Oracle and Uber are working together to help retailers offer same-day delivery and returns.

The two firms have announced Collect & Receive, an offering on the Oracle Retail platform connecting retailers and consumers to enhance and enrich last-kilometre delivery.

Supported by the Oracle Retail Data Store and cloud platform technologies, retailers can now link to Uber Direct, the company’s white-label delivery option, via pre-integrated APIs. This joint offering lets retailers rebalance inventory while giving customers more choices, including same-day and scheduled delivery, order pickup, and returns to the closest retail or postal location. The service is available for Oracle Retail customers in the USA 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 (www.uber.com). “Every month, more than 3500 brands use Uber Direct to power millions of same-day local deliveries. Together with Oracle, we can make it easier than ever for retailers to leverage on-demand delivery and even returns to delight consumers, streamline logistics, and ultimately boost loyalty and sales.”

This co-innovation builds on Uber’s recent seven-year strategic cloud partnership with Oracle to deliver new consumer experiences with last-kilometre logistics and drive increased profitability with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

“Oracle knows retail processes, and Uber knows delivery,” said Pat Bohannon, vice president at Oracle Retail. “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.”

Research commissioned by Uber shows that 75% of consumers expect express delivery as an option, and 72% are more likely to continue ordering from companies that offer this service.With Collect & Receive, retailers can leverage Oracle technology to connect to Uber Direct through bundled APIs. Once connected, retailers can offer customers fast, reliable and flexible local delivery while better managing delivery costs and closing the gap between order and delivery to create a more agile supply chain geared to move merchandise more efficiently across their ecosystem.

All transaction data are captured back into the Oracle (oracle.com) retail cloud platform, helping retailers further analyse buying behaviour and preferences to refine and improve services and offers moving forward. This connection will allow retailers to deliver on their brand promise through every interaction with the customer to drive loyalty.

“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 Speer, research director at IDC Research. “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. This bilateral communication between Uber and Oracle is a significant step forward in providing retailers a more valuable, intelligent, end-to-end supply chain process.”