Beauty brands’ same-day delivery options have multiplied during the pandemic, and now Uber Eats is making its foray into beauty through a new partnership with The Body Shop launched on November 23.
The Body Shop is partnering with Uber Eats in five U.S. cities and Toronto through the app’s new grocery delivery service offered in connection with Cornershop, which Uber acquired in October 2019. Like Uber Eats restaurant pickups, drivers pick up orders from physical Body Shop stores, and then they deliver them within 90 minutes. In the U.S., the service is available in New York, Orlando, Austin, Houston and Dallas suburb Frisco with a total of 91 products available in personal care and skin care.
“The goal was to meet our customers in a way that they wanted to shop with us, and knowing Covid and everything that was going on, we immediately thought we should partner with a delivery service,” said Aliza Birnberg-Perruzzi, the head of U.S. brand marketing The Body Shop. The brand chose Uber, due to it being “most relevant and known in the market,” she said.
The decision to launch the expedited delivery “was completely inspired by the way that things have changed,” due to the pandemic, said Birnberg-Perruzzi. “People are shopping differently now, and we needed to adapt.”
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With slow shipping times projected for the holiday season, a growing number of beauty brands are turning to same-day delivery apps ahead of Christmas in the U.S. Other same-day apps that have recently launched beauty brand sales include FastAF, Instacart, Postmates and GoPuff.
Same-day delivery for a wide range of products is just starting to catch on in the U.S. South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang claims that over 99% of its packages are delivered within 24 hours, while in China, Alibaba and JD.com have had same-day delivery options for years. In Brazil, food delivery service Rappi partnered with The Body Shop’s sister brand Avon (both are owned by Natura) in 2019.
“The shorter Christmas delivery cutoff and shipping delays during the busiest shopping season are super critical,” said Birnberg-Perruzzi. The Body Shop has also introduced click-and-collect through its DTC site. The brand currently ships through FedEx and UPS, and has changed its U.S. Christmas delivery order cutoff date to December 12-14, depending on the state. “We’ve had to go several days earlier than in years past, in order to get products to customers before the holiday.”
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The brand has also prioritized being an early adopter. “We wanted to be one of the first early partners to support [customers] on this platform,” said Birnberg-Perruzzi.
Brands are expecting the adoption of new forms of faster delivery driven by the pandemic to change shopping habits in the long term. “I see this whole pandemic as changing everything moving forward,” said Birnberg-Perruzzi.
For the future, The Body Shop plans to expand the service to more cities and is in talks with another delivery platform to expand its reach further. According to Birnberg-Perruzzi, “We don’t know what’s going to happen come January, with Covid and everything, so the goal is to secure a successful pilot from now through the end of the year, and as we expand it, we hope that the demand is there.”
