Last call… for your last-minute Truly delivery. Uber reportedly plans to shutter alcohol-delivery biz Drizly, three years after buying it for $1.1B. Drizly is one of the biggest online alcohol-delivery marketplaces, with 100M+ customers in North America. But unlike Uber, Drizly doesn’t have its own delivery drivers — it simply provides the tech to connect customers with liquor stores, which use their own drivers. Uber’s OG plan was to fold Drizly’s biz into UberEats (which offers its own boozy delivery). Now:
Bottoms up: Uber says it’ll still sell alcohol through its namesake app, but will close Drizly’s operations in March to focus on its core UberEats strategy.
Buzzkill: In 2022, Drizly came under fire from the FTC after a major 2020 data breach exposed the personal info (like delivery addresses) of 2.5M users.
The “add on” economy… Uber has added a variety of services including package drop-offs and flower deliveries as it tries to become an everything transportation app. While niche platforms like Drizly grow need-specific customer bases, all-in-one apps can spur more frequent (and larger) spending sprees. Rival DoorDash said order values at US convenience stores were 50% higher on average when alcohol was added (and up to 30% higher in grocery orders). Instacart has also said orders with alcohol are usually 25% larger than booze-free carts.
All-in-one is better than one-on-one… While Uber’s still far from becoming a true superapp, its delivery additions have helped it thrive. Uber’s Eats biz buoyed sales during the pandemic, when ride-hail plunged. In August, Uber had its first quarterly operating profit as its in-app ad biz ballooned. Bringing more services to its core app could help ad sales too. Uber’s also closing grocery-delivery biz Cornershop, and it’s not impossible that its Postmates app could be next.