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Shopify — Enabling On-Demand Delivery for Local Businesses

October 18, 2016 / Global

By Nathan Lam

In the last five years, e-commerce has not only transformed the retail industry, it’s revolutionized the way time-pressed consumers shop. Whether they are casually browsing or buying their weekly essentials, convenience is often the primary reason why customers purchase items online rather than in person. With same-day delivery on the rise, online shoppers are even getting the instant gratification that was once reserved for traditional retail stores. Given the increased ease of online shopping, it’s no surprise that e-commerce sites are growing in popularity.

So where does this leave local businesses? Shopify, one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms, helps local businesses expand their presence digitally. From helping them create online storefronts to setting up their own POS device, Shopify is creating new opportunities for businesses.

Recently, Shopify has taken things to the next level by enabling on-demand delivery through UberRUSH. With this new capability, Shopify is providing small businesses with the same technology and tools as big box retailers and leading e-commerce sites.

“Until now, smaller businesses had few options when it came to local, same-day delivery. By partnering with UberRUSH and integrating the UberRUSH API into our platform, Shopify merchants are able to offer an affordable, on-demand delivery option. Now, they can get their products into the hands of customers faster than ever.” — Rebecca Maiorino, Business Development, Shopify

The results of the UberRUSH partnership and the API integration have been positive and encouraging for Shopify’s merchants. In the past year, businesses on Shopify have created some of the most interesting and unique customer experiences through the UberRUSH integration. Here are three companies that are leveraging UberRUSH and the API to power exciting customer interactions.

Creating instant satisfaction

For Kith, a contemporary menswear brand based in New York, UberRUSH allowed them to put sneakers in the hands of online customers almost instantaneously. To celebrate the limited edition collaboration from Ronnie Fieg and Diadora, Kith used UberRUSH to power a KITHSTRIKE event that enabled customers to receive their sneakers on-demand — no matter where they were when they placed their order.

“In New York, everything is hyper-time-sensitive. People need things quickly. Having the capability to offer customers who are unable to come to our shop the option of receiving their product within minutes is really amazing, especially given our very high-demand business.” — Austin Scotti, Marketing Manager, Kith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCivujgjorw

Creating purpose

UberRUSH allows businesses to think outside the box and create new possibilities. Although the on-demand concept is self-explanatory, adding additional context to your service will allow customers to fully understand the value that you are bringing.

For our friends at Spikeball, UberRUSH gave last-minute shoppers the chance to purchase a gift before Christmas. Imagine skipping all the holiday lines and avoiding long wait times with a push of a button. By simply activating UberRUSH through the Shopify dashboard, the team transformed a typical 5- to 7-day delivery window into a 30-minute one for their customers.

“Using UberRUSH during the holiday season enables our loyal customers to order online and have their Spikeball set delivered within 30 minutes. This on-demand delivery option is perfect for the procrastinator who needs a gift in a pinch, as well as avid Spikeballers who cannot wait to get their hands on their order. The UberRUSH delivery process is fast, seamless, and impressive to our customers.” — Hadas Look, Customer Support Manager, Spikeball Inc.

Creating new experiences

By teaming up with top designers like Zac Posen, Jeremy Scott, and Rag & Bone, Sakara Life was able to create a one-of-a-kind experience powered by UberRUSH.

The team, which specializes in delivering organic plant-based, nutritionally designed meals, launched an exclusive New York City Fashion Week activation by giving away custom on-demand lunch boxes containing a selection of their signature dishes. Within two hours, all the meals were sold out!

“We made Sakara’s highly coveted organic meal delivery program available on-demand for one day as part of our Fashion Week activation with top designers. Our lunch boxes sold out almost immediately. And thanks to UberRUSH, we were able to deliver them quickly and flawlessly to our customers across NYC.” — Jordan Crofton, Sales and Product Manager, Sakara Life

UberRUSH’s mission has always been to make getting anything in your city more convenient, affordable, and reliable than picking it up yourself. We believe that integrating our API should be just as easy.

“Integrating Shopify with UberRUSH using their API went very smoothly and quickly. We found the UberRUSH API to be well-documented and straightforward to understand and use. The sandbox endpoint in particular helped give us confidence in our solution before dispatching real UberRUSH couriers for delivery. As a result, we were able to fully develop and test our integration using the sandbox, and then flip a switch to begin delivering orders immediately without issue.” — Shawn French, Partnerships Engineering Lead, Shopify

Get started

We can’t wait to see how other partners and businesses take advantage of UberRUSH and the exciting products that will come out of it. Have an interesting idea for how to leverage the UberRUSH API? Check out our docs to get started today!