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EB Games: Building customer loyalty with Uber Direct

June 12, 2023 | Australia

EB Games Australia has the privilege of serving passionate customers—people who love their games and all the merchandise associated with them. While enthusiastic customers tend to be good for sales, meeting their needs and winning their loyalty is a constant challenge and top priority for the EB Games team.

With more than 380 stores throughout the country, the company has a presence in every major metro area, as well as stores in smaller, more remote communities. EB Games has also worked for well over a decade to serve online customers throughout Australia, and the online channel has grown as a result.

According to an interview with EB Games in February of 2023, while in-store continues to be the primary way customers shop at EB Games, a notable share of customers prefer ordering their items online at least some of the time (and some of them all the time). Of those online orders, 25% are slated for on-demand delivery. And those on-demand delivery orders are 2 times larger than the average cart size of other online orders. So it’s important to get this customer service angle right. One way EB Games does it: delivery with Uber Direct.

By the numbers:

stores across Australia

up to 25% of online orders select on-demand delivery

average cart size for on-demand delivery orders

Fast and affordable on-demand delivery

To meet the needs of online customers—and increase sales in the process—the EB Games team has worked to provide an exceptional end-to-end ordering and delivery experience.

That includes ensuring that a wide selection of inventory is available to order online. And it means looking for ways to get e-commerce customers their products quickly at the same great pricing as in EB Games stores. In some areas of Australia, that’s especially challenging given the large expanses of the country with low density and limited shipping options. To offer fast, affordable shipping choices to all customers—not just those in cities—EB Games had to get creative.

Decentralising distribution to reduce shipping costs

With an eye toward building customer loyalty with exceptional online shopping experiences, EB Games employs two complementary solutions to help give customers better delivery options for their orders. First, they use their store locations as fulfillment hubs for online orders. With a wide selection of items on hand in each store, EB Games can ship orders to local customers faster and more affordably than from a warehouse that could be on the other side of the country.

Second, they chose Uber Direct as their sole partner for on-demand delivery, helping to ensure online customers receive a seamless, satisfying end-to-end customer experience that includes real-time order tracking and deliveries in under two hours.

Giving customers the power of choice

Not every customer wants or needs on-demand delivery, so EB Games lets customers choose from three delivery options, as categorised by EB Games, when checking out.

  • Good - Traditional 5-to-7-day shipping
  • Better - 1-to-2-day shipping
  • Best - On-demand delivery (within 2 hours)

The higher tiers cost a bit more, which you might think would dissuade online customers. But it hasn’t worked out that way, with a quarter of them choosing the on-demand delivery option.

“Around 25% of our online customers are happy to pay for the immediate gratification—for the guarantee that they can receive their order today within two hours.”

Adrian McKenzie, Senior Manager of eCommerce, EB Games

On-demand delivery can help to increase revenue

Not only are a notable portion of EB Games’ customers happy to pay extra for faster shipping, but those customers also tend to spend more with EB Games. The average cart size for on-demand orders is double the size of other online orders. With on-demand delivery, customers get the products they want faster, while EB Games gets a boost in sales.

Better customer service through operational efficiency

Operationally, EB Games’ store employees consider shipping orders with Uber Direct easier to fulfill than those sent through more traditional shipping carriers—on-demand delivery orders don’t need shipping boxes or labels.

With stores acting as decentralised distribution centres, efficiency is critical. Ensuring that online order fulfillment doesn’t get in the way of in-person customer service helps EB Games maintain a great in-store experience.


“Our store associates handle the pick-and-pack process for all online orders, and they actually prefer orders that request Uber on-demand delivery because it requires less packaging and less time in the store to handle orders that are picked up by a courier.”


Adrian McKenzie, Senior Manager of eCommerce, EB Games

Highly integrated and accessible

Offering on-demand delivery helps EB Games provide a differentiated brand experience that helps promote customer loyalty. While Uber Direct is offered as a white-label solution—which means companies can use their own branding—EB Games is so confident in Uber’s reputation that they show the Uber logo on the EB Games website. “We wanted to make sure customers didn’t miss it,” explains McKenzie.

Uber Direct helps to make it easy for EB Games to provide a seamless, satisfying end-to-end experience for online customers and a consistently good experience for EB Games’ employees. The rare times that there’s an issue, the EB Games team knows they can turn to the merchant portal to easily find information to help address common problems. For larger issues or questions related to systems integration, McKenzie knows he can reach out directly to Uber’s merchant support team and get a prompt response, “Uber’s customer experience and platform is world-class,” he says. “It's been refined over the years, from the rideshare business and restaurant business. So it just works. And it directly translates to a retail business like ours, no problem.”

For companies ready to add on-demand delivery to their offerings, partnering with Uber Direct is easy. Our white-label delivery service allows you to give customers more control over their order experience while maintaining control over your own branding. Get started today.

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