Building a Complete Food Delivery Platform in 2 Days: Core Features and Design Choices

1. Overall Positioning: Who Uses This Platform?

The system targets three roles:

Ordinary users (C‑side) : customers who place orders.

Merchants (B‑side) : store owners who open shops and receive orders.

Administrators (backend) : personnel who audit, configure and manage the platform.

2. User‑Side Features: A Natural Ordering Experience

Login & Registration

Supports username/password login and distinguishes normal user identity.

Home Page Browsing

Category browsing : fast food, drinks, noodles, etc. (categories configurable via backend).

Announcements & carousel : platform notices and activity entry points.

Merchant list : displays participating stores.

Store Details

View merchant information (address, phone, business hours).

View merchant menu categories (hot‑selling, staple, snack, etc.).

Ordering & Cart

Add dishes to the cart.

Modify quantity or delete items.

Order Confirmation

Dish details.

Delivery address.

Delivery time.

Remarks (e.g., "no cilantro").

Payment

Simulated payment with balance and recharge flow.

Order Management

View all orders.

Track order status (awaiting acceptance, delivering, completed).

Confirm receipt.

Personal Center

Balance recharge.

Account information management.

3. Merchant‑Side Features: Running a Real Store

Merchant Registration

Merchants submit qualifications for admin review (approve or reject).

Merchant Home Page

Dedicated backend entry for merchants.

Category & Product Management

Create, read, update, delete dish categories.

Manage dishes (name, price, image, availability).

Order Management

View user orders.

Update order status (accepted, preparing, completed).

Store Settings

Configure store name, business hours, announcements, etc.

Data Statistics

Today's order count.

Dish sales ranking.

Revenue statistics (simple visualization).

4. Administrator Backend: The Platform’s Invisible Hand

Platform Dashboard

Shows core platform data overview.

Merchant Qualification Review

Approve or reject merchant applications.

Merchant Management

Freeze, edit, or otherwise manage already‑onboarded merchants.

Carousel & Announcement Management

Control content displayed on the user‑side home page.

System Settings

Basic configurations such as delivery fee rules.

Rider Management (Partial)

Bind / unbind riders.

Simple rider information maintenance.

5. Rider Side: Why Only a Subset?

A full delivery loop would include order acceptance, pickup, and delivery, but for a graduation project the focus is on "completeness and self‑consistency" rather than sheer feature count.

✅ Rider login implemented.

✅ Task hall showing pending delivery orders implemented.

✅ "Delivered" status update implemented.

❌ Complex route planning omitted.

❌ Order grabbing / dispatch strategies omitted.

This retains the concept of delivery without expanding development difficulty indefinitely.

6. Who Is This Project Suitable For?

Students working on e‑commerce / O2O graduation projects.

Anyone who wants a seemingly complete, showcase‑ready system.

Those who do not want rider‑side complexity to stall progress.

The combination of user side, merchant side, and admin backend offers a stable and complete structure for such projects.

7. Final Thoughts

A food‑delivery platform may appear to be merely "ordering + payment + orders", but fundamentally it tests role permissions, business processes, and data state flows.

Choosing stability and completeness over breadth makes it easier to deliver a high‑quality graduation design.

📌 Appendix: System feature mind map (reference)