Uber will now pick up, deliver prepaid in-store customer purchases
Uber has unveiled a new store pickup service
The company's "Store Pickup via Uber Connect" service allows customers to arrange for an Uber courier to pick up their purchases from local stores and delivered to a destination of their choosing. The items have to be pre-paid, under $200 in value and less than 30 pounds in weight.
The new feature is available across the U.S. in Austin, Baltimore-Maryland, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orange County, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Francisco and Tampa Bay.
To use the service, customers tap the store pickup button on the Uber app. After completing the purchase, they upload the receipt in the Uber app to have a courier pick up their order. Customers can track their pick-up delivery in real-time in the Uber app and will be notified when the drop-off has been completed.
“With Store Pickup via Uber Connect, we’re taking the stress out of holiday shopping, making it easier than ever to get your gifting done and spend time with loved ones,” said Wendy Lee, director of delivery product management, Uber: “It is the perfect product for consumers who could use a little help picking up items from local stores, whether they’d like to have those items delivered to their homes, or to friends and family nearby.”
Uber eyes e-commerce
Uber initially expanded from its core rideshare business into third-party online delivery with the launch of Uber Eats in August 2014 and has since been shifting toward becoming a full-fledged e-commerce platform.
Notable initiatives Uber has launched include executing an approximately $1.1 billion acquisition of Drizly, a Boston-based liquor delivery service. Drizly’s marketplace is being integrated as a feature within the Uber Eats app, while also maintaining a separate Drizly app and web experience.
Uber is also using self-driving robots to deliver fresh products on-demand, including robots from autonomous sidewalk delivery company Serve Robotics, which began as the robotics division of Postmates, which was acquired by Uber in July 2020 for $2.65 billion, and was spun off as an independent company in February 2021, with Uber as an investor.
More recently, Uber, which entered a seven-year cloud technology agreement with Oracle in February 2023, began teaming up with Oracle to release a solution called Collect and Receive. This new cloud-based offering on the Oracle Retail platform enables retailers to link to the Uber Direct white label online delivery service via pre-integrated APIs.
This joint solution supports online fulfillment activities including same-day and scheduled delivery options, order pickup, and returns to the closest retail or postal location.