Can Uber marketing partnerships change grocery shopping behavior?

April 23, 2015 

We’ve all been watching Uber disrupt the transportation sector.  So what happens when you take its highly engaged audience and incent them to try various online grocery options?

Here are two examples we’ve seen recently that make us curious.

Last week in Toronto, Loblaw’s ran a one-week promotion that offered shoppers who tried their Click and Collect service a free Uber ride (up to $30) to come pick up their online order. According to Loblaw’s, this allowed them to target people in their market who “already have declared an interest in technology delivered convenience.”

• For Loblaw’s it incented tech-savvy customers to try out their new online ordering service.
• For Uber, it encouraged riders to think of Uber as a way to get errands done more easily.

In Pittsburgh, Uber and online-only meal provider Hello Fresh have just teamed up. Each time a rider uses Uber during the promotion, they’re entered in a sweepstakes to win a free week, or even a free month, of Hello Fresh meal shipments.  And non-Uber riders who sign up for new Hello Fresh service get “a first Uber ride free.”

Food for thought

Uber has engaged thousands and thousands of convenience-seeking tech-savvy customers, and now they are aggressively leveraging co-marketing partnerships with various food retailers.

Can these marketing partnerships change grocery shopping behavior? We think it’s possible, because this taps into a mindset and lifestyle (notice we don’t think this is about demographics). 

Using one new tech service to reach an audience that’s likely to be interested another tech service like online food shopping and meal solutions is quite clever and likely effective – Uber might just become its own marketing channel.

Tapping Uber as a partner for delivery of orders could open some interesting advantages for food retailers, because it has:

• Lower cost since it already has a transportation capability and just needs to cover the incremental cost of delivery to reach profitability.
• A desire to promote the retailer’s brand along with their service.
• Puts the customer in the control of when they contract with the driver to pick up and deliver the order.