SAN FRANCISCO — Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, today announced the launch of Instacart Business, a new business-focused offering that brings the best of Instacart to businesses with features designed to help them save on costs, time, and resources.
With many business owners facing challenges like supply chain issues, staffing shortages, record inflation, untenable inventory costs, rising real estate prices and other overhead increases, local and small businesses like plumbers and electricians, boutiques, salons, cafés, daycares, and legal offices are disproportionately affected. These businesses often manage multiple vendors to get the best prices on organizational staples from paper and pens to bananas and coffee, and, relative to larger businesses, have smaller order volumes – often translating to higher prices and prohibitive minimums. And with lean operations, teams often wear multiple hats, are time-strapped and busy with the demands of their job.
“At Instacart, we believe that the cost of doing business shouldn’t be so costly – especially for small businesses that are essential to the communities they serve,” said Asha Sharma, COO of Instacart. “That’s why today we’re proud to announce the launch of Instacart Business. From stocking up on snacks in the office break room to getting last-minute supplies delivered to a family-owned restaurant, our affordable, convenient and flexible marketplace connects thousands of retailers to businesses nationwide, but with some new features tailor-made for this important community. This is just the first step, and we’re excited to support local businesses with even more solutions over the long-term that improve their operations and ultimately help them get back to business.”
Businesses are already turning to Instacart to meet these needs. Each quarter, Instacart fulfills millions of orders from businesses* that shop from retailers they trust to get the food and supplies they need to run their day-to-day operations.
“Shopping with Instacart has helped our business tremendously; it saves us hours a day since we no longer need to make runs to multiple stores, and it allows us to keep our out-of-state location easily stocked when we’re at our home store in Baltimore,” said Shawn Parker, Co-Founder of Connie’s Chicken and Waffles. “We really appreciate the flexibility; our normal vendors require a few day’s notice, and with Instacart we can get same-day delivery or order-in-advance. We are also able to chat with Instacart shoppers in real-time to adjust our order based on the in-store inventory, so we don’t run out of critical items. We have found that our Instacart shoppers commonly get us hard-to-find items our typical vendors can’t.”
“Instacart is a staple in my preschool programming; it’s a convenient, personalized shopping experience that gives us better options for the children we serve,” said Dr. Tamar Andrews, Senior Director of Early Childhood Education and Engagement at Temple Isaiah Preschool in Los Angeles. “We’ve tried to use other vendors, but we had less control over the quality of fresh foods, which really matters when you’re serving kids. The beauty of Instacart is that the second that the shopper has started, I can say, ‘I need green bananas’- we’re able to really tailor our orders to what we need on a given day. And I’ll often get the same shopper over and over again, so they learn our preferences.”
Save money. Save time. Stay focused.
Instacart Business will build upon this strong foundation with a suite of forthcoming features and business-centric retailer offerings to further empower businesses to save on costs, time, and resources.
Inventory, for example, can often eat up as much as 25% of a business’s budget and drive disproportionate upfront start-up costs, and with labor representing as much as 70% of a small business’ spending, businesses suffer when valuable employee time is spent making runs to the store for last-minute supplies. Instacart Business allows purchasers easy access an affordable selection from retailers they already trust– with no monthly minimums, no additional contracts to shop and same-day delivery that allows businesses to “skip the ship” on prohibitive delivery fees, bypass costly employee runs to the store, and stock only the inventory they need at a given time. Instacart Business delivers what businesses really need, exactly when they need it by partnering with more than 1,100 national, regional and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Today, business owners and office managers can go to instacart.com/business to tell Instacart more about their business and get shopping in just three clicks – skipping multiple lengthy onboarding processes across multiple vendors. They’ll also be able to join the waitlist for new features, and over the coming months, take advantage of new business-friendly features that will help them spend less time shopping, and more time focusing on what matters most: taking care of business.
Business-friendly retailers: Businesses can search and shop more than 1.5 million unique products on Instacart, including bulk and value essentials from partners like Costco Business Center, Staples, Restaurant Depot, and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
“For many business owners, there aren’t enough hours in the day, so they need multiple options to choose what works for them given their schedules,” said Rob Parker, SVP, Costco Business Center. “We’ve always offered the flexibility to shop our selection of business-focused items in-person or via local delivery, and with the option to shop from any of our 23 locations via Instacart, business owners can stay at their business, yet get what they need within hours, and get back to business quickly.”
“Staples is thrilled to be a part of the launch of Instacart Business,” said Ory Adler, VP, Digital & Loyalty, Staples US Retail. “We know that every minute of a small business owner’s day is critical and with Instacart Business they now have easy, same-day delivery access to our extensive Staples product assortment and print services, saving them valuable time to focus on their business.”
Stock lists: Instacart Business customers can simplify their operations and streamline spend by gathering all of their business needs into a shopping list that can be shared with their team and ordered with a few taps.
Easy re-ordering and auto-order capabilities: Teams can save themselves the headache of having to recreate past orders manually by adding all items from a previous order to their cart in just a few taps, and purchasers can leverage the simple Auto-Order feature for any items that they might need on a rolling basis.
Flexible delivery options: Businesses can get the best of Instacart’s via flexible delivery options like same-day delivery for last-minute needs in as little as 30 minutes, discounted no-rush delivery, and long distance delivery options to ensure they get the perfect supplies, right when they need them.
Business credits: For the first time, select business customers can distribute credits to teams and locations with category restrictions, invoicing, and monthly reporting. Businesses can indicate interest in participating in business credits when they join Instacart Business.
Tax exemption benefits: In select states, eligible pilot businesses like non-profits, healthcare, and political organizations can save on eligible tax-exempt items by providing their valid tax exemption certificate. Business owners interested in applying for tax exemption for their business can join our waitlist when they join Instacart Business.
Supporting diverse small businesses owners with their operational needs – and beyond.
Instacart is proud to support local businesses and celebrate their entrepreneurial spirit and determination. In that spirit, the company is also partnering with national organizations that expand access to diverse small businesses to help them not only grow, but thrive. Instacart is excited to work with the U.S. Black Chambers, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Pan Asian American Chambers of Commerce EF, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and Black Enterprise in its efforts. Combined, they represent hundreds of thousands of diverse businesses across the country. Instacart will work with these partners to help businesses expand their network and provide access to training and informational resources to continue to thrive with technology and compete.
“For small business owners, every minute and every dollar saved means more time and resources they can invest into running and growing their companies,” said Ron Busby Sr., President and CEO of U.S. Black Chambers. “Thanks to Instacart Business, Black-owned businesses will now be able to affordably access the goods and supplies they need to operate their companies.”
To get started with Instacart Business, visit instacart.com/business. For a limited time, new Instacart users can get $50 off an order of $200.**
*Based on the number of orders placed with business credit cards each quarter in 2022.
**New Instacart users only, limited availability to 10,000 of the first businesses to onboard by March 10th, 2023.About Instacart
Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,100 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 80,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com.
For anyone interested in becoming an Instacart shopper, visit https://shoppers.instacart.com/.
