Instacart Blog

Company Updates

Ordering Groceries With an AI Agent, Like OpenAI’s Operator

Instacart Continues to Drive the Future of AI, Leaning Into Agentic Tools  If you’ve ever wished someone else would order your groceries–and you’re an OpenAI ChatGPT Pro subscriber–you’re in luck. With the introduction of AI-powered…

Jan 23, 2025

Company Updates

Helping the people of Los Angeles with access to fresh groceries and essentials

We are devastated by the effects of the wildfires sweeping through Los Angeles, impacting tens of thousands of people who have lost their homes, have been forced to evacuate, or are on call to evacuate…

Jan 17, 2025

Company Updates

Instacart Launches Community Carts for 10 Los Angeles-based YMCAs, Unlocking Crowdsourced Donations for Victims of the LA Wildfires 

As wildfires continue to sweep through Los Angeles County, we know that connecting temporary emergency relief centers helping care for tens of thousands of people to the much-needed groceries and supplies they need is more…

Jan 15, 2025

Caper

How Smart Shopping Carts Can Supercharge Grocery Retail Loyalty Programs

Enhance the potential of your loyalty program Loyalty programs are powerful tools for grocers of all sizes. By offering perks like recipe recommendations, exclusive offers, and routine discounts, loyalty programs cater to consumers at the…

Dec 16, 2024

Instacart Retail

A Retailer’s Guide to AI Grocery Retail Media Networks

Competitive advertising in connected ecosystems From personalized product recommendations to CPG promotion software, AI has become an integral tool for modern grocers of all sizes. Despite initial concerns around AI — regarding how it works…

Oct 24, 2024

Company Updates

Instacart Expands Presence in Canada with Addition of Sobeys, FreshCo, Farm Boy, and Longo’s on the Instacart App

Customers in Ontario can now find their favorite Empire Company Limited banner stores, including Sobeys, FreshCo, Farm Boy, and Longo’s, on the Instacart App for same-day delivery in as fast as an hour. Rolling out…

Oct 24, 2024

Caper

How Smart Shopping Carts Can Supercharge Grocery Retail Loyalty Programs

Enhance the potential of your loyalty program Loyalty programs are powerful tools for grocers of all sizes. By offering perks like recipe recommendations, exclusive offers, and routine discounts, loyalty programs cater to consumers at the…

Dec 16, 2024

Instacart Retail

A Retailer’s Guide to AI Grocery Retail Media Networks

Competitive advertising in connected ecosystems From personalized product recommendations to CPG promotion software, AI has become an integral tool for modern grocers of all sizes. Despite initial concerns around AI — regarding how it works…

Oct 24, 2024

Company Updates

Instacart Insights: Caper Carts Rolling into an Aisle Near You

As we roll into an enhanced era of grocery shopping, it's clear that consumers are ready to trade traditional shopping carts for something a bit more... intelligent. Smart technology isn’t just assisting us in everyday…

Oct 7, 2024

Company Updates

Holiday Ordering Simplified: FoodStorm’s New Capabilities Enhance Prepared Food Retail Operations

Improved in-store fulfillment functionality and stock management will help boost retail sales  As the holiday season approaches, grocers are gearing up for the annual surge in prepared food and catering orders. To prepare for the…

Sep 18, 2024

FoodStorm

Ten Ways to Drive Profitability with Perimeter Departments

How Are You Growing Your Grocery Margins? It’s no secret: Bigger profit margins support better business growth. For grocers, though, increasing margins can feel like an uphill battle. Historically, grocery has produced lower profit margins…

Sep 17, 2024

FoodStorm

Elevate Your In-Store Prepared Foods Experience with Grocery Kiosk Technology

Bringing Digitization to Perimeter Departments Between online shopping solutions like digital storefronts and in-store touchpoints like electronic shelf labels, we’re seeing the next evolution of grocery technology happen in real time.  Retailers are leveraging the…

Sep 17, 2024

Company Updates

Shoppable Recipes Inspired by Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+

A show about scientific yet easy recipes and Instacart? It doesn’t take a PhD to see how the two would perfectly fit together. Timed to the October 13 global premiere of Lessons in Chemistry on…

Oct 24, 2023

Company Updates

Bringing Inspirational, AI-Powered Search to the Instacart app with Ask Instacart

At Instacart, AI has been central to everything we do for years: from matching Shoppers to available batches and delivery windows to helping customers find the right replacements for low-stock items and serving up personalized…

Oct 24, 2023

Company Updates

New Omnichannel and AI Solutions to Help Grocery Thrive

At Instacart, we’ve long believed that the future of grocery – and commerce in general – isn’t online or in-store. It’s both. And now more than ever, it’s being supercharged with AI.  Omnichannel customers are…

