SAN FRANCISCO — Instacart, a North American leader in online grocery, today announced a new Instacart Pickup product and the appointment of Instacart veteran Sarah Mastrorocco to the newly-created role of General Manager, Instacart Pickup. The announcement comes following a year of significant pickup growth for Instacart, which tripled the number of states and doubled the number of grocery partners offering its grocery pickup product in 2019. Instacart today powers pickup for more than 50 grocery partners, including Food Lion, Gelson’s, Publix, Price Chopper, Schnucks, Shop ‘n Save, The Fresh Market, Wegmans and more, across more than 30 states. The company expects to expand the Instacart Pickup offering to all 50 states by the end of 2020.
The reimagined Instacart Pickup product has been rolling out to consumers gradually over the past several months and is now available to all Instacart customers across the U.S. and Canada. Among the new features, Instacart Pickup now 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. Place the order and send a friend to pick it up!
- Alcohol Pickup – Instacart continues to extend the aisles of its pickup product, and is now also offering alcohol pickup across more than 20 retail partners, including Aldi, BevMo!, Publix, Save Mart, Sprouts and Wegmans, among others.
In addition to the new consumer experience and in preparation for Instacart’s expected pickup growth in 2020, the company has appointed Sarah Mastrorocco to the newly-created role of General Manager, Instacart Pickup. A longtime Instacart veteran and leader, Sarah will work closely with partners across the organization to oversee and scale Instacart’s fast-growing pickup operation. Sarah joined Instacart nearly six years ago as the first member of the company’s Business Development team and since then has played an integral role in various leadership positions across Catalog, Account Management and, most recently, as VP of Business Development. Before Instacart, Sarah was a member of PepsiCo’s Global Operations Group, working on direct store delivery operations across North and South America. Prior to that, she was on Frito-Lay North America’s Strategy and M&A team.
“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 Instacart. “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 multi-billion dollar business.”
“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, 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.”
“We first partnered with Instacart to bring Cub stores online with delivery in 2015 and, based on the overwhelmingly positive customer response, last year we expanded our Instacart partnership to include pickup across nearly 100% of the Cub store footprint,” said Darren Caudill, Senior Vice President, Sales, Merchandising & Marketing, Cub Foods. “Cub Foods customers are shopping online more than ever before and having a seamless pickup experience is an important part of the digital offering we’re building for those loyal customers. It’s also been a boon for our business — we’ve seen our pickup business double in the last 3 months alone.”
Instacart is constantly expanding its pickup offering with national and regional retail partners across the U.S., adding hundreds of pickup stores each month. Looking ahead, Instacart expects to more than double the number of stores offering pickup this year.
Instacart is the North American leader in grocery delivery and today partners with more than 350 beloved national, regional and local retailers to offer delivery from nearly 25,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in the U.S. and Canada. Instacart delivery is currently available to more than 85% of households in the U.S. and more than 70% of households in Canada.
About Instacart:
Instacart is a North American leader in online grocery and one of the fastest growing companies in e-commerce. Instacart’s same-day delivery and pickup services bring fresh groceries and everyday essentials to busy people and families across the U.S. and Canada in as fast as an hour. Instacart has partnered with more than 350 beloved national, regional and local retailers, including Albertsons, ALDI, Costco, Kroger, Loblaw, Publix, Sam’s Club, Sprouts, Walmart Canada, and Wegmans, among others, to deliver from nearly 25,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart’s delivery service is available to more than 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households. The company’s cutting-edge enterprise technology also powers the e-commerce platforms of some of the world’s biggest retail players, supporting their white-label websites, applications and delivery solutions. Instacart offers an Instacart Express membership for unlimited free delivery on orders over $35. For more information or to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com
