This issue occurred during our interactions with customers. It impacted the quality of communication, which also played an important role in the users' satisfaction.


Solution:

First, chat images were saved on our servers, which caused issues when load balancing resulted in new sub-servers under high loads, and images disappeared. To deal with this, one had to move image storage to AWS S3 buckets so all the images would be safely stored in the chat database and easily accessible, even if the server was changing.

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Challenge:

Due to frequent read-and-write operations on our database, performance became an issue in data handling. Database performance was also highly important to the overall speed of the application.


Solution:

We selected Amazon Aurora, which enables the creation of various read replicas to balance out the load among databases. This setup increases read/write efficiency and allows us to easily elect a new primary out of a read replica when required without significant service disruption. We also worked on the API side to minimize the frequency of database queries to increase efficiency.

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Challenge:

We encountered several security issues. For instance, some discount coupons were automatically applied without proper verification. Additionally, users could place orders but could not complete their payments online. Due to these flaws, questions were raised regarding the ordering process' security, highlighting the importance of maintaining transaction authenticity to prevent fraud.


Solution:

Due to these problems, we added server-side validation to improve security. This process is very useful as it guarantees the validation of all critical data—prices, quantities, and transaction parameters—on the server level rather than on the client side with the help of web inspection tools. To reduce the possibility of fraud, we only allowed data to be processed in transactions authorized by the server.

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Key Features:
Enhancing the Food Ordering Experience

BOGO (Buy One Get One):

Customers who buy any of the products in the promotion range are allowed to take one product for free. This offer is obtained instantly when placing the order and choosing the relevant products.

Freebie:

When the order reaches a certain value, a free item is offered with the purchase. Customers will observe this on the checkout page.

Flat Price Discount:

It involves applying a single rate to the overall order amount. Consumers can see the reduced total amount at the bottom of the order details before paying.

Bestseller Recommendations:

The top-selling products are promoted to give the user the best experience when searching for them.

Banner Ads:

Special banners advertise the offers and events as the clients move through the app.

Categories Menu:

Food products are organized into sections like starters, main dishes, and desserts on the Categories Menu. This structured approach allows customers to easily browse meal options, simplifying finding what they want to eat.

Tag Filter:

This is more specific where the user can search more items filtered by tags such as “veg” or “spicy.”

Scheduled Orders:

Orders can be placed in advance, even when the restaurant is not open for business.

Custom Delivery Instructions:

Customers can give special delivery instructions during the check out process to meet their requirements.

We deliver tailored software solutions that drive success. We understand your unique needs and provide top-notch service every step of the way.

Development Methodologies and
 Progress Monitoring:

Methodology:

Implementing SCRUM with AGILE methodologies has significantly improved our team's productivity and collaboration.

Progress Tracking:

The Project Management System (PMS) allowed the team to track progress, manage tasks, and communicate effectively. It facilitated real-time updates on project milestones, ensuring all team members were aligned and any issues were promptly addressed.

Progress Monitoring

Technology Stack for Chowman:
A Food Delivery App

User App

iOS
Android

API

Laravel

Server

Amazon EC2

Storage

S3 bucket

Socket

node.js

Database

MySQL (Amazon RDS/aurora)

Admin Panel

Vue

Laravel

Mobile APP

Flutter (Andriod and IOS)

Results:
Evaluating Effectiveness

Increased Sales and Customer Engagement

Strategies like buy one, get one free, and gifts for The Chowman’s qualifying sales increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, positively impacting overall sales, average orders, and sales.

Consumer Reviews and Ratings

With a 4.2-star rating from 2.64K reviews, excellent consumer feedback highlights the importance of the Chowman app. This rating reflects high customer satisfaction and trust levels, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business.

Improved User Experience, More Downloads

Ingredient lists and best-seller options that adapt to new categories help customers navigate the menu more easily. Such an easy-to-use interface increases the average sessions and conversions, facilitating the overall shopping environment at Chowman.

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