Three years ago I wrote about Uber’s Amazonification about its evolution into a closed business loop where transport companies return customers to other Uber channels. At the time, the focus was on how Uber creates customer stickiness by actively selling groceries to groceries, putting groceries in alcohol, then returning alcohol to mobility.
Today, Uber is focused on transport and appears to be working to become a daily lifestyle platform with handy super apps, service aggregators and the best products behind the paywall.
A case in point: Uber this week will launch its first Uber One Member Days, the company’s own version of Amazon’s Prime Day. Prime Day is a two-day shopping event exclusively for Amazon Prime members. This is a consumer hype festival, which will lead people to spend more than usual on material objects for transactions.
Amazon has been growing sales every year since launching the event in 2015, and it is estimated that last year the company has exceeded $14 billion in revenue.
Uber has come a long way from achieving such a scale, but it could be given its global presence, logistics technology and a network of drivers (both gig and autonomous).
The first Uber One Member Day will run from May 16th to 23rd, and will promise tens of thousands of transactions with Uber’s unique product lineup and its various retail and hospitality partners.
Uber customers have access to 20% off Uber Black, 30% off Uber Reserve and 40% on Uber Comfort. Other transactions include:
3,000 Delta Sky Miles Points for those who have linked their Delta and Uber accounts and traveled 10 times on weekdays. Discounts on Oura Rings. If you spend $3 on groceries, it will cost $20 from your next ticketmaster purchase. There are complimentary dishes from almost every fast food restaurant, including Chipotle Burritos, Dunkin’ Donuts Ice Coffee, and McDonald’s 10 Piece Chicken Nuggets.
“We want to create joy for our Uber One members,” Uber Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal told TechCrunch. “This should be a huge savings period for them, but for those who are not members now, it’s a great way to introduce them to membership as they become members during this period.”
Uber is always working to grow its Uber One membership base. This is about 30 million members today. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said last week in the company’s first quarter revenue call that members “trend out there are high retention rates.”
“They spend three times as much as non-members,” Khosrowshahi said.
As Uber is working to aggregate more partnerships outside of food and grocery delivery (see the recent partnership with Home Depot), and combining those deals with their membership program, the company reflects the evolution of Amazon. Amazon started as a digital bookler. After that, they started selling everything. It also owns both e-commerce and digital life infrastructure, whether it’s an AWS cloud service or Prime Video.
For many people, Amazon is a way of life. With Uber One Member Days, the company also shows that it wants such ubiquitousness. And we bet that asset-lite mobility could be the next backbone of digital consumer culture, rather than packages delivered on the Libian van.