On-demand transportation company Uber announced Wednesday that in addition to transporting people via its UberX and town vehicle services, and delivering lunches via UberEats and UberFresh, it will now transport, well, anything you want. Today it’s making it an official part of the company, and expanding the courier service to Chicago and San Francisco, allowing customers to receive deliveries from local businesses.
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Re/code reported last month that Uber was planning to tie-up with retailers and fashion brands. With all that competition, Uber will have to work hard to stand out.
The move comes weeks after online giant Amazon began recruiting drivers for on-demand delivery of its products in its hometown of Seattle, Washington, with plans to launch in several other cities soon.
Uber’s success is far from assured, though – there are tons of competitors, and delivering food and packages is an entirely different endeavor from delivering people. Meanwhile, startups including Postmates, Deliv and Instacart are all vying for a piece of the speedy-deliveries market.
The service will roll out in San Francisco, Chicago and New York City this week, and will initially be available to businesses that want to use Uber as a delivery service – similar to Sidecar’s delivery program.
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Uber’s new service will likewise compete with a rash of delivery apps like Postmates. Bigcommerce said that select retailers using its platform will be able to use Uber’s same day delivery service, UberRush, to deliver their products to local customers. Both the customer and the merchant can easily track the exact location from pickup to drop off right from Shopify. Tuesday, Postmates stole a bit of Uber’s thunder by setting its lowest delivery fee at $2.50, whereas the ridehailing company’s local merchant delivery starts at $5.
