Instacart Is Poised to Accelerate Even More Growth
Instacart is positioning itself to dominate the $1 trillion online grocery market by seizing what may be an overlooked opportunity in food retail.
While most food retailers have been focused on grocery delivery, the company revealed that it's making click-and-collect a priority in 2020. Instacart said that it will expand its Instacart Pickup offering to stores in all 50 states by the end of 2020. The company already powers pickup for more than 50 grocery partners, including Food Lion, Stew Leonard's, Gelson’s, Publix, Price Chopper, Schnucks, Shop ‘n Save, The Fresh Market and Wegmans, across more than 30 states.
“2020 is the year of pickup. For our retail partners, we’ve seen Instacart Pickup become a gateway to growth in a margin-thin industry. Our pickup product is also becoming a significant revenue contributor for our retail partners, growing customer basket size by an average of 15% and accounting for an average of 20% of a retailer's total Instacart store sales,” said Nilam Ganenthiran, president of San Francisco-based Instacart.
The company has appointed Instacart veteran Sarah Mastrorocco, a 2016 Progressive Grocer Top Women in Grocery honoree in the Rising Star category, a to the newly created role of general manager, Instacart Pickup, to lead the acceleration of growth plans for service nationwide in 2020 and beyond.
“Instacart’s broader business continues to grow at an incredible clip, with pickup as our fastest-growing product. With the completed rollout of the new Instacart Pickup and the appointment of Sarah as our new GM, we’re laying the groundwork now to prepare for another year of triple-digit growth. By year end, we expect to have the largest pickup retail footprint in North America and, in the coming years, to grow Instacart Pickup into a multibillion-dollar business,” Ganenthiran added.
Instacart Pickup service in 2020 includes:
- Smart Storefronts: Customers can now view delivery and pickup options from a single digital storefront for each of their favorite grocers on the Instacart platform. The new Smart Storefront feature allows customers to easily toggle between delivery and pickup options to view the most up-to-date inventory by store and compare time windows for both.
- “Pick Your Pickup” Mapping: Coming from home, work, soccer practice and everywhere in between, customers can now easily view and select the pickup location most convenient to their route that day.
- “On The Way” Alerts for Faster Pickup: Customers can now enable location-based notifications to let the store know when they’re on the way and getting close. Handoff is more seamless with this new feature, which allows in-store shoppers to be ready and waiting for customers curbside in real time.
- Customized Navigation: Instacart Pickup’s new navigation feature sends customers to the mapping app of their choice, automatically directing drivers from their current location to the store.
- Send a Friend or Family Member: Customers can now share their order details with friends and family to delegate pickup to another driver.
- Alcohol Pickup: Instacart now offers alcohol pickup across more than 20 retail partners, including Aldi, BevMo!, Publix, Save Mart, Sprouts and Wegmans.
“At Gelson’s, Instacart Pickup is an integral part of the way we’re evolving to meet the changing needs of our customers, who appreciate the flexibility and affordability that comes with a curbside offering,” said John Bagan, chief merchandising officer at Encino, Calif.-based Gelson’s Markets. “We recently expanded our partnership with Instacart to add pickup, in addition to delivery, across 100% of our store locations. With this new partnership, customers can now have groceries and household essentials, as well as beer, wine and spirits, ready for same-day pickup. While still early days, Instacart Pickup is growing double digits for us quarter over quarter, making it clear how much our customers value — and have come to rely on — this new experience.”
Instacart is a North American leader in grocery delivery and today partners with more than 350 national, regional and local retailers to offer delivery from nearly 25,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in the United States and Canada. Instacart delivery is currently available to more than 85% of households in the United States, and more than 70% of households in Canada.
