To preface, if you’re a merchant selling on Shopify and need a same-day delivery solution now that UberRush is shutting down. You can download our Shopify App in the App Store here.
UberRush brought supply to a market that did not yet have demand. They relied solely on their retail partners for survival. Can you tell me a product I can get delivered today via UberRUSH?
Retailers were 100% responsible for marketing their same-day delivery offerings to local consumers. UberRUSH gave them the same-day checkout option, they had to integrate it and sell it. They both failed.
Predictable Demand Is Key
Couriers, for the most part, require predictable demand to function & be profitable (without it, workforce utilization becomes nearly impossible to maximize). This is true for both crowd-sourced models and models employing full-time employees. In UberRush’s case, their couriers needed confidence that upon opening the app, they’d have deliveries–or assumingely, they’d go elsewhere. Combine predictable demand with high customer density and couriers’ point-to-point delivery models can offer pricing that the market will support. UberRUSH launched expecting their customers (retailers) to create enough consistent predictable demand. They didn’t.
Same-Day Delivery Serendipity Vs. Intent
Prior to founding Hodi, I led ecommerce & digital at Master & Dynamic, where my team implemented both Postmates and UberRUSH’s APIs. Our biggest, almost immediate, learning was that solely adding a Same-day Delivery shipping option to an ecommerce checkout does not dramatically increase conversion rates. Surprise. Surprise.
Today, demand for same-day delivery in retail is highly elastic, due, in part, to the friction in same-day product search & discovery. Consumers are discovering same-day delivery availability at the end of the purchase journey after they’ve already mentally accepted 2–5 day delivery… Pay an extra $7–15 to get it today. No thanks.
The majority of same-day delivery retail purchases (excluding purchases on Amazon Prime Now) were not initially made with intent to receive a product today. They occur serendipitously–the consumer happened to by in NYC, inventory happened to be in stock, and it happened to be early enough in the day. This changes when users can find and purchase products available same-day with intent–it’s the transition from “oh fun, a same-day option!” to “I need/want this today”.
In China, the vast majority (~85%+) of online purchases happen via a marketplace (e.g. Tmall, Taoboa, or JD). This centralization of search & discovery and order flow has made same-day delivery table stakes. In the US, online retail is much more fragmented, prohibiting consumers from easily finding products available to them today.
The Predictable Pivot To Food
Today, if a last-mile courier doesn’t start in the food/grocery vertical, they almost always end there. Why? Consistent predictable demand (we all eat 20–25 times per week) and loyalty (how often do you switch grocery stores?). Combine this with the fact that Uber owns the consumer experience [read: customer data] and can take a vig off the order value, it’s clear why a company who’s optimizing its biz model shifted its focus.
The Key To Future Success Is Top-Of-Funnel Demand
Reducing search friction for products available for same-day delivery is the missing ingredient UberRUSH needed to survive. Enabling consumers to begin their same-day shopping journey with intent will create an experience that has parity to shopping in store (or on Amazon for that matter). It’s also our focus at Hodi.
To conclude with this gem from Fortune:
UberRUSH aimed at providing high-speed deliveries for merchants looking to compete with the likes of Amazon’s same-day shipping.
Amazon owns 29% of top of funnel product search–competing with them is going to take much more than a shipping option.
