A Step-by-Step Guide To Build An App Like AnyList

Last Updated on May 31, 2022

“One lemon, a few fresh thyme sprigs, two avocados, two or three melons, depending on the size, and… And that’s everything mom asked me to get to cook a great ratatouille. My god, I totally forgot about the tomatoes!”

Were you ever in a position like that? At least once, I bet you have. And that’s because you left your list of papers at home or maybe someone took those valuable notes of yours? 

Either way, the thing stays the same: often people without a shopping list come to the store and in most situations, it ends up spending more than it was meant or missing any valuable things. So is it so important to have a shopping list?

See also:

• How To Build Supermarket App Like Ocado

Since technology is thriving in each market, every company is growing and there is no exception to the grocery business. But it is a tiresome job to go to the store and buy food and no one recalls buying groceries every now and then due to their busy schedules.

So, it supplies us with on-demand supermarket shopping list applications such as AnyList to overcome the problem of technology. And the idea of a food shopping list delivery service is still enjoyed by users.

We also built a step-by-step guide for you if you have an app concept to make an app like AnyList, so you can get a complete understanding of how the app functions on the shopping list?

But First, What Is AnyList?

Anylist is an online grocery store that helps you to create a shopping list for food, create a list and share it with your friends and family. Not only can you create and post a spreadsheet, but when you go out for food shopping, you can even refer to the list. In their recipe feature, they have also provided a solution for organizational meal planning. From other websites, you can also import your recipes.

It is everything you would want from a grocery shopping list app.

A Better Way To Do Shopping 

Around 90 percent of Americans used paper lists at the beginning of 2012. But the situation has drastically changed with developments in new technology.

According to the NinthDecimal Mobile Audience Analysis Study about how smartphones impact the way customers spend, 69 percent of respondents use their mobile devices to build shopping lists, and this figure is growing rapidly. 1,200 smartphone users participated in the poll, presented by NinthDecimal, with 57% of males and 43% of females among them.

According to it, 68% of customers use their smartphones to search for items, 86% plan for a shopping trip, and 59% turn to them while shopping.

Therefore, which is why a food app is a really effective option. More than just list-making features, it can provide far more.

Some facts about AnyList

• Founded: May 1, 2010
• Founders: Jason Marr and Jeff Hunter
• Monthly App Downloads: 37,276
• Headquarters: Sunnyvale , California, United States

The benefits of using a shopping list app for groceries:

• There is no pen and paper needed to add new things to the list.
• Capability to share your list with members of the family
• To find more specific information about a product or label an object as purchased, barcode scanners
• Virtual vouchers for food, discounts/promos
• Recipe books built-in with the option to add items to the list

AnyList’s Business Model

Anylist is a freemium variant of an application in which you can use basic features free of charge and only pay for premium features, and they call it Anylist Complete. So, you have to spend $9.99 a year if you want to use the premium edition, which is super cheap and everybody can afford it.

Anylist Complete offers full-fledged access through the web to mac or laptop. In addition, you can also use features such as import recipes, meal schedule calendar, use any list on your apple watch, add pictures to the list, etc.

AnyList’s Key Features

Unlike any other mobile app for grocery delivery, Anylist is a rare exception in on-demand app development. Anylist doesn’t only supply your door-step with a range of groceries, but it lets you make a list of the appropriate list of foods and add recipes. For example, dairy, beef, vegetables, fruits, etc., you can easily add things and update the food list category-wise.

You can also share your shopping list and recipes with your friends and family, it has this interesting feature that highlights the frequent grocery items you frequently shop for. This functionality is not offered by most online grocery ordering applications.

You may also make a personalized shopping list of your own and refer back to your local supermarket.

Although each food app varies from the other, however, Anylist operates very differently from any other food app online. Not only is Anylist a grocery shopping app, but it also has unique real-time features that allow users to create location-based alerts, custom item lists, add recipes, etc. So, you need additional features with the must-have grocery app features if you are ready to create a grocery delivery app like Anylist.

To create an on-demand grocery delivery ap, let’s dive into the must-have features:

• Organized List Creation

To arrange your tiresome grocery shopping experience, you can build all your grocery lists according to the recipes or according to your local shopping.

• List Sharing

With the aid of this feature, you can share your modified shopping list or your own recipe. While sharing it with your friends and family members, you will remain coordinated, any adjustments you make to the list will occur to everyone you share it with immediately.

