Know About Inastcard

 About Instacard

Instacart is an American company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the USA & Canada. The company offers its services via a website & App. The service allows customers to order groceries from participating retailers with the shopping being done by personal shopper. Instacart was founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Apoorva Mehta . Apoorva was born in India and moved with his family to Canada in 2000. He studied engineering at the University of Waterloo and graduated in 2008. Instacart was created in 2012. Apoorva previously worked at Blackberry, Qualcomm & Amazon as a supply chain engineer, where he developed fulfillment systems to move packages from Amazon's warehouses to customers’ homes. Before founding Instacart, Apoorva had tried to start at least 20 other services. He tried building an ad network for social gaming companies, and developing a social network specifically for lawyers, among other start-ups.

Instacart originally launched in San Francisco. By April 2015, the firm had about 200 employees. It introduced a new policy around June allowing some shoppers to choose to be starting with Chicago and Boston and extending its offer to shoppers in Atlanta, Miami, and Washington D.C. the following month. In September 2016, the company announced an expansion to its zone in North Chicango. In October 2016, it announced the expansion of coverage areas in Orange Country & Minneapolis. In November 2017, the company expanded to Canada by announcing a partnership with Loblaw Companies to begin delivery from select Loblaw Companies, Real Canadian Superstore and T & T Supermarket locations in Toronto & Vancouver and By mid-2018, Instacart was available for use in 11 Canadian markets and was planning expansions for five more markets. In September 2018, Instacart added service from Walmart Canada stores, Staples Canada and M&M Food Market. In January 2018, the company acquired Toronto-based Unata, a white-label platform for grocers, for $65 million. In November 2018, Instacart announced the national expansion of Instacart Pickup, a grocery click-and-collect service, whereby users pick up their pre-packaged orders at the grocery store. In March 2019, Instacart expanded its same-day alcohol delivery service in the U.S. On April 11, 2019, the company expanded its services to offering an on-demand option for its workers, in order to allow workers to work more flexible schedules. As of December 2019, Instacart's alcohol delivery service included over 30 new partners in more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. such as Aldi, Sam's Club, BJ's Wholesale Club, Sprouts Farmers Market, and The Fresh Market. From mid-March to mid-April 2020, Instacart hired an additional 300,000 workers to meet the surge in demand for grocery deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from Apptopia demonstrated a 218% increase in daily downloads as distancing measures increased. In May 2020, Instacart began a partnership with Rite Aid, offering its service across 2,400 locations in 18 states. In August 2020, Instacart entered its first partnership with Walmart in the U.S. to offer same-day delivery services. The partnership is a pilot program beginning in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Tulsa.

Service Model

Orders are fulfilled and delivered by a personal shopper, who picks, packs, and delivers the order within the customer's designated time frame—within one hour or up to five days in advance. Customers pay with personal debit or credit card, and other payment mode. The delivery fee is $3.99 for orders of $35 or more and $7.99 under that amount. Regardless of the cost of the order, there is a 5% service fee with a minimum of $2 owed. Instacart offers a membership service called Instacart Express for a monthly fee of about $9.99 or an annual fee of $99. The membership service waives delivery fees on orders over $35, but customers must still pay the service fee for the shopper. In addition, customers can pickup their pre-made orders from the store through a separate service. For stores that do not participate in Instacart's partnership program, customers can be charged a markup of about 15%-40% per order