How to Develop an App Like MAF Carrefour

Suppose you run out of rice at 9 pm and have it delivered to your doorstep within 20 minutes, all without leaving your house. That’s the convenience today’s shoppers expect, and a grocery shopping app like MAF Carrefour is making this possible across the UAE.

The application is changing how people shop for groceries. This shift is occurring not only in the UAE but also in over 15 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. With over 100,000 products, Carrefour ranks as one of the largest platforms for grocery shopping in the UAE.

These hyperlocal platforms have transformed online shopping and consumer behavior by offering a wide range of products, from groceries to electronics, fashion, and health and wellness. The shift towards hyperlocal shopping apps is leading entrepreneurs, startups, and investors to invest in such applications.

If you’re one of them, you’re at the right place. Here, you’ll learn how to develop an app like MAF Carrefour in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries. You will also examine its features, working procedure, cost, and monetization strategies.

Let’s get started!

What is a MAF Carrefour App?

MAF Carrefour is a UAE-based online grocery shopping app that is known for its vast product offerings. The application allows users to purchase groceries, household items, personal care products, electronics, and more.
The application has more than 10 million downloads in the Play Store with 4.5-star ratings from 467k+ reviews. It has over a 4-star rating on the App Store, with 52k+ ratings, making it a major player in the UAE market.

Carrefour ensures quick delivery, regular discounts, and loyalty rewards, which make the application a popular choice among UAE residents. The app’s multilingual support and seamless payment options also cater to a diverse customer base across the region.

The key features of MAF Carrefour include omnichannel presence, a diverse product range, digital catalogs, loyalty programs, online promotions and deals, payment options, fast delivery, local sourcing, and a B2B platform.

Now, let’s dive deeper into the MAF Carrefour app clone and how it can benefit your grocery delivery business.

3 Reasons to Develop an App Like Carrefour

The reason to build a grocery app in UAE is that the online grocery shopping market is booming and is projected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2030. So, how can the Middle East get behind? Of course, it can’t. In the Middle East, more than 75% of consumers like shopping online using mobile apps. This trend is driving the fast growth of mobile commerce.

Today, creating a digital solution goes beyond simply going digital. It’s about meeting what customers expect, reaching more people, and getting ahead of competitors. Here are the 3 key reasons for Carrefour like grocery app development:

1 Enhances Customer Experience

The MAF Carrefour-like app enhances customer experience by offering personalized shopping, faster and smoother browsing, offline browsing, and push notifications. In the UAE, nearly 80% of shoppers say personalized shopping improves their satisfaction and keeps them coming back. Building an on-demand grocery app like Carrefour optimizes the user journey, which helps businesses boost retention and loyalty.

2 Increases Sales and Conversions

An app like Carrefour integrates payment systems, fast checkout, and easy recording of transactions, which streamlines the buying process and leads to higher conversions. Statista stated that mobile e-commerce sales account for over 60% of all digital sales globally. Carrefour-like apps help capture impulse purchases and encourage repeat orders, which boost sales and conversions.

3 Improves Brand Awareness and Visibility

Building an MAF Carrefour-like app helps businesses improve brand awareness and visibility. Being present on users’ smartphones increases brand exposure and daily recall. According to a recent study, app users are twice as likely to engage with brands as non-app users. A Carrefour clone app can position your brand as a trusted, tech-driven solution in the supermarket space.

An on-demand grocery app like Carrefour also helps businesses to build strong customer loyalty, gain a competitive advantage, help in data collection and analytics, and improve marketing communication.

Now, it’s time to explore how to build an app like MAF Carrefour in 2025!

10 Steps to Develop an App Like MAF Carrefour

Grocery delivery app development doesn’t only require coding, but it also requires a well-structured approach. Whether you’re a startup or retailer, following a clear roadmap can save time and money and help build a successful app. From conducting market research to developing an MVP version of the application, here are the 10 steps to build a grocery app like MAF Carrefour:

1 Conduct Market Research and Planning

Proper market research helps you identify customer buying behavior, preferences, competitor strategies, and regional trends in the UAE or Middle Eastern countries. Basically, it allows you to define your target audience, validate your app idea, and understand what features users demand.

On the other hand, planning helps you build a roadmap of eCommerce grocery app development that includes budgeting, timeline estimation, and team allocation. This ensures your app meets business goals and user expectations from day one, which is the most important part.

2 Define Your Revenue Model

Define your business model for better clarity, strategic planning, efficient resource allocation, and a proper roadmap of success. Choose between a single-vendor platform or a multi-vendor marketplace like MAF Carrefour. Apart from that, define how products will be listed, how logistics will be managed, and whether you’ll offer third-party or in-house delivery services.

You need to choose how to make money. Look at options like subscriptions, commissions, ads, or service charges. Remember, a clear business model ensures long-term profitability and scalability.

