New Studies Show Instacart Ads Influencing In-Store Purchases 

New Circana case studies show in-store sales lift when CPGs advertise on Instacart

Brands advertise with Instacart at the point of purchase to reach a high-intent audience while they shop online at their favorite retailer. With more than 1,500 national, regional, and local retail banners on Instacart, representing 85% of the U.S. grocery market, campaigns on Instacart can reach consumers shopping across the U.S. and Canada.

At Instacart, we provide our brand partners a plethora of insights and analytics derived from our first-party data to show how they perform. Previous studies have shown how advertising on Instacart can drive an incremental sales lift. On Instacart, Applegate saw a 35% sales lift, Reckitt a 16.5% sales lift, and Challenge Dairy an incremental sales lift of over 60%.¹

Though online grocery growth has outpaced in-store growth in recent years, we know consumers shop in a variety of ways. There are omnichannel consumers, those who shop online, and those who shop in-store. 

To help our brand partners better understand consumer behavior nuances across online and in-store shopping, we have been working with Circana on several studies. Initially we examined the types of consumers brands reached on Instacart compared to in-store to determine the overlap. The studies revealed brands reach distinct consumers on Instacart compared to in-store.

Building on this previous work with Circana, we collaborated on additional studies to analyze whether advertising on Instacart had any effect on brands’ in-store sales. We wanted to provide our brand partners the full picture of their ad campaigns’ impact. Since some consumers who use Instacart to order groceries online also shop for groceries in-store, the true impact of an ad campaign on Instacart should include any purchases it influences in-store. 

The new studies demonstrated our on-platform ads’ effectiveness in driving in-store purchases. Several studies showed CPG brands achieving a double-digit in-store sales lift. For example, our analyses showed CPG A had a 21% in-store sales lift among consumers exposed to its sponsored product ads on Instacart; CPG B had a 15% lift.²

The studies reveal additional value our brand partners can drive by advertising on Instacart.  Not only can ads drive incremental online sales, they also can impact in-store consumer behavior. This is consistent with other Circana retail media research that has shown that the impact of a strong retail media platform drives sales beyond the retailer delivering the advertising.

¹ Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.

² Data for exposed users from 4/1/24-6/16/24 measured for full Q2 ’24 vs. Circana control group. Results provided by Circana. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes. 

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,500 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 85,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.