Oct 20, 2023

Eversight

Instacart and Klarna Partner to Offer Consumers More Flexible Ways to Pay

We’re teaming up with Klarna to introduce even more ways to pay for your purchases online on Instacart.com and in the Instacart app. Our partnership gives you more flexibility to pay for same-day delivery across…

Nov 20, 2023

Company Updates

Instacart 2022: A Feast of Grocery Innovations and Upgrades 

Imagine that you’re grocery shopping. Now imagine being able to shop 24/7, selecting from one billion items, and being able to access inventory that updates 3,000 times per second– and checking out alongside millions of…

Oct 20, 2023

Company Updates

The Power of Promotions: How AI Can Help Retailers Combat Inflation

Inflation is driving up the cost of food throughout North America, resulting in higher prices for individual items and full baskets, both online and in-store. An Advantage Sales survey found that nine out of ten…

Oct 20, 2023

Company Updates

Introducing Connected Stores: Making Shopping Seamless

For the last decade, we’ve worked with grocers to bring their businesses online, and helped people find their favorite foods and get them delivered to their door in just a few clicks. While there’s a…

Oct 24, 2023

Instacart Retail

4 Online Grocery Technology Methods to Future-Proof Your Operations

Fast, scalable grocery fulfillment has become the norm, exponentially accelerated over the past few years by the COVID-19 pandemic and consumers’ increasing need for convenience. Whether in-store shopping or grocery ordering, seamless experiences are the…

Oct 20, 2023

Instacart Retail

The Complete Guide to Driving Growth with Grocery E-Commerce

In the next five years, some grocery executives believe that e-commerce penetration will increase to as high as 35%. While grocery e-commerce and fulfillment leaders have spent years integrating technology to offer essentials to the…

Oct 20, 2023

Instacart Ads

Making Social Shoppable with Instacart Ads 

It’s no secret that social media represents a powerful channel for CPGs to reach and engage audiences, while video content can especially capture attention in ways no other medium can. As a result of the…

Jan 20, 2025

Instacart Ads

Doritos Halloween Jack-o-Lantern Recipe a Huge Hit on Instacart

With Instacart Ads, we can help consumers find new products and brands they’ll love while shopping online from their favorite retailers. By connecting CPG brands with consumers at the point of purchase, we can help…

Jan 16, 2025

Instacart Ads

Torani Tastes 67% Incremental Sales Lift with Instacart Ads

Established in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood in 1925, Torani put Italian sodas on the U.S. map in the 1920s and created the world's first flavored latte in the 1980s. From the beginning, they’ve used…

Jan 14, 2025

Instacart Health

Making Expert Nutrition Advice Accessible and Actionable with Instacart Health

It should be easy to understand how nutritious a food is, but we’ve all been there – studying the fine print on a package, trying to figure out how it fits into our health needs…

Jan 10, 2025

Company Updates

Instacart’s Fourth Annual Giving Tuesday Campaign with Danone Supports Partnership for a Healthier America with up to 500,000 Servings of Fruits and Vegetables 

At Instacart, we're committed to making nutritious food accessible for everyone. With so many communities across America lacking access to fresh produce, one of our main goals is to bridge the gap to make it…

Dec 2, 2024

Company Updates

Simplifying SNAP: Instacart’s new tool helps families determine eligibility in less than 60 seconds

Instacart is an essential tool for millions of families, helping them access affordable, nutritious food from trusted local grocers. Customers say our platform is essential for their well-being and general quality of life, and many…

Nov 21, 2024

Instacart Business

Voice of the Customer: Why Healthcare Providers & Restauranteurs Choose Instacart Business

In the Voice of the Customer, we sit down with real Instacart Business users to understand what they do and how the Instacart Business platform supports their business ordering needs. At Instacart Business, we facilitate…

Jan 24, 2025

Company Updates

New Solutions for Suppliers and Merchants with Instacart Business

At Instacart Business, our mission is to empower businesses of all kinds with seamless access to the fresh ingredients, snacks and business supplies they need. And over the past few months, Instacart Business has not…

Dec 16, 2024

Company Updates

Celebrating One Year of Instacart Business: Saving the Day with Groceries on Demand

It’s been a year since we first introduced Instacart Business, a new way for businesses to shop on Instacart to give them more flexibility to get the last-minute– and often, unexpected– items they need to…

Apr 4, 2024

Shopper Community

NYC Shoppers Resist New NYC Bill, According to Survey

Shoppers tell us time and again how important it is that they can continue to earn flexibly on our platform - meaning they get to choose when, where and how much they want to shop…

