Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum.
Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct integration with their inventory system. Way less substitutions. Also Prime ($99) is obviously a higher-value bundle than Instacart Express ($149).
Instacart's opportunity is to serve all the other retailers that are crapping their collective pants over this. Whether it's a short or long term opportunity... remains to be seen.
It's worth noting that Instacart has been doing this for years now, and has massive amounts of operational experience in this area which Amazon lacks. They also have lower or no minimums and a greater selection.
Amazon’s minimum is $35 for free 2hr delivery.
Not too worried about Amazon’s operational experience with deliveries.
this is a big pool, with not only deep pockets but millions of customers who are not ever going to shop at Whole Foods. Think Target and Costco customers, and think of every other local retail experience they have that can be delivered.
Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.
- equivalent sentiment 20 years ago.
> Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.
Great, so there's an unprofitable opportunity for Instacart. Fantastic.
In all seriousness that's why I said short vs long term.. I probably agree Instacart can exploit some of the retailer panic here in the short term. But in the long term large scale vertically integrated players have massive cost and customer experience advantages.
the few times ive used it the experience hasnt been great though, so couldnt imagine using it enough for that to be worth it
I cancelled it after a year. If I want nothing but dry goods, I'll get them on Prime Now: the Instacart shoppers couldn't buy the produce at the quality that I would expect it to be for that price...so, I just go to Whole Foods and buy my own groceries now.
But I just realized a potential endgame: Instacart will be Amazon Prime (the subscription delivery business) without the need to be Amazon (the retail, global-scale logistics, and marketing company).
Do I want to pay 30% extra on every individual order from local stores to have Instacart handle the delivery? No.
But would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store, Costco, Trader Joe's, pet store, J. Crew, etc? Very likely.