Understanding the Shopper Community: A Report

By regularly engaging with and listening to the Instacart shopper community, we’re able to develop an even deeper understanding of who Instacart shoppers are and why they shop with us. This feedback allows us to continue improving and delivering the best possible shopping experience for the approximately 600,000 individuals who look to us for a flexible earnings opportunity.

That’s why, in 2022, we enlisted a third-party research agency, EMC Research, to further these understandings and help us garner even more information about the shopper community. The study interviewed a statistically representative sample of shoppers across the United States and has helped us focus our efforts on the best way to support the shopper community moving forward.

Here are some of the learnings we found.

Who shops with Instacart?

Instacart shoppers come from a wide variety of backgrounds. While they all have individual stories and shop with Instacart for different reasons, there are a few commonalities that we find across the shopper community.

• Shoppers are primarily female: +70% identify as women.
• Shoppers are caregivers: 50% are parents or have caregiving responsibilities for family or others in need.
• Shoppers are primarily younger: 60% of shoppers are younger than 34 years old.
• Shoppers seek higher education: 2 out of 3 shoppers have some college education or higher, and 11% are current college students.

Why do shoppers choose Instacart?

In one word: flexibility. Overwhelmingly, shoppers say they choose to earn income through the Instacart platform because of the freedom and independence they get with a flexible schedule. Flexibility and independence gives them the ability to earn on their own terms, and the majority of shoppers choose to shop less than 10 hours per week.

• +80% of shoppers say they choose Instacart for the independence they have as a shopper. Shopping with Instacart allows them to fit app-based work between other priorities. 
• +75% of shoppers say flexibility — or the ability to be their own boss and set their own hours — is the main reason they shop. 
• ~60% of shoppers say their motivation for shopping is their earnings potential — the ability to earn on their own terms.

But it’s not just about how their work helps them earn during their already busy schedules — shoppers also highly value how their work helps make a difference in their communities. 

• 95% of shoppers agree that Instacart helps provide access to food for members of the community like the elderly or those with disabilities.
• +80% say that working with Instacart makes them feel like they’re giving back to the community.

How do shoppers feel about Instacart?

Our goal is to make sure that anyone who chooses to shop with Instacart has a great experience. We’re pleased that many shoppers value their time on the Instacart platform and feel that Instacart has their best interests in mind.

• Nearly 90% of shoppers have a favorable view of Instacart.
• More than 80% would recommend shopping on the Instacart platform to others. 
• Additionally, +80% of shoppers agree that Instacart:
  • Makes them feel valued
  • Cares about them
  • Offers well-paying opportunities
  • And is looking out for them by protecting their flexibility
• Instacart stands out — Instacart shoppers are at least 3x as likely to say that Instacart makes them feel more valued and more safe than rideshare or other delivery platforms.

Since we first introduced our shopper commitments in early 2022, we’ve taken deliberate steps to further our relationship with shoppers and enhance their experience, from the smallest bug fixes to the biggest feature rollouts. Over the past 18 months, we’ve launched more than 25 new product features to directly improve the shopper experience. We look forward to furthering these efforts and delivering an even better opportunity for shoppers to earn with us.

Instacart

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 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.