Furthering Our Commitment to the Shopper Community

Over the last month, our team has had an unwavering commitment to prioritize the health and safety of the entire Instacart community. We’ve been evaluating the COVID-19 crisis minute-by-minute to provide real-time support for Instacart shoppers and customers throughout North America. We’ve been taking proactive steps during this critical time to support all shoppers as you continue to serve as household heroes for families. Today, we’re furthering this commitment by introducing more resources and supplies for our shopper community.

Distributing Health & Safety Supplies

We’ve been working over the past few weeks to maintain a safe environment for shoppers, including providing disinfecting supplies for in-store shoppers and sanitation stations in collaboration with retail partners. Given the broader supply chain shortage for supplies like hand sanitizer, Instacart worked with a third party to manufacture its own hand sanitizer for shoppers to overcome the existing inventory delays and global supply chain scarcity, without taking away resources from healthcare workers. The product is a liquid spray ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer, which will ship in the next week. The independently-developed hand sanitizer that we are providing meets Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance for alcohol-based hand sanitizer and can be used when soap and water are not readily available. The hand sanitizer spray will be available via a website built for the shopper community where you can request the product by logging in with your Instacart shopper email address. We’ll be sharing more information about how you can request this hand sanitizer in the coming days.

Introducing a New Customer Tip Default

Based on direct feedback from shoppers and customers, we’ve been testing a new tip default setting that remembers a customer’s previous tip selection and defaults to that amount moving forward. Beginning today, all existing customers’ completed orders will now default to their last tip amount. This means that if a customer tips 15% to recognize their shopper’s great service, their next order will automatically default to 15%. This new setting makes it easier for customers to set their own tip default based on previous orders, ultimately helping you earn higher, more consistent tips. We’re also removing the “none” option in the customer tip settings, requiring customers to manually change their tip to $0 if desired and making it less likely that a customer will remove the shopper tip altogether. Additionally, if a customer lowers the tip below 5%, the default will reset to 5% to ensure shoppers continue to have a baseline tip amount. Over the last month, 97% of all orders included a tip and shoppers on average received a 30% increase in earnings from customer tips as a result of this new feature and increased customer demand. Tips continue to be separate from any Instacart earnings. As always, 100% of all tips go directly to you.

Reaffirming Our Commitment to You During This Time

As part of our unwavering commitment to prioritizing the health and safety of the entire Instacart community, we’ve been working closely with the CDC and other health officials over the past month to make sure we’re adhering to all of the recommended measures to keep the shopper community safe. We’ve also been working around the clock to develop and implement additional safety resources, features, and offerings to ensure you’re supported. We want to take a moment to recap the new features and resources we’ve rolled out in the last few weeks to make sure you’re aware of the support you have available during this time. You can learn more about each of these offerings by clicking on their links below.

Recap of Health & Safety Updates in the Wake of COVID-19

• New Shopper Health & Safety Guidelines — You have access to a robust set of guidelines, developed in close partnership with a panel of health and safety experts and reviewed by the CDC to ensure you have the resources you need to shop safely. We are updating these guidelines as the situation evolves.
• Extended Pay for Shoppers Affected by COVID-19 — We are offering up to 14 days of pay for any full-service shopper or part-time employee — including in-store shopper, shift lead, site manager, or Instacart Care agent — who is diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in individual mandatory isolation or quarantine, as directed by a local, state, or public health authority.
• Sick Pay for In-Store Shoppers — All Instacart part-time employees now have access to sick pay, an accrued benefit that can be used as paid time off if you are absent from work due to illness or injury.
• COVID-19 Bonuses for In-Store Shoppers — We are increasing pay for the in-store shopper community with new bonuses for all in-store shoppers, shift leads, and site managers. Bonuses will be determined based on the number of hours worked from March 15 through April 15 and will range from $25 to $200.
• Health & Safety Supplies — Over the last few weeks, we’ve been taking proactive measures to maintain a safe environment for shoppers nationwide, including working closely with local teams to provide cleaning supplies for in-store shoppers and sanitation stations in collaboration with retail partners. Existing full-service shoppers will have access to hand sanitizer within the week.
• Batch Promotions — Shoppers in many zones can earn additional boosts on batches during certain times. Shoppers may be offered individual promotions based on their region, customer demand, and other factors. Promotions may vary from $2 to $4 per batch, and will be shown on the batch acceptance screen. Additionally, shoppers may receive quest promotions with extra earnings up to $50 for completing several batches during a certain timeframe. As customer demand has increased, these promotions are being offered more frequently to full-service shoppers nationwide.
• Leave at My Door Delivery — Instacart was the first company to launch “Leave at My Door” to give customers and shoppers a safer, more flexible delivery option. We’ve now rolled out “Leave at My Door Delivery” as the default setting for all deliveries across North America. This new setting provides more flexibility and convenience for customers while ensuring Instacart shoppers can deliver items safely. Over 60% of all orders placed by customers leverage the new “Leave at My Door Delivery” drop-off option.

Improving the Shopper Experience with New Product Features

• Contactless Alcohol Delivery — During this time, you will no longer see in-app prompts to collect a signature from the customer, unless it is required by the state you deliver in or the retailer. You are still required to scan a customer’s ID to verify that they are of legal age — which can be done from a distance — and you can now simply enter the date in the signature box in lieu of a customer’s signature.
• In-App Incident Reporting — The safety and security of the shopper community is our first priority and we want to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to get the immediate support you need. In the Shopper app, in the “Your safety” section, you can now select “Safety incidents” and immediately begin an incident report.
• Review Customer Order Issues — If a customer reports an order issue, such as a missing or damaged item, you can now review these issues and respond with your own input. On the “How Am I Doing?” page in the Shopper app, you can see customer feedback broken down by category and respond to and report any order issue that is incorrect.
• Ratings Forgiveness — All customer ratings under 5 stars are being removed during this period and your average star rating will not affect your access to batches during this time.
• Canceling Batches Made Easier — You can choose the “cancel batch” button to cancel a batch up until the point you arrive at the store.
• Automatically Canceling Out of Stock Orders — If a customer’s entire order is out of stock, the order will be automatically canceled and the customer will be notified.
• Mobile Checkout Available Everywhere — All shoppers in the U.S. can now use Apple Pay or Google Pay to pay at the register.

We are immensely grateful to the entire shopper community for continually stepping up as household heroes for families who are relying on Instacart now more than ever. We are continuing to monitor this situation and working around the clock to make sure we’re providing you with the resources and support you need. Thank you for everything you do.

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.