• Customized Grocery List 

You can quickly reorder the app’s list of categories, and you can add or delete objects from the list. The list can be updated according to your needs.

• Noted Addition In The Lists

For example, you can add a note about quantity, taste, etc. The most fascinating part of Anylist is that you can add notes to the things you choose.

• Receipts Creation & Sharing

To prepare your meal and share it with the ones you want, you should make your own recipes. The changes you make in your meal plans will again appear to the individuals who post something. Personal recipes can also be submitted via email.

• Receipts Importation

You can post recipes directly to Anyllist from your favorite website or blogs, so you can read them anytime you want and prepare your meal accordingly.

• AnyList ‘Complete’

Anylist Complete is a list of additional features that can be used after the enhanced edition has been updated. It is very cheap so that it can be used by any user and offers advanced features such as organizing folder lists, getting alerts, list security, customized theme look, etc.

Development Process To Build Your AnyList Like App

• Research

Even if yours is only for getting a mobile app presence, all applications start with an idea. Refine the concept into an application on a solid basis. Be sure that your original research covers your buyer persona’s real demographics, motivations, activity trends, and priorities. Have the end-user in mind at each point of the process. You can also take references from your competing grocery delivery startups to draw out conclusions from your research.

Now, try to conceive about the lifecycle of your client, until their features are pinned down. They need to be purchased, transformed and maintained and their allegiance nurtured after you meet them. In the end, you can understand how the digital product would be viewed by the consumer. Doing this would give you and your investors the much-required confidence.

• UI & UX Design

Now, when the project’s target demographic, budget, and schedule are sorted, it’s time to focus on an app’s visual appeal. Yes, the next move is to concentrate on visualizing and conceptualizing the features of the software. The architecture of the app must be based on having an outstanding look and feel for the overall user experience.

If you want to create Android applications, then you need to pursue the new trend to satisfy user demand for the Android app creation process. Your software should be user-friendly and social. Having sophisticated features not only makes early adoption faster, it also keeps consumers interested for a long time.

• The Development

Generally, the production process begins very early on. In reality, a working prototype is created after an idea receives some maturation in the conceptual stage, validating features, and assumptions, and helping to provide an interpretation of the work scope by the grocery delivery app development company

The app goes through a series of steps as the production progresses. The key functionality, while present, is not verified in the initial level. Seeing that the software is very buggy, there are no non-core features at this stage. In the second level, most of the proposed functionality is implemented. Ideally, the software has gone through light testing and bug fixing, but there may still be some bugs. In this step, for further research, the app is released to a certain community of external users. The software will pass to the deployment stage after the bugs in the second stage are patched, where it is ready for publishing.

• App Testing

The most interesting aspect of the production process for corporate smartphone applications is research. If you prefer Android or iOS mobile applications, all mobile apps need to be tailored for the process and according to the current trends. One of the essential aspects for a high-functioning mobile app is careful monitoring to eliminate any minor error.

It’s best to do several rounds of review to ensure that it is bug-free and ready to use, regardless of how streamlined the application looks.

Testing must be performed before other investors need to spend more to address the bugs that happen in the future before the actual release of the device. The stringent testing procedures are given priority by a competent mobile app production firm to eliminate any glitches and produce high-quality products. Ideally, in every step, you should conduct testing on every feature. It’s mostly that in the release process, anything that performs smoothly in the alpha phase does not work well.

• App Launch

It is not important to note that it is the critical stage of the development of applications. In designing, creating, and evaluating the software, time, resources, and cash is spent. Both your efforts will go in vain if you don’t pull off the release properly.

Note that multiple publications practices are adopted by Apple and Android. It is strongly recommended, before setting any launch date, to go through the guidelines of the various app stores.

How Much Will It Cost To Build An App Like AnyList 

The cost of creating the framework for the grocery shopping list can vary based on the characteristics, functionalities, and platforms you select. You can employ a developer or hire a group of experienced mobile app developers whom you can completely count on.

It has an immense effect on cost estimation to build smartphone software on a specific platform. You can opt to raise your budget with ios, android, or web apps (for example). Therefore, if you don’t want to pay such an amount, you can select a cross-platform application creation process where the developers of your mobile app can produce an app that will run on all related platforms.

Thus, keeping all factors in consideration, we could say that the app would cost somewhere between $20,000 to $40,000.

 

Frequently Asked Questions for building an app like AnyList (FAQs)