By Zuko Komisa
Uber Eats is rapidly developing into a virtual mall where customers may buy non-food goods that can be delivered in as little as 30 minutes.
The app intends to offer clothes purchases on its platform, doing away with the customary days-long parcel delivery delay experienced by customers of traditional online fashion merchants.
Uber Eats intends to have a total of 37 distribution sites spread out across the key regions of the country by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
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Kaya Biz with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to the new Cikida Gcali-Mabusela who is Uber’s New Business Lead for Sub-Saharan Africa and shared more about the proposed plans.
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION:
Gcali-Mabusela spoke about how Uber is focusing on a faster turnaround with goods on the app.
“We really looked into a lot of things, especially during COVID-19 and realised that there is a need for us to expand into other verticals that people need within 30 minutes. If you really look at reasons for you to go to a mall, it’s really because you want to get the item now.
“We thought about getting the same use case and applying it to the app, ’cause if you look at the category for all the big malls in South Africa it’s usually people that live 2-5 km away from the mall which is sort of our delivery spectrum.
“So we thought we wanted to bring the experience you get when you order food, “
Smaller national businesses that also serve as Uber Eats’ distribution partners collaborate with the app. It presently has three distribution centres in the nation, all of which are in Cape Town.
By the end of September, it hopes to have nine centres spread out across Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The app already has a variety of shopping categories where it offers books, medications, and perfumes in addition to food.
It signed a contract with DJ Zinhle last month to sell the items from her jewellery collection, ERA by DJ Zinhle.
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