Ask HN: Does Uber Eats take a loss when they offer their coupons?

6 points·palidanx··8 comments

Occasionally I get these Uber Eats 30% off eats coupons, does anyone know is it only Uber that takes a loss or the actual restaurant?

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If it is a site wide coupon, it is usually sponsored by the platform. Their play is either user acquisition or some quarterly targets on gross volume. This is likely in early stage ventures who burn VC money in order to boost their perceived valuation.

If it's a seller specific coupon, it is usually sponsored by that seller. This is likely in cases where the platform is mature and relies on cash flow to sustain. Sellers can't piggyback on free marketing from the platform and need to spend money vying for attention on the platform.

Although in either case, because there's a shared interest, it could be a joint sponsorship with both platform and seller sponsoring a certain portion of the discount based on agreed terms which can vary from coupon to coupon.

I would suggest that if they can offer that as a discount, it may well reflect what cut they are taking from the restaurants sales. So not a 'loss', merely a failure to reap a profit on that sale.

I would further suggest that the sale price of the product is increased by a said amount.

Or we could look it up... (its 30%) To do this I asked Bing "how much does it cost restaurants on uber eats"

https://www.ridester.com/uber-eats-fees/#:~:text=Uber%20Eats....

https://entrecourier.com/delivery/gig-delivery-platforms/ube...

I'd assume it's similar to what grubhub said here that the platform pays

https://twitter.com/grubhub/status/611320394256109568?lang=e...

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