On July 31, 2019, workers for Uber Eats wait for orders in Kyiv, which is in the center of Ukraine.
Valentin Ogirenko Reuters
Uber’s grocery delivery service got its the biggest update since it first started in 2020. On Thursday, Uber announced several new features that will make the service easier for both customers and merchant partners.
As the changes roll out across the US this summer, users will be able to order from grocery stores after hours, schedule deliveries, track their orders from the store shelves to their homes, choose product substitutions, and shop by weight.
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Uber’s global head of grocery and new verticals business, Oscar Hjortonson, said that the company is “betting big on grocery” and that it is “in a great position to build a great grocery business.”
Uber started delivering groceries two years ago. The company bought the grocery delivery service Cornershop in Latin America and added more than 24,000 grocery stores around the world.
Uber’s delivery business got it through the pandemic, but when people started to want to take rides again, Uber’s mobility business started to make more money than its delivery business. In its first quarter, the delivery group made $2.51 billion, which was less than the $2.52 billion made by the mobility group.
In a May email to employees that CNBC got a hold of, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that investors are “pleased” with the growth in the delivery segment, but that it “should be growing faster.”
Hjertonson says that the size and growth of the grocery industry are good news for the company, which is struggling with inflation and higher gas prices.
He said, “We’re very happy to be able to unlock this new use case with our existing customers and revenue base.” “This is a very big business opportunity for us.
