Gone are those days when Pet owners had a habit of slipping their neighbour kids a few bucks for walking their dogs or drop their pets with friends or family before going out on vacation. Nowadays, technology has facilitated everything, be it walking a dog or booking a cab. Pet apps have revolutionized the Petcare industry while making the owner’s life easy, convenient, and creating substantial business opportunities. According to research, dog walking services have already generated a market of $1 billion in the year 2018. It is growing, precisely, at 2.7% per year, and is expected to reach USD 202.6 billion by 2025.
Not only that, but the dog walkers are also earning a whopping $2000 per week by working for 35-40 hours a week. So, you can see from the facts mentioned above, how profitable this market sector has become. Besides making it easier for the pet owners to find a dog sitter conveniently, the dog walking app also has the potential to turn your business into a profitable venture. So do you want to design a similar app but have no idea how to proceed? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we will discuss the ways of developing an app likeRover.
But before we move ahead, we should first discuss an app that is already booming in the market, i.e., Rover.
What is Rover App?
Rover app provides pet sitting, boarding, and walking services to its customers, leveraging the service of more than 200,000 verified pet sitters in Canada and the U.S. The users can keep track of what their pet is doing at a particular moment with the help of in-build texting feature and media sharing options. Rover app also uses location data in the background for tracking active services with the help of GPS tracking solutions.
Best Dog Sitting Service Providers in The Market
1. Wag
2. Fetch
3. PetSitters.org
4. HouseCarers
1. Wag
Being a newbie in the game, Wag app connects the truly obsessed dog owners with background checked, insured, bonded dog-owners. With this software, one can easily track the path of their dogs live using the GPS map integrated in the application. Additionally, it also provides a report after every walk which contains a video or photo of the dog, total distance covered, time duration and whether your dog pooped or peed status. Note that this app is currently designed for iPhone users only and not all geographical locations have dog walkers.
2. Fetch
Fetch pet care application does things differently. You can’t merely hand-pick your sitter. Instead, the app personally matches every client to the most qualified service provider from their staff. Submit your request, and they fetch you the most qualified professionals in your locality that are available on the said dates. Besides that, they do give a free home consultation for the sitter and you to meet. Also, they provide client testimonials on the site. Fetch also offers overnight visits and dog walking. All the sitters go through a criminal background check, and your pet has some insurance during the reservation. One should expect to get updates via email, text, and phone calls to know how your pup is doing.
3. PetSitters.org
Petsitters.org (run by the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters) is a pretty basic Pet sitting service. They don’t give any background information about the person who is going to watch your pet. There are no past reviews available of the sitters, so you don’t know how they have been with the previous clients and their pets. One needs to do a bit of investigation before finalizing any pet sitter like contact the guy, interview, check their background, ask for references and much more. Had this kind of information present in the profile, it would have made the whole game quite easy.
4. HouseCarers
HouseCarers matches a house sitter for you in the nearby surroundings. The sitter will look after your house and pets while you are partying away in Paris. So you don’t even have to stress about boarding the pet as they are already around. Your home will also seem “lived in” while you are travelling and this way criminals won’t even target your place. The major negative point is HouseCares doesn’t give any guarantee and won’t perform any criminal background verification. That can come out as very strange and not a very safe option when you don’t know the sitter personally or have any references.
What are the Benefits of Developing an App like Rover?
It is certain now that building an app like Rover, is truly beneficial in maximizing profits. However, if you are still not sure about this endeavour, then here are some benefits to help you out.
1. Reduces the burden of the users so that they can focus on the other essential things.
2. Its robust features like instant messaging and push notifications enable the owners and dog sitters to interact easily.
3. The app offers secure and multiple payment options making the task of paying hassle-free and straightforward.
4. Dog owners and dog walkers can also connect instantly via email or phone calls right from the app.
5. The app also offers the dog walkers to send photos and videos of the dog to the dog’s owner quickly.
6. Besides all these, the user can easily track the distance walked by their dogs and the calories burned, to monitor their dog’s health efficiently.
7. The app also sends alerts to the user about the dog’s walk, pee/poo time, food/water, and so on.
8. Moreover, sitters can find their potential customers easily across any location.
So, these benefits make the dog walking app an ideal way to boost business. It covers the benefits for both the parties( dog sitters, and owners). So, this is the perfect time to invest in this business and handsomely grow alongside it.
Let’s now look at the business model of the app. A business model provides ways to use the app for marketing purposes successfully, or, how can you get an overall benefit from the app in terms of finance.
Business Model for On-demand Dog Sitting App
The business model of the dog sitter app will undoubtedly have the below mentioned characteristic functionality. You can choose from any of these functionalities
1. Paid Promotions
2. Certain per cent from Transactions
3. Listing charges
4. Advertisement Revenues
5. Surge Charges
1. Paid Promotions
If any dog sitter or dog owner wants to increase their visibility on the app, then they need to pay an amount which will come under the paid promotion category.
