-202108">partnership with supermarket giant Woolworths, which will see over 1200 products from its Metro stores in Sydney and Melbourne available to order on the Uber Eats app from next week. 

Each delivery placed on Uber Eats will be packed by a Woolworths personal shopper, before being passed on to Uber Eats for same-hour delivery. 

“This partnership will give our ‌customers‌ a ‌fast,‌ ‌reliable‌ ‌and‌ ‌effortless‌ ‌way‌ ‌to‌ ‌get‌ ‌groceries‌ ‌delivered‌ ‌to‌ ‌their‌ ‌door‌ within an hour. It will be an ‌ideal‌ option for‌ those smaller ‌top‌ ‌up‌‌ or‌ last minute shopping needs, and complement our existing e-commerce offer,” Woolworths Metro general manager Justin Nolan said in a statement. 

Uber Eats regional general manager retail for ANZ, Lucas Groeneveld, said that the company has seen significant demand for grocery items on the platform. 

“Through Covid lockdowns, we saw a tripling in consumer searches for grocery,” Groeneveld told Inside Retail.

“Woolies will be able to plug into the 60,000 delivery partners that we have on the platform to give them extra capacity as their demand increases.”

Woolworths is also teaming up with Uber Direct which will see a portion of the orders made via Woolworths Online fulfilled by Uber. This will begin with Woolworths’ existing online retail operation in Brisbane and Toowoomba before rolling out to further locations.

Globally, Uber has a strong track record in the space, having partnered with some of the biggest names in grocery including Walmart, Costco, Carrefour and Sainsbury’s.

Uber Eats Marketplace

Woolworths is the latest and biggest grocery addition to the Uber Eats Marketplace in Australia, which has expanded to include independent groceries, convenience and speciality stores and alcohol.

Globally, Uber’s new verticals business achieved a US$3 billion run rate in Q1 2021, a 77 per cent lift on Q4 2020, and the ANZ team wants to continue to grow this arm locally. 

“While the overall delivery business has grown significantly, both pre- and post-Covid, the new verticals business is growing even faster as customers are wanting more than just restaurants on demand; they’re wanting grocery, convenience, alcohol, and many more verticals that we’re bringing online,” Groeneveld told Inside Retail. 

These new verticals include everything from pet supplies to beauty and hardware – “wherever a consumer wants the convenience of on demand”.

“What you’ll see happening over the coming months and years, is a shift towards being able to order anything on demand by the Uber Eats app,” he added.

“We’re in discussions with a number of big retailers across verticals.”

Uber is also seeing strong growth in its last mile fulfilment project Uber Direct, where retailers rely on their own sales channels and have fulfillment completed by Uber.

Groeneveld said it’s all part of Uber’s ‘Go get’ strategy, which aims to connect the transport side of the business with delivery 

“It’s really about being the platform where you can go anywhere and get anything.”

Changing shopping habits 

Uber Eats has capitalised on consumer demand for speed and convenience, which has been heightened as a result of the Covid pandemic. 

“[They say that] 10 years of consumer changes happened in 10 months, and I think retailers are now beginning to respond to that,” Groeneveld said.

And despite lockdowns limiting trips to supermarkets, he believes the ‘top-up’, which Woolworths is targeting with this partnership, as a key trend.  

“It speaks to the convenience and spontaneity that consumers are looking for at the moment. There’ll always be a place for big box retail and big shops, but we are definitely seeing demand for the quick top up and when it’s convenient to do so.”