The whole end-to-end operation being outsourced to Kinara International meant they had an extended office in China for sourcing and now their courier network in Europe would also have an easy place to acquire any equipment they may need.

Before this, Kinara had been supplying directly to Uber Eats markets in bulk, but this brings challenges for Uber such as, where to store the bags, dealing with physical distribution in Uber office locations, and managing the Returns process. The cost of storage in these offices is usually high as they are located in city centers and the cost of time for administration staff is also expensive. A further requirement for Uber in Europe was the technology integration and data flows. In particular, Uber wanted visibility of drivers’ orders to support the driver onboarding and activation processes.

With a wealth of experience in international operations, Kinara was perfectly placed to further advise and assist Uber Eats with how to execute this expansion strategy, beginning with the Italian market. Kinara already had an existing webshop for the UK & Ireland, of which we then created an extension for Italy. With a strong relationship already in place with Kinara, the foundations had been laid and the vision was ready to come to life.

Kinara would then go on to utilise their warehousing solution in Germany to assist with distribution across Europe and particularly Italy. We also ensured that stock was ready in the warehouse for dispatch and delivery to Italy within 3-4 working days. Kinara then formalised this agreement and added it to the existing legal contract with Uber.

The technical side of things required an integration to ensure a single sign-on between Uber Eats and Kinara, using Uber credentials, and the courier partners needed to be kept in the loop at all times regarding the status of their order. This included integration of the back end and fully translated content into Italian throughout.

We also implemented various payment providers to allow couriers to check as efficiently as possible, however, they preferred to pay. We believe that anyone purchasing online shouldn’t have to work for it!

Here at Kinara International, we also understand that a solid data feed is important. We report the data of all delivery bag purchases, for Uber Eats to then use as a trigger to activate each courier partner on the Uber Eats app. The driver will not receive an order for food delivery until Kinara has provided proof that they have received their delivery bag. This vital relay of information is one of the key reasons that Uber Eats entrusted the overall operation to Kinara.