Key Takeaways
- Shipt acceptance rate (AR) once crucial, now less impactful for order assignment.
- Good AR is over 80%; below that considered poor, but focus has shifted.
- Customer service and ratings now more vital for securing more orders.
- Strategies for AR improvement: accept offered orders promptly, prioritize service quality.
What is a Shipt Acceptance Rate?
The acceptance rate, also referred to as AR, is the number of hours divided by the number of orders you accepted.
It tracks how many orders you accept out of the orders you are offered. This is very similar to the DoorDash acceptance rate, which is a critical component of their platform as well.
Why Does Shipt Acceptance Rate Matter?
The Shipt AR used to matter a lot for drivers. For instance, if you had an AR of less than 80 percent, it significantly lowered your chances of having orders assigned to you.
However, it no longer factors into how orders are assigned. Its impact on the experience and opportunities of the driver are slim to none.
According to Shipt
In the beginning, Shipt used the acceptance rate to determine which Shipt shopper was assigned an order. This policy was to promote loyalty and give customers the best and most responsive, experienced Shipt shoppers.
Today, Shipt says that the reason for removing the acceptance rate is because customers ordering from Shipt wanted to be able to have their most trusted driver deliver their groceries each time.
When the acceptance rate was factored in, perhaps your preferred shopper wasn’t getting your assignment due to their low AR. With this new system, customers can choose their favorite 5-star delivery people to complete their grocery service.
According to Drivers
Since it no longer matters as much, it is more important to focus on your customer service since their rating factors more into how many orders you are offered instead of the acceptance rate.
A Shipt member can also order from their preferred shopper in the new model.
Some drivers prefer this new model, but others miss the impact the acceptance rate had on their delivery probability since it was easier to complete your tasks and keep a good AR, which means more orders.
Now, you have to sit around waiting and looking at the app a lot to get an offer.
What is a Good Shipt Acceptance Rate?
A good Shipt acceptance rate is over 80 percent, meaning on an average 5-hour shift, if you accept 4 of 5 orders, your rate is about 80% for that day.
It provides a little flexibility for the driver but not much since you are expected to claim almost every order assigned.
What Is Considered A Bad Shipt Acceptance Rate?
A bad Shipt acceptance rate is anything under 80 percent. Having a low acceptance rate is hard to bring up quickly, so keep this in mind before you decline any orders.
Before the policy change, drivers were penalized for having a low acceptance rate. The penalty was that they would not get assigned as many orders, making it difficult to get more orders and raise the acceptance rate.
However, acceptance rate no longer matters on Shipt – technically.
It still matters, in the sense that it factors in slightly to get orders, but your star rating based on customer reviews matters much more in terms of getting orders assigned to you.
How Do I Increase My Shipt Acceptance Rate?
Increasing your acceptance rate is slightly difficult, but you can do it. Here are a few ways you can increase your Shipt acceptance rate.
- Take any orders offered to you regardless of the money you will make.
- When the order is offered, claim it within the designated time frame.
- Only offered orders count toward your acceptance rate, so be sure only to claim these so you are not busy with a different order when an order comes up.
Wrapping Up
Working for Shipt can be worth it, especially now that the acceptance rating does not matter nearly as much.
Though the AR is no longer calculated into if you receive orders or how often you receive orders, it is good practice to keep all of your ratings up because policies can change at any time, and you want to be prepared for that.
Quality customer service, timeliness, and strong communication with the customer are best to ensure that working with Shipt as an independent contractor is worth it in the long term.
