Our Commitment to Shoppers: Ingredients to Earn on Your Terms

We’re rolling out a suite of new product features each month to further our commitment to shoppers and share more about how we’re building an even better shopper experience. This month, we’re sharing more about ingredients to earn on your terms.

We strive to equip shoppers with information on the best way to earn, so you can earn what you need, when you need it. Whether your goal is to make some quick cash or to save for something bigger, we want to deliver helpful features that help you maximize your effort. How much you work, which batches you take, and how far you drive — it’s all up to you.

Today, we’re announcing new product features that will help deliver the flexible earnings you crave.

Introducing tip protection for zeroed-out tips

While it’s important that customers are able to adjust their tip to reflect the level of service they receive, we also believe it’s important to protect shoppers in the case that your tip is removed without a reported reason. That’s why today, we’re introducing first-of-its-kind tip protection. 

If a customer zeroes out their tip without reporting an issue with their order, we’ll cover the amount of the tip that the customer removed, up to $10. This will apply to any tip that a customer zeroes out after delivery without reporting an associated issue with the order. While having a tip removed after delivery is exceedingly rare, we know that it’s disappointing when it happens, and we want to ensure we have your backs in this case.

Increasing your earnings from tips

In addition to the new tip protection offering, we’ve invested in more ways to encourage tips and make them easier for you to access. 

Moving forward, you’ll be able to cash out your tips just two hours after you deliver an order, accessing your earnings even more immediately. After two hours, your tip won’t decrease, so you can have more confidence in the tip you’re going to receive. This change will be rolling out over the next several weeks.

We’re also prompting customers to consider increasing their tip anytime they rate a shopper 5 stars, as another way of recognizing great service from shoppers who go above and beyond. Over the past few months as we’ve piloted this feature, we’ve seen a 6% increase in shoppers’ earnings from tips on eligible orders. At checkout, we’re also encouraging customers who choose not to leave a tip to add one to recognize their shopper’s hard work. In testing, this feature has resulted in a 12% reduction in customers choosing not to leave a tip. Each of these features is currently being rolled out to all customers and shoppers.

More batches and ways to earn

Giving shoppers the ingredients to earn on your terms also means investing in new opportunities for you to add to your flexibility and earning potential. We’re currently piloting several new types of earnings opportunities, and look forward to listening closely to shopper feedback about what you prefer about these batches and how we can make them even more appealing.

Multi-store batches give you the opportunity to earn more in less time, shopping from multiple store locations in a single batch to increase your earnings opportunity. These types of batches are now available across North America, and we’re working closely with shoppers to make them an even better opportunity moving forward.

In-store add-on orders offer another way for shoppers to earn more by accepting an additional customer order while you’re already in the store, making more from your current batch. Previously, shoppers could only accept an add-on order before shopping a batch — now, you can be offered another order up until the time you check out, so you can add to your earnings without having to make another trip to the store.

We’re always working to enhance shoppers’ ability to earn on your terms, and look forward to introducing even more ingredients and offerings over time.

Instacart

Instacart is the leading online grocery platform in North America, partnering with more than 750 beloved national, regional and local retailers, including unique brand names, to deliver from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.