Oracle, Uber team up to offer last-mile deliveries

Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) said Tuesday they are offering a last-mile delivery service called Collect and Receive that will be provided on the Oracle Retail platform.

Supported by the Oracle Retail Data Store and cloud platform technologies, retailers can now link to Uber Direct, the company’s delivery solution, via pre-integrated application program interfaces. This program enables retailers to rebalance inventory while giving customers more choices, including same-day and scheduled delivery options, order pickup and returns to the closest retail or postal location, the companies said. 

The service is available for Oracle Retail customers in the U.S. and Canada. 

“At Uber, it’s crystal clear that on-demand delivery is a core expectation for consumers — and today’s retailers are taking note,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, in a statement. “Every month, more than 3,500 brands use Uber Direct to power millions of same-day local deliveries.”

Pat Bohannon, vice president at Oracle Retail, said in the statement, “Connecting the two platforms eliminates the gap between a sales transaction and customer service, and at the same time provides invaluable data to better serve the customer on their next experience and improve overall retail profitability.

“Together, we can improve the experiences and profitability of the retail industry by raising the bar to a new ‘premium delivery’ standard where the customer can determine where and when their delivery or return will occur. Combining Uber’s ability to schedule deliveries in advance or on short notice is far superior to traditional last mile delivery.”

New research commissioned by Uber showed that 75% of consumers expect express delivery as an option, and 72% are more likely to continue ordering from companies that offer this service.

All transaction data will be captured back into the Oracle Retail cloud platform, enabling retailers to further analyze buying behaviors and preferences to refine and improve services and offers moving forward. This new connection will allow retailers to deliver on their brand promises through every interaction with customers to drive true loyalty, according to the announcement. 

“With this partnership, Oracle is enabling retailers to easily extend the value of their Oracle retail applications with last-mile delivery services from Uber,” said Jordan K. Speer, research director of worldwide retail product sourcing, fulfillment and sustainability strategies at IDC Research, in the statement. “This will lower the cost of last-mile deliveries of whatever sort — whether product delivery to home, store-to-store transfers of merchandise, product returns, and so forth.”

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