Instacart Upsizes Fulfillment Capability
Go big or go home. For Instacart, it’s go big and go home with a new solution for the same-day or scheduled delivery of large items like outdoor furniture, grills, home office supplies and electronics, among other goods.
The “Big & Bulky” offering, powered by Instacart's Carrot Delivery fulfillment technology, allows consumers to order everyday items like groceries and essentials along with large-item orders for delivery at the same time. They can make purchases from the Instacart app and choose retailers’ Instacart platform-powered websites.
“By introducing Big & Bulky, consumers can now access an even wider selection of items for same-day delivery. With football season just around the corner, Instacart’s Big & Bulky solution can provide customers with items like portable grills and tents for a tailgate or a 55-inch TV in case they’re watching from home — all in as fast as an hour,” said Daniel Danker, chief product officer at San Francisco-based Instacart. “As a retail enablement partner, our goal is to support retailers’ bottom lines by expanding their online catalogs through our enterprise solutions. We’re excited to introduce Big & Bulky today and look forward to continuing to serve as an industry-leading fulfillment platform.”
While the new capability is designed for consumer convenience, Instacart shoppers can gain new earning opportunities by shopping for batches with large items. According to Instacart, 97% of its shoppers who drive large vehicles opted in to shop and deliver bulky products to consumers.
Early retail partners for the new capability include Big Lots, Office Depot and Container Store. Instacart plans to expands its partnership with other retailers that carry big and bulky products, including those that also sell groceries and household goods.
This is the latest example of Instacart’s efforts to broaden its capabilities to serve more customers. In early August, the company announced that grocery partners can use FoodStorm’s order management system with the Instacart app for catering deliveries. Also this summer, Instacart announced plans to enhance access to grocery deliveries by expanding online EBT SNAP payments to several more states. From a service perspective, the platform recently partnered with Chase Bank to offer an Instacart Mastercard credit card and launched Instacart+, an improved value-driven subscription service.
