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Cornershop

eCommerce & Marketplaces · Las Condes, Chile · Founded 2015

Cornershop operates as an on-demand grocery and goods delivery platform, connecting consumers with personal shoppers who retrieve items from various local stores. Founded in 2015 by Oskar Hjertonsson, Daniel Undurraga, and Juan Pablo Cuevas, the company launched simultaneously in Santiago, Chile, and Mexico City, Mexico. The founding trio were seasoned entrepreneurs, having previously co-founded and sold a daily deals site called ClanDescuento to Groupon in 2010. This prior success in Latin American e-commerce provided them with the experience to identify and scale a new opportunity in the grocery sector. The business functions through a hyperlocal marketplace model. Customers use the Cornershop by Uber mobile or web app to order from supermarkets, pharmacies, and other specialty retailers in their city. A network of independent shoppers receives these orders, fulfills them in-store, and delivers them to the customer's location, often within 60 to 90 minutes. The platform's features include multi-store checkout, order tracking, and the ability for customers to communicate with shoppers to handle substitutions for out-of-stock items. This focus on shopper training and customer communication is a key part of its service quality. Cornershop's revenue model is multifaceted. It generates income through delivery fees charged to customers and by marking up the prices of products from stores with which it does not have a formal partnership. For partner stores, the company may earn a commission on sales generated through the platform, which can allow for in-store pricing for consumers. A significant milestone occurred in October 2019 when Uber announced its intention to acquire a majority stake in the company, a deal that closed in 2020. By July 2021, Uber had acquired the remaining 47% stake, making Cornershop a wholly-owned subsidiary and one of Chile's first tech unicorns. This acquisition integrated Cornershop's service into the Uber and Uber Eats apps, expanding its reach across the Americas. Keywords: on-demand delivery, grocery delivery, e-commerce marketplace, personal shopper service, last-mile delivery, hyperlocal delivery, retail logistics, mobile commerce, Uber Eats, Latin America tech, online supermarkets, multi-store ordering, convenience delivery, app-based shopping, grocery logistics, retail technology, shopper network, digital retail, home delivery service, instant commerce