Uber Eats on Friday launched a new returns feature allowing consumers to return retail goods purchased on the app with a courier and receive a refund from the convenience of home, a first for the on-demand delivery industry.
Retailers participating in the initial phase include Best Buy, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Pet Food Express, Pacsun and Petco, which combined have thousands of retail locations across the country.
Uber Eats will charge a return service fee, calculated based on the courier’s time and distance. Returns only apply to items that cost $20 or more.
Parent company Uber Technologies also offers Uber Courier, which offers pick up of up to five prepaid and sealed packages at a time for drop off at a local post office, UPS or FedEx store.
“Returns are one of the biggest pain points in retail, and we’re reimagining them the way only Uber can,” said Rohan Mathew, engineering lead at Uber Eats, in a news release.. “Now, with just a tap, you can send an item back and get a refund without ever leaving home.”
Uber Eats (NYSE: UBER) has quickly moved over the past two years to expand its business model beyond food delivery into everyday retail categories, including home improvement, beauty and electronics. Last week it partnered with Ace Hardware to provide on-demand last-mile delivery from about 3,700 stories to local customers who place an online order.
Rival DoorDash has also moved into the retail delivery space using its own neighborhood warehouses to forward stock goods from retailers, who use the DoorDash app to sell goods to consumers.
Both companies are emblematic of the huge change within the parcel delivery business, which has seen the rise of low-cost independent carriers that are taking market share from incumbents like FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Logistics companies like FedEx and UPS subsidiary Happy Returns are increasingly focused on managing the returns process for retailers.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
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