The Maze:
Source: Amazon and Uber via TechCrunch. The companies’ launch illustration shows the Uber Eats browsing screen with the Prime delivery fee offer.
On November 5, Amazon replaced Grubhub with Uber Eats as the restaurant delivery partner for its U.S. Prime members. Members can now order meals from nearby restaurants through Amazon’s website or shopping app. They use their existing Amazon account and payment method, and qualifying orders of $25 or more carry no delivery fee. For restaurants, the switch changes which delivery marketplace can bring their menus to shoppers who start on Amazon.
The Details:
The order starts on Amazon. Members of Prime, Amazon’s paid subscription, can go to Amazon’s Uber Eats page or search for Uber Eats in the Amazon Shopping app. They browse nearby restaurants and check out with a payment method already saved to Amazon. Amazon sends delivery updates, and Uber Eats, which provides the restaurant delivery network, sends the final order confirmation. Shoppers do not need a separate Uber account. The companies say the benefit covers nearly 10,000 U.S. cities and towns, but the restaurants a shopper can choose from depend on their address.
The $25 minimum applies to the delivery fee. A qualifying $25 restaurant order placed through Amazon can get the fee waived. Shoppers should still look at the total: a waived delivery fee does not eliminate taxes, tips or any other charges. Amazon and Uber are also offering $20 off each of the first two eligible orders of $25 or more during the first 14 days of the launch. That discount is separate from the delivery fee waiver. A restaurant could see a busy opening fortnight without seeing the same demand once diners have used up their discounts.
Grubhub lost its place on Amazon, but existing members have more time. Amazon first gave U.S. Prime members a free year of Grubhub+, the delivery company’s subscription program, in 2022. It made the offer ongoing in 2024, TechCrunch reports. Grubhub orders can no longer be placed through Amazon’s website or shopping app. But Grubhub told TechCrunch that Prime members who had already activated Grubhub+ can keep using it through December 31, 2027. Amazon said it saw an opportunity to improve its restaurant delivery offer. The companies did not disclose the commercial terms of the switch.
MarketMaze Take:
Amazon kept the part of the arrangement that gets shoppers through the door: the place they start an order, their login and their saved payment method. It could change which restaurant marketplace served those shoppers without asking them to learn a new checkout. For an Uber Eats restaurant, that opens a way to reach Prime members who might never have opened the delivery app. A restaurant that relied on Grubhub to reach shoppers inside Amazon loses that route, even if those diners can still order from it directly through Grubhub.
The operating question is how many profitable orders the new route adds. If restaurants can identify orders that started on Amazon, they can compare repeat sales after the introductory discount ends and check what’s left after platform fees and any promotions they pay for. A diner who switches from the Uber Eats app to Amazon may count as a new order for Amazon without buying one extra meal from the restaurant.
