Hundreds of Australian retailers will be able to offer same hour delivery to customers thanks to a new deal between Shippit and Uber. Women’s clothing brand, CUE is one of the first retailers to sign up to the partnership.

The partnership is the first of its kind in terms of national scale and will allow merchants using Shippit’s software to access more than 50,000 delivery partners across the country through the Uber platform.

“This is a great example of two technology leaders coming together to solve a burning industry challenge. Until now, Australian retailers haven’t had the ability to ship direct to customers within the hour, and retailers that didn’t meet consumer expectations for same-day or even next-hour delivery were at a competitive disadvantage. Our partnership with Uber instantly solves that pain point,” Shippit co-CEO, Rob Hango- Zada said.

“This is a big leap forward for hundreds of Australian merchants and their customers. We’re delighted to be integrating Uber’s Direct for enterprise offering within Shippit’s software to help accelerate a new industry standard,” Uber Eats Australia and New Zealand regional general manager for retail, Lucas Groeneveld said.

“People who can get milk and groceries in an hour want to get fashion and homewares in the same timeframe too and thanks to this partnership they will be able to instantly access that convenience.”

Shippit’s retailers will soon be able to offer their customers an Uber delivery option at checkout. Delivery quotes and estimated time of arrival will be viewable in their shopping cart and packages can be tracked using Uber’s real-time GPS. Customers can also checkout and book on-demand deliveries after business hours and on weekends.

Building on Shippit’s commitment to offset each delivery to a carbon neutral state, this partnership also offers retailers the ability to add micro mobility to their delivery mix further helping decarbonise the last mile of delivery.