Food delivery apps have changed how restaurants and cloud kitchens satisfy their customers' hunger. They have eliminated the need to visit physical storefronts. Instead, food lovers can get their favourite meals delivered to their doorsteps. One such popular food ordering and delivery platform is Zomato, which has satisfied the hunger of 3 billion+ people. Looking at the growing demand and usage of such platforms, many food businesses are investing in Zomato clone apps, which function the same as India's number one food delivery service.
Are you also planning to go ahead with a virtual kitchen concept by launching your restaurant management software? This guide is for you, helping you understand how an app like Zomato helps you make your business future-ready. But before jumping into deep water, let's understand everything from the basics.
What is a Cloud Kitchen?
Also known as a virtual or ghost kitchen. Unlike traditional food chains, these virtual kitchens do not have dine-in or a physical location. Instead, a commercial kitchen space that helps food business owners deliver orders through platforms like Zomato or UberEats.
The cloud kitchen model was first introduced in Los Angeles, California. The cloud kitchen market was $45 billion during the last year (i.e., 2024). The market globally is expected to increase steadily at a 13% CAGR between 2025 and 2023, resulting in the market size reaching USD 86 billion by 2030.
Source:
(Markntel Advisors)
Who Can Use Cloud Kitchens?
Virtual kitchens meet the demand of all food businesses. Cloud kitchens are for anyone who wants to serve food without paying traditional restaurant maintenance costs.
- Delivery-only restaurants
- Catering companies
- Meal prep services
- Packaged food brands
- Brick-and-mortar establishments expanding to delivery
A cloud kitchen business model is the perfect solution if your food business relies on delivery or large-scale production.
Whether you're a big brand, a passionate cook, or a growing franchise, cloud kitchens give you a scalable, digital-first way to reach hungry customers faster and more efficiently.
Key Features of Cloud Kitchens:
- No customer-facing setup
- Lower operational costs (no waitstaff, no decor)
- Fast setup and scalability
- Operates through third-party apps or custom platforms
How Cloud Kitchens are More Than Food Delivery Trends?
There are lots of food delivery trends that you might have heard about, these include:
- Drone food delivery
- Contactless food delivery
- Hyperlocal food delivery
- Cloud kitchen food delivery
Each of the food delivery trends are driven by technological innovation and changing habits of food lovers. Undoubtedly, most is changing how food is delivered, but cloud kitchens have redefined the online food ordering and delivery model. This concept helps food business owners to operate virtually, reducing the need for dine-in space.
Cloud kitchens are one of the "food delivery trends" changing how meals are delivered. Let's take a look at how food delivery solutions are redefining the virtual kitchens ecosystem.
Solve Business Problem
You know that the typical profit margin for a traditional restaurant is just 5 to 10%. High operational costs eat up the profit of food businesses, and this is where the virtual kitchens concept comes into the spotlight.
By reducing operational expenses, cloud kitchens can boost profit margins up to 20 to 25%. That’s up to 3x the profitability compared to traditional models.
With changing customer habits, they prefer quick dining experiences over physical visits. This shift has pushed many food businesses to invest in restaurant management software to ensure a seamless ordering experience.
With an evolving market, restaurants that stick to traditional models face rising costs. And those who choose to go ahead with the cloud kitchens concept gain huge profit.
Meet Digital Consumer Needs
In 2025, the online food ordering market is expected to reach $1.39 trillion. The revenue is estimated to grow by 7%, increasing the market volume to $2 trillion by 2030. It's projected that there will be more than 2 billion users who prefer to use food delivery solutions.
Today, customers want to access everything from their smartphones, and virtual kitchens make it happen for your restaurant business. With no dine-in distractions, cloud kitchens help you focus on fast delivery and a better experience.
Launch Your Cloud Kitchen App in 5 Days
Get a white-labeled, ready-to-go Zomato Clone with all the features your cloud kitchen needs. Accept orders 24/7, manage deliveries, and scale fast.
Operational Freedom
If you're looking to experiment with the market, a ghost kitchen is the right option to choose. It helps food entrepreneurs like you to focus on offering the best food and customer experience. This provides more flexibility to try new things, which you can't get with the traditional food ordering business model. Ghost kitchen allows you to:
- Launch new cuisines with low risk
- Experiment with seasonal or limited-time offerings
- Pivot quickly if something isn’t working
For example, with a cloud kitchen, you can serve a burger during lunch or a high-protein bowl in the evening. This helps you to target different audiences and serve diverse menus. This helps you turn every aspect of your business into a profit-making engine that adapts to trends and market gaps in real time.
Multiple Revenue Streams
Unlike a traditional restaurant, which relies on dine-in traffic, a cloud kitchen opens multiple revenue opportunities for entrepreneurs like you. With Zomato clone apps, you can run your cloud kitchen business by eliminating the hefty commission of third-party platforms.
A virtual kitchen can help generate recurring revenue in the volatile food industry. By opting for different streams and attracting new customers, you can grow your cloud kitchen business worldwide. This business model is lean and limitless in potential.
