By Natasha Sinha '18

After testing their recently developed merchandise delivery service in New York City, Uber has launched UberRUSH in San Francisco and Chicago. UberRUSH will deliver flowers, books, food – essentially anything that can fit in a car. The company has collaborated with Shopify, an e-commerce company, and Clover, a payments processor to help retailers and restaurants use Uber for deliveries. The new delivery service is managed by local merchants who have struck partnerships with Uber, and can sell their products through the phone, online, or in person, but not through the Uber app. Merchants schedule delivery with Uber, which retrieves the products and texts the customers when they are on their way. With UberRUSH comes a peer-to-peer element in New York City only, where customers can deliver items to their friends.

Uber’s rationale is as follows: 20% of all trips in the United States are to move things from one point to another, wasting both time and money. Though a delivery service would save time and money, most local businesses simply cannot do so as day-to-day tasks are already so complicated and adding a delivery service would pose logistical issues and cause financial headaches. UberRUSH is the perfect solution, as now thousands of owners can integrate delivery into their businesses.

The new facet of Uber will help owners in several ways. Delivery can instantly be tracked by not only customers but by vendors, as well. Don and Ken Sofer, owners of the famous NYC restaurant “Blockheads”, use the app to track their orders: “It allows us to do what we do best. Before we even make the food, the UberRUSH guys are sitting here with a backpack on, ready to take it.” Further, the new service helps businesses expand their delivery zones, allowing businesses to deliver to all over Manhattan, for example, rather than within a 5-mile radius. Additionally, the new service will allow collaboration with existing platforms, such as Shopify. Customers can now see a product online, and try it on at home a few minutes later. Profit incurred from the service will not only benefit Uber, but local businesses as well.

With the development of UberRUSH came speculation that the company could pose a potential threat to FedEx and UPS.  This does put Uber in a position to take some parcel delivery orders; however, UberRUSH revolves around same-day delivery around local businesses rather than week-long delivery of products from companies such as Amazon. FedEx CEO Fred Smith is not worried – he believes the company is extremely innovative, but will unlike be a major competitor as the network FedEx and UPS have developed is so intricate that it is hard to replicate.

As the service costs significantly less than a regular taxi service, Uber has rapidly become one of the most popular services on the market. Now with the development of new services such as UberRUSH, the company has undoubtedly raised the bar for delivery services.

 Sources:https://newsroom.uber.com/2015/10/rush-open-for-business/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-14/uber-expands-delivery-service-to-chicago-san-franciscohttp://www.wsj.com/articles/uberrush-not-yet-a-fedex-killer-1444846449http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/uber-rush-same-day-delivery-debuts-nyc-chicago-san-francisco-n444366Photo:http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/fba67c05aca2bc170cf227adf9ace31/202801558/uberrush.jpg