The supply chain issue has calmed but has not disappeared. It’s common to send an employee to the nearest grocery store or wholesaler for a missing item needed at a crucial moment. In recent years, some operators have found a more convenient solution for sudden out-of-stocks: Instacart.
Instacart now caters to those operators directly with its division, Instacart Business. A separate experience within the Instacart app, Instacart Business allows restaurants and small- to medium-size businesses to create an account that includes features for businesses such as tools for tax exemptions and invoicing and will show products like bulk items.
“We’re making a big bet on this space, and we think it’s gonna lead to medium- and long-term growth opportunities for Instacart overall,” said Andrew Nodes, Instacart’s VP of business and supply chain.
When Instacart dug into its customer data, the grocery delivery company discovered that a chunk of its users were not individual consumers but small and medium-sized businesses, as reported by Restaurant Business. What’s more, those businesses were good customers, they showed better retention, placed larger orders and shopped at a greater variety of retailers compared to the average consumer, said the article.
Instacart dug deeper and learned that the release of pent-up pandemic demand, combined with supply chain backups, had made it more difficult for busy restaurants to stay stocked. “That’s where they started to experiment and use Instacart and become attached to not having to go to the store themselves,” said Nodes.
Instacart Business launched earlier this year and has been processing millions of orders each quarter; however, Instacart has no intention of disrupting the existing restaurant supply chain.
“I think of Instacart as being more complementary to [restaurants’] current supply chain,” Nodes said.
He gave the example of a chef who needed a specialty lemon olive oil that was not carried in bulk by his regular distributor, but he was able to find it on Instacart.
There are 1,200 retailers on Instacart, from wholesalers to grocers, pharmacies and convenience stores. Instacart’s delivery fees start at $3.99 and scale up based on things like geography and order size.