By SHO ITO/ Staff Writer
June 27, 2024 at 17:56 JST
In Uber Eats' new service Pick Pack Pay, couriers shop for groceries at stores and deliver them to customers' homes. (Provided by Uber Eats Japan)
Uber Eats Japan launched a new service on June 26 that allows its couriers to shop for customers at supermarkets and deliver the groceries to their homes.
The company has previously offered delivery of pre-packaged groceries, but the new service will eliminate the need for stores to do any of the packing, attracting more retailers to partner with Uber Eats.
The new service, called Pick Pack Pay, will initially be offered at 20 My Basket stores operated by retail giant Aeon Co. in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The company plans to expand the service to 1,000 of the chain’s outlets by the end of the year and is also looking to recruit other retailers as partners.
Under the new service, customers can order groceries through the Uber Eats app. Delivery partners will then go to the store, shop for the items and pay for them using a digital credit card.
The groceries will then be delivered to the customer’s home.
Customers can order almost any of the approximately 3,000 items that are available at the typical My Basket store. They will also be charged a service fee based on the distance from the store to their home.
In addition to food delivery, Uber Eats Japan has been offering delivery from convenience stores and supermarkets for the past five years.
However, the traditional model has required the store’s staff to pick out and bag the ordered items rather than Uber Eats couriers. This can be difficult for small stores that are short-staffed.
The new service should make it easier for these stores to participate in the Uber Eats platform.
For customers, the new service offers the advantage of getting groceries delivered quickly and on-demand, as opposed to online grocery services that can take hours to deliver.
For Aeon, which has been attempting to grow its online supermarkets with limited success, the partnership opens up new opportunities.
Although ordering Aeon’s groceries through Uber would have higher fees for customers, the retail operator believes the new service will reach a wider range of online shoppers wanting faster delivery.
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