Instacart Enhances Its Pickup Platform

The release of the new Instacart Pickup product comes following a year of significant pickup growth for Instacart, which tripled the number of states and doubled the number of grocery partners offering its grocery pickup product in 2019.

The grocery fulfillment solution powers pickup for more than 50 grocery partners, including Food Lion, Gelson's, Publix, Price Chopper, Schnucks, Shop 'n Save, The Fresh Market, Wegmans and more, across more than 30 states. The company expects to expand the Instacart Pickup offering to all 50 states by the end of 2020.

The reimagined Instacart Pickup product has been rolling out to consumers gradually over the past several months and is now available to all Instacart customers across the U.S. and Canada. Among the new features, Instacart Pickup now includes:

• Smart Storefronts. Customers can view delivery and pickup options from a single digital storefront for each grocer on the platform. The feature allows customers to easily toggle between delivery and pickup options to view the most up-to-date inventory by store and compare time windows for both.
• "Pick Your Pickup" Mapping. Customers can easily view and select the most convenient pickup location.
• "On The Way" Alerts for Faster Pickup. Customers can enable location-based notifications to let the store know when they're on the way and getting close. Handoff is more seamless with this new feature, which allows in-store shoppers to be ready and waiting for customers curbside in real-time.
• Send a Friend or Family Member. Customers can share their order details with friends and family to delegate pickup to another driver.
• Alcohol Pickup - Instacart continues to extend the aisles of its pickup product, and is now also offering alcohol pickup across more than 20 retail partners, including Aldi, BevMo!, Publix, Save Mart, Sprouts and Wegmans, among others.