Backed by Major Players
Many business giants like Uber and Amazon are investing in virtual kitchen infrastructure. In India, Rebel Foods was one of the largest virtual kitchens in 2021 with approximately $1.4 billion valuation. It operates in more than 10 countries as well as has 45+ brands. Dark kitchen is a big infrastructure and the restaurant industry's future.
Scalable and Smart
Unlike traditional restaurants, which need large dining areas, a cloud kitchen is space-focused on food production. When you start a dark kitchen, you just need small areas, decreasing operational cost by 70%.
Food delivery solutions make operating under one roof easier for more than one virtual kitchen business owner. AI-powered restaurant management software helps automate workflow and reduce human errors. This model scales up and down according to your customers' demand without the need for physical remodelling.
Fusion of Cloud Kitchens & Zomato Clone Apps Defines the Online Food Delivery Future
From cooking to doorstep delivery, you need a complete solution that helps you meet the demand for convenience. And it's where dark kitchen and Zomato clone apps gain the spotlight. It's becoming the gold standard for online food ordering businesses like yours.
Feature-rich Zomato clone apps provide you with the digital infrastructure required to operate a successful online food ordering business. From menu management to collecting payment and tracking orders, this easy-to-use food delivery solution makes everything quite easier for you and your customers. Let's check on how this platform became a food delivery trend, or helps you prepare your dark kitchen for the future.
Need for Smarter Tech
Today, more than 68% of customers prefer to order their favourite meals online through their smart device. With the growing customers' demand, you need food delivery solutions that help you manage everything for your dark kitchen from a single place.
Source:
(Purdue.edu)
Using third-party applications like Zomato and Swiggy can make you pay around 15 to 30% commission fees. Moreover, you don't have limited access to customers' data and branding. Hence, when you're thinking of launching your online food ordering business, it's smart to opt for modern tech.
Own Your Brand - Own Your Customer
When you start offering your virtual kitchen services on aggregator platforms, your brand is just one name among a long list. But with Zomato clone apps, you're the hero of the whole story. From the menu management to the final delivery notification, the easy-to-use platforms become a fully branded journey that reflects your style and voice.
With a customizable food delivery app like Zomato, your targeted audience gets great service. It provides you with insights into user behavior, including food lovers' ordering patterns, favorite meals, peak times, etc. This helps you offer a personalized user experience, ensuring to improve average order value.
In short, food delivery solutions prove to be the direct communication medium, helping you market your business to your customers. This, in the end, increases customer retention and drives repeat business.
Streamlined Order Management
Restaurant management software helps you have complete access to your business process from a single place. No problem whether your customers are ordering using your branded site or applications, your customers' data is synced in real-time. This helps you speed up your virtual kitchen's workflow and decrease the chance of human errors.
Flexible Delivery Logistics
Late food delivery frustrates your customers and leaves a negative impact on them. A McKinsey report on rapid food delivery evolution, approximately 60% of customers prefer to get their food delivery within 30 minutes or less.
Source:
(McKinsey)
With in-built delivery management tools, Zomato clone apps help ghost kitchens meet the expectations for fast meal delivery. From assigning delivery providers to find the best route and tracking delivery status, everything can be done from a single platform. With this feature-rich food delivery solution, you can ensure timely delivery, resulting in lover missed orders.
Dynamic Menu & Pricing Control
Every minute is important for operating a successful virtual kitchen business. Feature-rich Zomato clone apps provide you with complete freedom to create brand-specific menus with unique offerings. They also allow you to customize the price of menu items for customers in different geographies.
Feature-rich food delivery solutions also facilitate you to update or remove any item in the menu. This makes it easier for you to keep your customers informed about your menu offerings and pricing as well.
Smart Notifications
Modern customers of today value transparency. According to the report, 9 in 10 customers trust or purchase from a brand that prioritizes transparency. And food delivery solutions help you provide real-time updates to customers at every step, helping you win your customers' trust.
This easy-to-use delivery app helps you keep your customers, delivery providers, and restaurant staff in the loop. Auto status updates from being prepared to on the way to being delivered, food delivery solutions reduce customer support queries and build trust.
Take Control of Your Delivery Business with Zomato Clone Apps
The online food ordering landscape is changing fast, and cloud kitchens with advanced solutions are getting the spotlight. In an industry where user experience defines success, owning your food delivery solutions is a strategic move.
From easy operations to managing menu and orders, Zomato clone apps empower virtual kitchen brands to expand on their terms. Instead of becoming one name in a long list on aggregator platforms like UberEats and Swiggy, it's a better option to build your restaurant management software. Here is where we come into the spotlight. Share your project's needs at [email protected] and get all your requirements satisfied from experts at White Label Fox.
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Deep Faldu – CTO
Author
As the Chief Technology Officer, Deep Faldu spearheads innovation at White Label Fox, ensuring seamless, scalable, and high-performance app solutions. His technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and commitment to excellence help businesses thrive in the competitive digital landscape. He continuously explores new technologies to enhance product efficiency and user experience.
