Webinar Recap: September 2021

Below is a summary of our webinar, Grow Your Brand on Instacart: Exploring Instacart Ads, with speakers Zach Garten, Strategy Director at Compass Marketing, and Bradley Haaland, Manager, Agency and API Partnerships at Instacart. Our webinar provided essential insights for brands about this exciting online grocery delivery platform.

What is Instacart? Instacart is a digital platform that allows customers to shop for their groceries online, either on their desktops or using their smartphones. Once a customer places an order, an Instacart shopper shops for and delivers the items to the customer. Instacart shoppers can communicate with customers and provide shopping updates using Instacart’s app. Instacart has partnered with more than 600 national, regional, and local retailers, including unique brand names, to deliver from nearly 55,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Retail partners include Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Staples, and more.

Bradley opened the webinar by discussing how the pandemic has shifted consumer behavior to a preference for online shopping methods and how retailers have expanded online grocery shopping options. Prior to the pandemic, Bradley explained that based on third party market research, only 3% of grocery sales happened online with this number reaching a projected 20% in 2025. While these numbers happened quickly, Bradley explained that shopping for groceries online is not a trend and is here to stay.

How are consumers shopping on Instacart? Bradley provided data regarding the typical Instacart customer and the types of orders they place. Instacart customers tend to use the app to shop for weekly items or bulk stock-up orders, purchasing several items across various categories. Instacart customers are also making convenience and special occasion orders, such as when essential items are needed immediately or specific items are needed for a planned event.