Uber can pick you up, deliver your food, and now, even return your unwanted packages.
Uber Eats launched a new feature Friday that lets customers schedule a courier to pick up retail items purchased through the app and return them. The service removes the need to print labels, find packaging, or travel to a store. Once the item is collected, customers can receive an instant refund, the company said.
“Whether you’re in the middle of a home improvement project debating the right paint color or questioning which new wireless headphones to buy, shop confidently on Uber Eats knowing returns are simple, fast, and convenient,” the company said in a news release.
The initial rollout includes thousands of eligible retailers already available through Uber Eats, including Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Pacsun and Petco. To qualify, returned items must be worth at least $20.
To start a return, customers go to their order history in the Uber Eats app and tap “Return an item,” then select the product and provide a reason for the return. If the item is eligible and meets the retailer’s return policy, they can proceed and choose “Return with a courier” to schedule a pickup. Courier pickup fees are based on the driver’s travel distance and time, but customers can avoid those charges by returning items themselves directly to the store at no extra cost.
Online returns have become a longstanding hassle for both retailers and shoppers, often leading to frustration and inefficiency in the post-purchase process. A survey of 1,000 consumers who made an online return in the past year found that one-third considered printing return labels and finding packaging to be stressful, according to post-purchase platform Route. Even more significantly, 43 percent of respondents said that waiting for a refund was the most stressful part of the return experience.
Retailers have already started experimenting with ways to simplify returns. For example, Amazon allows customers to drop off returns at physical retail locations such as Whole Foods, Staples and Kohl’s, reducing the need for packaging or shipping labels.
Meanwhile, Uber’s delivery arm, previously known as Uber Connect, has offered package return services since 2023 for prepaid and sealed items. Its newer expansion goes further by allowing unpackaged items to be picked up and returned directly to retailers, skipping traditional carriers like UPS and FedEx, and ideally making the whole return process faster and more convenient.
