For at least a few months, if not years, it has been clear that Uber has plans to expand into offering Grocery deliveries. Back in May, the company opened an engineering hub located in Toronto to help with the effort. Within the last week or so, the company made much larger strides by acquiring Cornershop.

About Cornershop

Cornershop is an online grocery provider that leads the market in Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Toronto. The latter two of these locations are recent expansions. Cornershop began in 2015 with a focus on the Latin American market. The company’s founder and CEO, Oskar Hjertonsson, indicated excitement to work with Uber. He sees this as an excellent opportunity for it to expand its on-demand grocery offerings around the world and with more retail partners.

The Official Details

Uber’s investment in Cornershop will close early on in 2020, assuming that it meets approval from regulatory agencies. After the investment closes, Cornershop will still operate with its current leadership. The main change will be that the administration and operations will report to a board that has a majority representation from Uber.

What Uber Says

The CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, indicated that the company wants to become the operating system for people’s daily life. This will include ordering food, getting rides, and ordering groceries. According to Khosrowshahi, Uber is looking forward to working with Cornershop and plans to scale its vision. The company will let the millions of Uber users enjoy Grocery Delivery in addition to the current services.

There Is Plenty of Competition

Uber’s entry into grocery delivery places it in a field with tough competition. Instacart, Postmates, and Amazon all offer similar services. At the same time, major grocers, including Wal-Mart and Kroger, are offering delivery services. All this competition is there despite online grocery sales only accounting for about 3 percent of grocery shopping in the United States.

Not a Completely Unexpected Announcement

While people may not have realized that Uber was this close to acquiring a grocery delivery company, its interest in this idea is unsurprising. After all, the company made a major update to its application last month. The company indicated it would aim to become “the operating system of your life.” This information also included plans to expand into grocery delivery. Though, that was not included in the updated app.

Sources:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20909643/uber-grocery-delivery-startup-acquisition-cornershop

https://investor.uber.com/news-events/news/press-release-details/2019/Uber-to-Acquire-Majority-Ownership-in-Cornershop/default.aspx

https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-app-update-operating-system-of-your-life-2019-9

The post You May Be Able to Have Your Groceries Ubered Soon appeared first on Subastral Inc..