We are currently in the information age, and tech is the most precious thing in this era. Society is using tech to make their lives comfortable. From online studies to operating massive manufacturing units, we rely on tech. Instacart is doing the same with grocery online shopping. Instacart is an American company founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta alongside Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo. Mehta, an ex-Amazon employee, always wanted to become an entrepreneur. He tried every kind of business. Be it advertising for gaming or social media for the law industry. Unfortunately, all these businesses failed. He realized that he had to solve a problem to kick-start his business. He was quite busy doing work for 14 hours. And he didn’t have time to buy groceries. So, the problem he came up with was buying groceries. To solve this, he designed a user-friendly app for buying instacart grocery online (he probably got the inspiration from Uber). And that’s how the seeds of the company were sown. Let us know ‘Instacart Grocery Online’.
Instacart Grocery Online
The company headquarters is in San Francisco and currently operates in thousands of cities across North America. Its main idea was to set up a delivery mechanism by which customers could get goods through an app. Instacart Express is also a valuable thing they offer. It’s an annual fee to obtain unlimited free deliveries. As soon as the customer orders, the app then contacts the nearest grocery shop in the vicinity. The vendor then packages the goods and transfers them to the delivery boy. Finally, the delivery boy delivers the packaged goods in a timely fashion.
Real-time tracking of goods is one of the most awesome features that Instacart offers to you. You can even chat with the vendor for any help with the items. Shop vendors can even navigate through the items with the app!. In addition to online delivery, customers can pick up their pre-made deliveries from the store by a separate service. There is no compromise with variety. You can get over 300,000 items making sure you get the best of the items you want. Customers can pay either with personal debit or credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and EBT cards. The business model of Instacart is quite intriguing. Now, let’s move on to another valid question. How does Instacart make money? It makes money through delivery fees, the annual membership (Instacart Express), and the profit difference.
In 2015, Instacart’s valuation was around $ 2 billion. And in 2020, its valuation jumped to $ 17.7 billion! But, despite being the biggest food delivery company, the company has been shrouded in controversies. The major controversies were – not providing proper PPA kits to workers during the pandemic and getting sued in court for not paying well. And messing up with tips and the app due to software bugs. The company’s partnership with Whole Foods and Walmart has increased its customer base eventually making it more successful. Instacart has seen tremendous growth in these 5 years, but it still faces competition from Uber Eats and Amazon Food Delivery. Although it’s the most popular in North America, complacency can’t occur.
Innovation is the solution
Instacart’s success is directly linked to innovation. Thinking out of the box is how one can grow his/ her business. If you are a retail seller, you can use innovation to reach customers that were previously unreachable due to physical distance. Instacart’s next big challenge is to make delivery via drones possible! Drones are already in many sectors. From photography to mapping out entire fields of land, drones have been deemed serviceable. Its usefulness in the delivery sector is immense. Small-scale tests have confirmed that drones can carry lightweight goods and commute to nearby areas.
The challenge is to further the extent of carrying weights and be able to travel long distances. For this, massive money has to pour into research and development. Companies like Dominos, Amazon, and Alphabet are lauding this technology as the future of e-commerce fulfillment. Foodpanda, a food delivery company, has piloted food deliveries in Singapore and Pakistan. Although this technology is quite primitive, its advancements could lead to a better future and a profitable business.
Future of Instacart
After a big boom during the pandemic, Instracart’s future looks bright. Although there was a setback with a major value cut, its handling of the business is appreciable. The company has stated a 500% jump in order values. Automation or the use of robots is another audacious step taken by the company. The company plans to make fulfillment centers around the USA, where hundreds of robots would fetch boxes of cereals and cans of soup while human workers would gather the output. Automating the whole system of packaging has the benefit of cost reduction. The company would not have to spend money on workers, instead has to deal with the maintenance cost of the machines.
