Uber Reportedly Wants To Deliver Same-Day E-Commerce Orders

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(afagen)

Uber wants to become more than a ride-hailing service: the company wants to use its army of drivers, who are definitely not employees, to deliver food, stuff, and people. While its experiments so far with food delivery and luxury merchandise delivery haven’t been very impressive, the company plans to keep trying. Next up: same-day delivery from large and small retailers in New York City and in San Francisco.

This information comes courtesy of Re/Code, who cite as their source “two people familiar with the rollout.” The first brands included will be “flashy” luxury brands, which the source didn’t name. Those brands will be identified when the company announces the service, which will be in late September or early October.

The New York rollout will happen first, and then the company will set a date for San Francisco. While they will begin with luxury brands that have a built-in following of people who need express delivery for some reason.

Instead of shopping for shoes and watches through Uber’s app, which is how the food delivery works, the partnership will instead make super-express delivery by Uber a delivery option when shopping on the retailer’s own site. The company is also working with companies that provide e-commerce sites to small, local retailers, which hints at an instant-delivery collaboration with small retailers as well.

Uber will still have the same problems reported back in June: both New York and San Francisco are cities where parking is in short supply: that’s fine if you’re a pseudo-cab constantly on the move, but problematic if your job is to knock on someone’s door to deliver a sandwich or a suit.

Uber to Unveil Big E-Commerce Delivery Program With Retailers in the Fall [Re/Code]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist