German electronics giant MediaMarktSaturn speeds deliveries with Uber Direct

MediaMarktSaturn is successfully offering 90-minute ‘ship from store’ deliveries with Uber Direct across Germany and will also offer a wider range of out-of-home deliveries in future, a senior manager told attendees at DELIVER Europe last week.

Germany’s leading electronics retail group teamed up with Uber Direct in April this year to offer deliveries of online orders from about 200 stores to customers in about 100 cities and towns within 90 minutes. Uber Direct is a white-label delivery-as-a-service for online orders from stores and shops.

Under the new same-day service, an Uber Direct driver collects the order from a MediaMarkt or Saturn store and delivers it directly to a customer either at home, at work or at another agreed handover point. Customers pay a flat price of €4.99 for the delivery and can track their order online in a MediaMarktSaturn-branded app.

Good customer response

Michael Jaschek, Manager Logistics Sourcing & Partners at MediaMarktSaturn, told a workshop at DELIVER Europe that the company wanted to speed up deliveries to customers, which had generally taken 1-2 days in the past. This was “a big gap” compared to the new 90-minute delivery option.

“It’s working very well,” Jaschek commented. MediaMarktSaturn had promoted the new service heavily on TV and social media (“even on Tinder”), generating about 20,000 orders since the launch in April, with an average delivery time of 51 minutes, he disclosed. In addition, this omnichannel offer supported local stores, he pointed out.

Mutual learnings

Jordi Suarez, Senior Director, Head of Global at Uber Direct, explained that the two partners “are learning from each other”, including in terms of in-store fulfilment and customised tracking through Uber Direct’s ‘white label’ app solution.

He pointed out that Uber Direct “batches” (consolidates) deliveries from MediaMarktSaturn with orders from other stores “when possible”.

More delivery options

Looking ahead, Jaschek said the company plans to scale up the 90-minute delivery service to smaller towns and communities in order to cover the whole country and is also looking into offering time-scheduled deliveries.

In addition, the electronics retailer is looking at other delivery options, such as parcel lockers at stores to offer collections and returns outside store opening hours, and is building up urban hubs with more inventory, including bulky goods such as washing machines for 2-man delivery.

Uber Direct outlook

Commenting generally on how Uber Direct works with retailers, Suarez said it was relatively easy to offer fast deliveries from stores but retailers needed to change in-store processes in order to ensure orders were ready for collection by drivers.

Looking ahead, he predicted confidently: “More retailers will offer solutions like this. We want to help smaller businesses and can help to empower local commerce.”