3 List Out Features and Functionalities

After conducting proper market research, planning, and defining the business model, decide on the features to consider for different users, including customers, admins, and delivery guys. Consider features like product browsing, advanced search filters, secure payment gateways, order tracking, real-time inventory tracking, etc, to develop an app like MAF Carrefour.

List out features for admins so that they can manage inventory, pricing, and user data. As delivery partners need navigation and order updates, choose features for that. Features like loyalty programs, live chat, and push notifications help enhance user engagement.

4 Choose the Right Platform and Tech Stack

Choose the platform where you want to launch your application. Build an app for iOS or Android, or choose cross-platform app development, as per your target customer. Once you choose the right platform, choose the right technology stack for app development. Your app performance, scalability, and speed depend on your tech stack selection.

Carrefour clone app development requires a different tech stack for different development stages; for example, frontend development requires React Native or Flutter, which offer cross-platform support. While the backend requires Python and Node.js, ensure speed and flexibility. Remember, the right tech stack not only speeds up development but also keeps your app secure and maintained.

5 UI/UX Design

A well-designed interface keeps users engaged and encourages users to repeat use. Focus on mobile-first design with attractive visuals, easy navigation, and fast load times to create an intuitive interface. Also, integrate support for regional languages and RTL if you’re targeting countries like the UAE or other Arabic-speaking countries.

You also have to ensure fonts are good in size and readable, product images are engaging, and the app gives a seamless checkout experience. It eventually provides a hassle-free shopping experience to users and builds trust among them.

6 Develop MVP

MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, which is a digital solution that is developed with core features. It contains only basic features, including user registration, cart, product browsing, payment gateway, etc. This allows you to get an idea of the real world to develop an app like Carrefour without a heavy investment.

MVP development helps businesses collect early feedback, analyze user behavior, and implement the action that needs to be taken to grow the digital reach. Developing such a digital solution reduces risks, minimizes costs, and helps you get to market quickly.

7 Testing and QA

Quality assurance and testing are some of the most important parts of app development to ensure the app’s quality, reliability, and user-friendliness. As a result, before launching your application, it is essential to run testing to ensure your app’s performance across devices. QA includes UI/UX testing, functional testing, performance testing, and security testing.

Check features like order tracking, payments, and push notifications to ensure these features work flawlessly. Check for low network speeds or offline usage as well.

8 Launch and Market the App

After getting satisfied with the quality check, it’s time to launch and market your application. Build your solution on both iOS and Android platforms to cover a wider audience; eventually, choosing cross-platform eCommerce grocery app development will be crucial. To market the platform, launch a campaign using social media, local advertising, and influencer marketing.

Apart from that, offer launch promotions like discounts or free delivery to attract first-time users. You can also collaborate with local supermarkets or delivery partners for marketing. Make a strong first impression to enhance visibility and chances of the app’s success.

9 Gather Feedback and Improve

In this step, monitor user reviews, app ratings, and in-app behavior with the help of the analytics tools of the application. By following some strategies, like in-app surveys or follow-up emails, encourage users to rate the app and provide feedback. This leads you to identify the issues they’re facing, like poor navigation, slow delivery, or anything within the application.

When you fix your users’ issues, it will improve retention and build a strong bond with users. Gathering feedback and ensuring improvement make your app competitive and user-friendly.

10 Scale and Optimize

The last step includes scaling and optimizing the application. With time, the user base grows, several technologies come to the market, and customer demands increase, which needs to be updated. Integrate advanced features into your app like AI-driven recommendations, subscription models, voice search, etc.

Besides that, optimize backend architecture for faster performance during peak hours. Onboard more vendors to increase product variety and provide services to a wider audience. Improve ROI with the help of marketing automation, A/B testing, and performance tracking. Scaling and optimizing your app makes your app a fully developed grocery app like MAF Carrefour.

So these were the 10 steps to build an app like MAF Carrefour. Now it’s time to explore the 10 key features of the MAF Carrefour grocery app.

MAF Carrefour App Features

Features are an imperative part of the application that influence user engagement and satisfaction. They truly decide the overall success of the application. A grocery shopping app like MAF Carrefour offers several features to enhance the user experience. The app’s features are one of the biggest reasons for the app’s success.

From seamless user registration to live order tracking, here are the 10 key features that must be considered at the time of Carrefour-like grocery app development:

1 Seamless User Registration and Login

A seamless user registration and login feature allows users to sign up or log in quickly using a mobile number, email, or social accounts. This feature contains multi-factor authentication for better security, which increases the possibility of keeping the users engaged within the application.

2 Smart Product Search with Filters

Smart product search with filters enhances the online shopping experience by allowing customers to quickly and easily find the products they are looking for in the product catalog. This feature enables users to easily find the product with smart search, voice input, and filters like category, brand, and price.

