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I am proud to admit that I am a HUGE fan of Uber.
When I travel, I use it almost exclusively for transportation. A few mornings a week, I even Uber to work to get ahead of the workday by knocking out a few e-mails or phone calls before my first trip to the refrigerator for a refreshing beverage (I don’t drink coffee). I Ubered to work this morning, because I knew that those few minutes I save result in greater productivity on the busiest day of the workweek around here.
When the story of the end to their experimentation with a courier-like service to become a full-featured delivery business model became widely shared yesterday, we saw the next innovation in the “sharing economy.” This change joins Amazon and Google in the instant gratification game. As a member of Amazon Prime (and more importantly, Prime Now) and Google Express, I enjoy near immediate delivery of many items to my office or my home that would otherwise require a trip to a grocery or big-box retail store.
After offering a free market alternative to taxis and buses and introducing the areas they serve to the “sharing economy,” Uber sought to grow into the logistics market. While not what they envisioned at the start, Uber’s experiment may result in providing small businesses, like restaurants and boutiques to offer same-day delivery without the overhead and development of a local logistics program.
What I found to be bigger news than their introduction of these services in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, is that the demand for the service changed their implementation of the new business. The market demanded that the simple courier service they envisioned morph and adapt to accommodate the business side of a transaction, rather than compete directly with delivery services. The original offer is still available, though expanding to be a partner with the small business looking to meet their needs will likely be the driving force of their entrance into the delivery market.
Isn’t it great to have competition and cooperation to meet the customers’ needs, even if those needs didn’t match the beginning hypothesis?
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