How did you do your grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Most Americans relied on online grocery delivery services like Instacart. And these new grocery shopping habits didn’t end with the lockdowns. Millions of Americans still use online grocery shopping and delivery apps for convenience.
If you’re looking for a way to make money in your free time, you can become an Instacart shopper to shop and deliver groceries to people’s homes.
To help you get started and make an informed decision, we’ve compiled the key Instacart statistics and basic information about the company below.
What Is Instacart?
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Instacart is an online grocery shopping and delivery company founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta. It is available in the US and Canada via the website and mobile app.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the demand for grocery deliveries. That’s how Instacart gained popularity.
How Does Instacart Work?
Instacart works just like Uber. It connects customers seeking same-day delivery for groceries and other household items with shoppers in the same area.
The tech company partners with grocery and retail stores to help customers make orders through the Instacart app or website and have the items delivered to their doorstep.
Instacart deploys a shopper to the customer’s favorite grocery stores to fulfill and deliver the order.
Where Does Instacart Operate?
Instacart is available in more than 5,500 cities in the US and Canada. Interestingly, the company was only available in 25 cities in 2016.
The numbers skyrocketed when the pandemic made food delivery services essential.
What Are Instacart Shoppers?
Instacart shoppers are independent contractors or part-time workers for the company who shop for items from stores and deliver them to the customer’s doorstep.
Instacart has two types of shoppers:
- Full-service Instacart shoppers. These are independent contractors who receive orders on the Instacart app, shop from retail stores, and deliver groceries to the customer’s doorstep.
- In-store Instacart shoppers: These are Instacart’s part-time employees who receive orders on the app, shop, and bag the requested grocery items in-store.
How Do Instacart Shoppers Make Money?
Instacart shoppers make money by shopping and delivering groceries with the company.
The payment structure can be complicated. However, the main factor determining a shopper’s pay rate is the type of role.
Full-service Instacart shoppers are paid for the batches they fulfill. The pay rate depends on several factors like delivery distance, item type or number, etc. The average estimated pay for delivery-only batches is about $5, and $10 for full-service batches.
In-store shoppers are paid an hourly wage when available for work.
Shoppers also keep 100% of the tips customers offer, which adds to their income.
Instacart Valuation Statistics
Where does Instacart’s valuation place it in the grocery delivery market? Here’s a breakdown of Instacart’s valuation by year since 2016.
| Year | Instacart Valuation (USD) |
| 2016 | 2 billion |
| 2017 | 3.4 billion |
| 2018 | 7.6 billion |
| 2020 | 13.7 billion |
| 2021 | 39 billion |
| 2022 | 24 billion |
Source: Fortune
Instacart Revenue Statistics
During the Coronavirus pandemic in 2021, Instacart’s revenue increased by 20% (from 1.5 billion in 2020 to 1.8 billion in 2021).
The table below shows the revenue statistics from 2013 to 2021.
| Year | Instacart’s Revenue |
| 2013 | 10 million |
| 2014 | 75 million |
| 2015 | 120 million |
| 2016 | 185 million |
| 2017 | 300 million |
| 2018 | 525 million |
| 2019 | 735 million |
| 2020 | 1.5 billion |
| 2021 | 1.8 billion |
Source: Forbes
Instacart Profit Statistics
Instacart is a private company and doesn’t make its profit information publicly available. However, it made a 50M USD profit in 2020 after a USD 300 million loss in 2019.
How Does Instacart Make Money?
Instacart makes money as a grocery delivery company in the following ways.
- Revenue sharing
- Service fees
- Delivery fees
- Mark-ups on product prices
- Premium subscription service
- In-app advertising
Instacart Order Statistics
If you want to make money as an Instacart shopper, you might wonder how many orders Instacart gets. The average figures are quite impressive, as shown in the table below.
| Time | Estimated Instacart Orders |
| Every second | Nine |
| Every minute | 533 |
| Every hour | 31,958 |
| Every day | 767,000 |
| Every week | 5,369,000 |
| Every month | 21,476,000 |
| Every year | 257,712,000 |
Source: Toptal
Instacart Popular Categories
The most popular grocery item on Instacart is bananas. However, users can order almost anything from fresh produce to clothes.
Instacart User Statistics
Here are the key Instacart user statistics.
- Instacart has about 10 million active monthly users.
- In 2022, Instacart had about 9.6 million active customers, with about 97% from the United States.
- About 54.90% of Instacart users are female, and 44.10% are male.
- 26.6% of Instacart users are between 26 and 34 years.
- Instacart users spend an average of 7 minutes and 23 seconds on the app.
- About 92% of Instacart users in the U.S. use mobile devices to access online grocery delivery services.
- 27% of US online shoppers use Instacart
Source: Usesignhouse
Instacart Shopper Statistics
One of the factors that impact the availability of Instacart shopper opportunities is the number of existing shoppers in the area. Here’s an overview of the number of Instacart shoppers by year.
| Year | Number of Instacart Shoppers |
| 2014 | 5,000 |
| 2016 | 20,000 |
| 2018 | 70,000 |
| 2019 | 130,000 |
| 2020 | 500,000 |
| 2021 | 600,000 |
Source: LinkedIn
Instacart Partner Statistics
Instacart partners are retail stores and grocery companies that work with Instacart. For instance, Costco, Wegmans, and Kroger.
Instacart had more than 900 retail partners in 2022. The large retail and grocery partners list makes it easy for customers to shop for items from their favorite stores—even those without their own grocery delivery services.
Wrapping Up
Not all local retail stores and grocery companies offer delivery, which turned out to be an essential service since the Coronavirus pandemic. That’s where shopping and delivery apps like Instacart come in.
From Instacart’s statistics and facts, the increase in shoppers highly impacts the average delivery time and shopper earnings.
If you’re ready to earn more money as an Instacart shopper, check out our other guides to understand which days you’ll deliver orders, whether Instacart provides insurance, and how to change your Instacart profile picture.
