Throughout the last year and a half, Uber Eats has continued to increase the number of grocery stores and local shops, and broaden the selection of everyday products available on the app, to help facilitate the daily life of South African’s.
More and more Uber Eats users are adopting home delivery of groceries as grocery and essentials have grown by 1860% since inception in March last year.
During the recent Level 4 lockdown in South Africa, Uber Eats data showed that categories of products like grocery, convenience and pharmacy have grown by 28%, 13% and 32% respectively, through the Uber Eats app across South Africa. Essential product purchases via the app have also spiked during this period with items such as toilet paper growing by more than 100% in sales followed by bread at 46% and personal care goods such as deodorant, increasing by 11%.
Customers are also drawn to the fact that the average delivery time for groceries and essential products are less than 35 minutes.
Sub Saharan Africa Uber Eat’s General Manager Nakampe Molewa explains: “It’s become clear that this has become a critical service, as Uber Eats has seen total sales of groceries and convenience items increase steadily in recent months, with many Uber Eats customers using the service not only for pantry staples like milk and bread, but for speciality items like household products, personal care, and even books through the Exclusive Books partnership.”
Last year, for instance, Uber Eats partnered with Game Stores to allow customers to order Game products online, and have them delivered right to their doorstep. This partnership is enabling the retailer to provide groceries and other products like health, pet, and baby products to its customers more effectively during the various phases of the lockdown.
“The past year has made us rethink how we serve our customers. Our partnership with Uber Eats has allowed us to deliver essential products faster than ever, keeping our customers stocked up with everything they need during these times, while giving us the opportunity to be more agile and adaptable to situations as they arise, ” explains Paris Philippou – Vice President of eCommerce and digital, Game.
Further boosting this take-up of Uber Eats essential offering, is its widespread availability, with the national footprint stretching across nine cities in South Africa including Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, as well as Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Molewa concludes: “Uber Eats has become a trusted marketplace for merchants to continue to operate efficiently through the lockdown and provides them with a service to reach more customers who are looking to order online. More importantly, this has unlocked further earnings for delivery people.”
About Uber Eats
Uber Eats is an on-demand food delivery app and website that helps bring millions of people around the world the food they want, at the tap of a button. We partner with over 500,000 restaurants in more than 6,000 cities across 45 countries and six continents that make meals for every taste and occasion. From speciality local favourites to everyday national brand names, Uber Eats offers millions of items and dishes while maintaining an average delivery time of under 30 minutes.
