Uber has announced that users in select Latin American and Canadian cities can now order groceries through the Uber and Uber Eats apps, which is in partnership with Cornershop, a popular grocery delivery startup based in Santiago, Chile. The press release states that beginning Tuesday, July 7, in those select cities in Latin America and Canada, and will then come later this month to the United States. Customers can find grocery delivery opportunities through the Uber and Uber Eats apps.
"Today's product integration marks an important step in our partnership with the team at Cornershop to bring grocery delivery to millions of consumers on the Uber platform," said Raj Beri, Uber's Global Head of Grocery, in an Uber press release. "Uber started on the premise that people should be able to more easily get to the places they need to go, and to people they care about. This has since evolved to connecting people to food from their favorite local restaurants, and we are thrilled to bring our product expertise to the world of grocery alongside the Cornershop team."
This partnership between Cornershop and Uber follows the latter's agreement to acquire a majority stake in the former, which, according to the press release, is expected to close in the coming days.
"We launched Cornershop almost exactly five years ago today, and it's hard to imagine a better way to celebrate our anniversary than joining forces with the best on-demand platform around. We couldn't be more excited to work with Uber to take our mission to millions," said Oskar Hjertonsson, Founder and CEO of Cornershop, in the same news release. "Uber is the perfect partner to bring on-demand groceries from incredible merchant partners at the touch of a button across the Americas."
Cornershop's technology has allowed Uber to expand their delivery efforts, with four years in delivery partnerships in Latin America as well as the US and Canada. Grocery orders will now be facilitated and delivered by Cornershop employees.
According to the Uber press release, "Today's product launch comes after grocery delivery experiments with more than 9,500 merchants in over 30 countries on Uber Eats, where Uber has seen a 176% increase in grocery orders since February. Following this integration in select cities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Canada, Uber plans to roll out improvements to the grocery experience for shoppers and merchants alike globally, throughout the summer of 2020 and beyond."