Jan 6, 2025

Shopper Community

Fast-Tracked Folly: NYC’s Misguided Grocery Delivery Ordinance Hurts New Yorkers

New York City is rushing an ordinance that threatens the wallets of hardworking New Yorkers by reducing earnings opportunities for many residents and making grocery delivery more expensive. The ordinance recklessly applies a deeply flawed…

Dec 5, 2024

Shopper Community

Celebrating Shoppers during Shopper Appreciation Week

Instacart wouldn’t be what it is without our dedicated community of shoppers. To show our gratitude for all they do for their communities during the holiday season–and all seasons–Instacart hosted a special Shopper Appreciation Week…

Dec 3, 2024

Data & Trends

Spice It Up: Instacart Dishes Out Spicy Insights for National Hot Sauce Day

As we kick off 2025, Instacart is spicing things up with data-driven insights for National Hot Sauce Day on January 22. Whether you're adding a dash of hot sauce to your morning eggs or giving…

Jan 22, 2025

Company Updates

Instacart’s Flavorful Food Forecast for 2025

As 2024 draws to a close and we gear up for the new year, we’re excited to share Instacart’s anticipated food and grocery trends for 2025. In order to develop this forecast, we analyzed Instacart…

Dec 4, 2024

Company Updates

Instacart’s Cornucopia of Thanksgiving and Winter Holiday Insights

As the air turns crisp and the anticipation of holiday gatherings begin, it's time to rediscover the foods and festivities that define the season! According to a recent Instacart survey of over 2,000 U.S. adults…

Oct 24, 2024

Taste of Instacart

¡Cinco Años de Sazón! Five Years of Honoring Latinx & Hispanic Cultures at Instacart

From September 15 through October 15, we celebrated Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month at Instacart. Championed by Sazón, our Employee Resource Group (ERG) dedicated to the Latinx community, this year’s activities were anchored under the…

Nov 1, 2024

Taste of Instacart

Building Bridges this Pride Month with Rainbow Carrots

Happy Pride Month! This month, our Rainbow Carrots Employee Resource Group (ERG) proudly led this year's festivities, featuring both virtual and in-person events designed to celebrate Instacart’s diverse identities and make room for positive change…

Jun 28, 2024

Taste of Instacart

Recognizing Juneteenth: Reflections from our Head of Diversity, Equity, & Belonging (DEB)

While Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the US, since 2021, Instacart and its employees commemorate the observance with shoppers, customers, and in our communities globally. For us, it’s a time to come together to…

Jun 19, 2024

How It's Made

Building for Balance

How we developed a unified marketplace balancing engine with machine learning and optimization. Written by Trace Levinson, Senior Machine Learning Engineer. The Instacart Marketplace team is deeply focused on producing both timely, high-quality deliveries for…

Apr 12, 2024

How It's Made

One Model to Serve Them All: How Instacart deployed a single Deep Learning pCTR model for multiple surfaces with improved operations and performance along the way

Authors: Cheng Jia, Peng Qi, Joseph Haraldson, Adway Dhillon, Qiao Jiang, Sharath Rao Introduction Instacart Ads and Ranking Models At Instacart Ads, our focus lies in delivering the utmost relevance in advertisements to our customers, facilitating novel product discovery and enhancing…

Dec 19, 2023

How It's Made

Monte Carlo, Puppetry and Laughter: The Unexpected Joys of Prompt Engineering

Author: Ben Bader The universe of the current Large Language Models (LLMs) engineering is electrifying, to say the least. The industry has been on fire with change since the launch of ChatGPT in November of…

Dec 19, 2023

Small Business Spotlight

Small Business Summer Spotlights: Cultivating Children’s Healthy Eating Habits with Temple Isaiah Preschool

​​This summer, Instacart is celebrating small businesses with our Small Business Summer Spotlights series. We know small businesses are the heart of their communities, and we’re proud to help them thrive and grow. Every Friday…

Jul 28, 2023

Small Business Spotlight

Small Business Summer Spotlights: Creating Strong Community & Empowering Employees with Yoke’s Fresh Market

This summer, Instacart is celebrating small businesses with our Small Business Summer Spotlights series. We know small businesses are the heart of their communities, and we’re proud to help them thrive and grow. On Fridays…

Jul 21, 2023

Small Business Spotlight

Small Business Summer Spotlights: Building a Trusted Brand With Once Upon A Farm

This summer, Instacart is celebrating small businesses with our Small Business Summer Spotlights series. We know small businesses are the heart of their communities, and we’re proud to help them thrive and grow. Every Friday…

Jul 14, 2023