3 Smart Product Search with Filters

Real-time inventory management is one of the key features that display accurate product availability so users know what’s in stock. This feature ensures accurate inventory data across all sales channels and locations. Inventory management helps businesses to reduce order cancellations and improve trust.

4 Multi Payment Support

Multi-payment support allows customers to pay via credit or debit card, digital wallet like Apple Pay or Google Pay, UPI, cash on delivery, etc. Basically, this feature allows customers to pay in various ways through a single payment gateway, which enhances the overall shopping experience.

5 Live Order Tracking

Live order tracking lets customers track their orders in real time with maps, delivery updates, and estimated arrival times. This improves communication and streamlines operations, which ultimately enhances customer experience and increases transparency and trust.

6 Personalized Offers and Loyalty Rewards

This feature integrates loyalty programs like MAF Rewards and pushes personalized discounts based on past purchases and user behavior. Offers and rewards enhance the customer experience and make them want to have a repeat purchase, which ultimately increases sales.

7 Multilingual and Regional Support

A custom grocery delivery app like MAF Carrefour offers multilingual and regional support features to target both English and Arabic or other user bases in the UAE and the Middle East. This feature caters to the UAE’s diverse user base along with localized content and pricing.

8 Push Notifications

Push notification is one of the important features of a grocery shopping platform since it sends instant alerts for promotions, order status updates, restocked items, offers, etc. This keeps more people engaged and informed.

9 Ratings and Reviews

This feature allows customers to rate products and delivery services, which plays a crucial role in the app’s success. Ratings and reviews influence trust and visibility, and download rates play the role of a key factor in answer engine optimization.

10 Schedule and Repeat Orders

The schedule and repeat orders feature of a grocery shopping app makes it easy for customers to schedule deliveries. This set up recurring orders for frequently bought items like rice, vegetables, chicken, water, or anything else.

Now that you understand the MAF Carrefour app features, it’s time to examine the development cost of such platforms.

How Much Does it Cost to Build an App Like Carrefour

The cost to develop an app like Carrefour is between $10,000 and $120,000+, depending on app complexity and feature integration. The price range is low to high because you either build a basic app, a medium-complexity app, or a high-complexity app. Let’s examine the cost range based on the app’s complexity:

These apps come with their features and functionalities. Analyze the table to understand the key features of basic, medium, and high complexity applications.

Carrefour app development cost also depends on several factors, which include:

• App complexity and features
• The choice of platforms like Native or Cross-Platform
• Design complexity
• Backend infrastructure
• Development team location and expertise
• Security requirements
• Third-party APIs Integrations

As we have now gotten to know about grocery delivery app development costs like MAF Carrefour, it’s time to know how such apps generate income.

Note: The cost can be negotiated if you choose the right development partner.

Also Read: Cost To Build A Grocery Delivery App Like Instacart

How Does an App Like MAF Carrefour Make Money?

MAF Carrefour-like apps are not just digital solutions for convenience, but they’re powerful revenue-generating platforms. These types of apps are developed to earn through multiple streams, where a growing user base frequently orders. Here’s how a Carrefour-style grocery app generates consistent income:

In App Purchases

The app generates revenue whenever a customer makes an order, more so on some high-margin items such as electronics or personal care. Upselling and cross-selling methodologies also raise the cart value, improving the amount of profit per sale.

Advertising

The app makes money by showcasing products from leading businesses in prominent locations, advertisements, or exclusive offers on the platform. These sponsored listings and target promotions are one of the biggest revenue-generating streams.

Loyalty Programs

The loyalty program also helps the application generate money. It rewards users and encourages them to make repeat purchases and long-term engagement, which leads the application to drive more sales and revenue.

Data-driven Personalization

Data-driven personalization also helps the application generate revenue by analyzing user behavior, and the app can offer tailored deals and product suggestions, which increases conversion rates. Personalization leads to higher spending and improves customer retention.

Partner with Apptunix to Launch Your AI-Integrated Grocery Shopping App!

Carrefour clone app development isn’t just about giving a competitive advantage, but it’s a necessity for grocery businesses. Because people seek convenience, fast delivery, and personalization while ordering groceries and other items, it’s very important to launch an AI-integrated grocery delivery app. A feature-rich digital solution can help your business scale quickly and build a loyal customer base.

Whether you’re a startup or an established retailer, investing in a smart, AI-powered grocery delivery app opens doors to endless growth opportunities.

Partner with Apptunix, a MAF Carrefour app development company, to develop an app like MAF Carrefour in UAE with cutting-edge technology, intuitive design, and cost-effective development. From market research to final deployment, we offer end-to-end support tailored to your goals.

Let’s build your next big success in online grocery shopping, starting today!