2. Certain per cent from Transactions
As the heading implies, you can charge a certain amount of money from the transactions done through your dog walking app.
3. Listing charges
These charges include a certain amount that would be levied on the users for listing themselves on the app.
4. Advertisement Revenues
That’s a great way of generating revenue from your app. Once you get a substantial amount of traffic on your app, then you can provide spots to other people for advertisements.
5. Surge Charges
You can put in surge pricing where the demand for dog sitters is high. That’s also a robust way to earn more.
Now, that you have made your mind to develop an app like Rover, it is essential to discuss some features of an ideal dog walking app. So let’s dig in.
What Features to Include in An App Like Rover?
Various specific features make an on-demand dog walking app beneficial for the businesses. To break down
For Pet Owners
1. Login/Register
The signup process should not be time-consuming for users. The app should allow pet owners to access the app after successfully signing in the portal easily.
2. Feed Monitoring
This feature provides a diet chart and calorie tables of the dog so that the owners can easily monitor the health of their pets.
3. Reminders
Using this feature, the users will receive alerts regarding vaccinations and vet’s appointments.
4. Chat with Vet
Pet owners can also contact the licensed veterinarians while comfortably sitting at their home.
5. Digital Notes
Notes regarding exercise plans, diet schedules, and prescribed medicines can easily be created using this feature.
6. Connect via Text and Pictures
App owners can easily interact with other users and even share texts or images of their dogs.
7. Review and Referral
Pet owners can also review the app and refer it to other people to help in improvisation.
For Admins
1. Effective Dashboard
It accurately showcases all the necessary information about pet owners, service providers, vets, and other caretakers.
2. Email Marketing
Admins can efficiently leverage the various marketing tools for promoting his app.
3. Cloud-based Storage
All the related information about the vets and users are stored in a safe and secure environment.
4. Performance Stats
This feature enables the app owners to view the performance statistics so that appropriate measures could be taken at the correct time.
5. Payment Gateway
The on-demand dog walking app also offers multiple payment gateways for quick and effective payment tracking.
6. Push Notifications
The admins can use this feature to broadcast all the latest relevant information like offers, new services, discount coupons, etc.
7. Ratings and Feedbacks
All the feedbacks and ratings by different users will eventually go to the admins to rate up improvisation.
Besides these basic functionalities, you can also opt for some advanced features that will make you stand out of the competitive market.
For Service Providers
1. Registration/Sign up
The service providers can easily access the app by registering themselves through either their email ID or using their phone numbers.
2. Track the Walk
The pet walkers can track the distance covered by the dog in a fixed period. That will help them to calculate the amount accurately.
3. Appointments
This feature provides the details of all the meetings the caretaker has in a given day/week.
4. E-prescription
Using this robust feature, a veterinarian can prescribe a medication digitally to the users.
5. Medical History
This feature provides detailed information about pet’spet’s past medical history.
6. Digital Payments
Besides distance tracking, the on-demand dog walking app also promotes digital payments by providing online payments and e-receipts to the service providers.
7. Attract New Clients
This platform also serves as an excellent platform to attract new users who are in search of dog sitters or other services.
Features That Will Give You An Edge Over Others
1. Machine Learning Algorithms
These algorithms will help your business platform to understand the effectiveness of all the profiles and even rank them based on the relevance of a search query. Finally, it runs a predictive analysis to find a perfect match for a particular profile. A large amount of information will help the sitters or dog walkers create a more likeable profile, and this way, consumers at the same time can find the best sitter for their pet.
2. Chatbots
A Chabot helps the users to navigate through the app easily. Also, it can assist your customer support to contact new users and acquire their feedback immediately. Customer support or messenger can help in retaining loyal customers effectively. It paces the process and attracts more sales for your business.
3. Blockchain Backed Payments
Lastly, by putting our rich experience in the blockchain, we can help in adding another security layer to the payment system into your software.
What is The Approximate Cost and Time Estimate For Building an App Like Rover?
Like all the other on-demand apps, the cost of developing a dog walking app also depends on various factors. These factors typically include but are not limited to
- Features opted
- Type of platform selected(either android or iOS)
- UI/UX development
Besides these factors mentioned above, the physical location of the developers also plays a critical role in determining the cost and time for project completion.
Conclusion
In today’s digital era, mobile apps have become a vital aspect in almost all industries. The dog walking services to have benefited a lot through the use of a mobile app. These dog walking apps provides more freedom to the dog owners and enables them to take care of their dogs even in the unforeseeable condition of modern life. So don’t stop here, go ahead, make an on-demand dog walking app, and watch your business grow. If you are having any query or wanted to build a dog walking app like Rover, then we are always available. So get in touch with us and get a free consultation today!
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