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Uber life restored providing same-day delivery for American e-tailers

UBER taxi-hailing service has found a less objectionable role helping on-line retailers provide same-day delivery to customers in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Ottawa-based Shopify said the UberRUSH delivery service will be available to its merchants in the three cities immediately, Reuters reports.

US department stores such as Kohl's and Macy's offer same-day delivery services via a tie-up with Deliv, an Uber-like startup that contracts drivers to pick up ordered items from stores and deliver them to customers.

The agreement with Uber is the latest deal by Shopify. Last month, it signed with US Postal Service, making it more attractive for smaller retailers to use its software to power their e-commerce sites.

Before that, Amazon.com also made Shopify its preferred partner for smaller vendors that are seeking to sell their goods via the online retailing giant.

Despite competing with Amazon's speedy shipping options, the Uber and US Mail deal won't conflict with Amazon, said Brennan Loh, Shopify's head of product partnerships.

That's because smaller vendors would still look to sell their products via Amazon due to its much broader reach, in comparison to their own portals, he said.

"We are trying to alleviate as many pain points as merchants face when running their business," Mr Loh said. "The partnership with Uber is another step in that direction," he said.

Shopify merchants can provide their customers with an option for UberRUSH delivery, the company said. Merchants can request an Uber pickup and both the customer and merchant can track the exact location from pickup to drop-off from Shopify.