Understanding your ICP

(Put down your ICP’s in a Table Format. A tabular format makes it super clear for anyone to understand who your users are and what differentiates them)

Apart from being a user of Instacart for over a year, I spoke with 3 more users who have ordered from Instacart.

We have multiple users of a product and not all of them can be our ICP for whom we make our strategies, we need to prioritize.
(use an ICP prioritization table)

ICPs insights gained through conversations:

"I heard about Instacart during my college from friends."

"I tried Instacart after discovering it on my Mastercard credit card free offers."

"After having my baby boy, it became a must for both of us because doing trips to store was difficult, we were too tired to do that everyday. We often needed items that we would forget while shopping in-store as it was a too much mental overload to remember everything. With baby you need many things on the go, basic example is being out of diapers."

"Once I got my car, I tried to save money and didn't use Instacart anymore. As the service fee, tip came out to be expensive, also I noticed they had put higher prices per item of what I saw in-store."

"I get an opportunity to order from multiple stores especially when an item is out of stock in one store. But the problem was I had to order min $35 from other store to get the missing item. So, that wasn't helpful"

"We do proper weekly shopping mostly in-store like Costco but Instacart comes handy to order items like ice-cream or snacks when we host friends and guests for movie nights or simple gatherings."

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With Instacart, join over 15 million users who get not only fresh groceries but also convenience store items, pet food, CVS essentials and now even meals via our new Uber Eats integration. All from 400+ local retailers, delivered in as little as 60 minutes.

Our intuitive app offers real‑time order tracking and personalized recommendations, so you spend less time shopping and more time living.

Ready to revolutionize your routine? Download Instacart today and experience the ultimate in convenience!

​Understanding Core Value Proposition

Overall, Instacart serves as a bridge between traditional grocery shopping and modern digital convenience, empowering users to access a wide array of products quickly and reliably while supporting local retail ecosystems.

Instacart is an on-demand grocery delivery and pickup service that connects consumers with a network of local retailers, including major supermarket chains and specialty stores. As a product, it operates through an intuitive mobile app and website where users can browse products, place orders, and schedule same‑day delivery or pickup.

Instacart Overview

Here are some key aspects of Instacart as a product:

• Local Retail Partnerships: Instacart partners with a wide range of local
  grocery stores like Costco, ShopRite, Home Depot etc.
• Convenience & Speed: Offers same-day delivery, some of them are within an hour!
• User-Friendly Interface: The platform features an easy-to-use interface, complete with personalized recommendations, digital coupons, and order tracking, ensuring a seamless shopping experience.
• Customization & Personalization: Customers can choose between delivery and curbside pickup options, they can also schedule the delivery based on their availability.
• The app allows users to save favorite products, reorder frequently purchased items, and even interact with personal shoppers who can tailor orders based on individual preferences.
• Membership Benefits: Users can enjoy reduced service fees and faster delivery, they recently changed the min order value from $35 to $10 – a major change in their grocery delivery options with multiple stores offering all range of products.

Competitive Analysis:

Now it’s time for some math, calculate the size of your market.

TAM = Total no. of potential customers x Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPU)
SAM = TAM x Target Market Segment (percentage of the total market)
SOM = SAM x Market Penetration/Share

Calculating TAM:

Total Population of USA: 340 million

Based on our ICPs, the age group 15-59 population count is calculated by looking at the census bureau data.

It says, 58% of the population accounts for this age-group which comes down to: 197 million approximately.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) in the Grocery Delivery market is projected to amount to US$2.21k in 2025.

TAM = $2.21k x 197million = $435bn

Calculating SAM:

To further drill down to our SAM, we need to calculate the size of the population earning $100k and above.

According to Statista data, 40% households are earning $100k and over. Average size of a
household is 2.5 as per statista here.

So, there are total 136 million households in the US and 54 million (40%) households have this income.

Further, 54 million households with average as 2.5 means 136 million people. That's a 40% of the total population. Thus, our SAM will be 40% of the TAM.

Over 138 million consumers shop for groceries online in the US. This report validates our SAM size calculations.

SAM = $435bn x 40% = $174bn

Calculating SOM:

According to this emarketer report, here are top share holders for online grocery market -

Assuming 22% of users for instacart, we can estimate 30 million users for instacart as part of SOM.

SOM = $174bn x 22% = $38bn

Designing Acquisition Channel

Instacart is in the mature scaling stage!

Instacart Key Statistics

• Instacart generated $3.3 billion revenue in 2024
• In 2024, Instacart made a net income of $457 million
• Instacart generated $33.4 billion gross transaction volume in 2024
• Over 290 million orders were completed on Instacart in 2024
• Instacart had an estimated 14 million active users in 2024
• Instacart valuation has dropped twice from a $39 billion high in 2021 to $8.9 billion in 2024

​

Content Loop

(Keep it simple and get the basics right)

​

Hook:

Recipes; Asking people to pick a team for example team over or under for how they hang a toilet paper; Donation for Instacart classmate intiative – for schools that were burnt in LA fires recently

Generator:

Instacart content team

Distributor:

Instagram (Timeline/Explore tab) Viewer (shared via Stories/DMs)

Seeing the number of shares and reach of these posts on Instagram, this strategy hasn’t proven to be very effective. Primarily, there is not enough consistent content posted. It appears based on their experimentation stage during early-scaling, this approach wasn’t so fruitful.

Since Instacart is in the mature scaling stage, we will double down on the paid channels!

SuperBowl Ad - We're Here!

This year in SuperBowl ad here, Instacart uses a mix of new and classic brand mascots as a metaphor for the value the service provides. All the things you need—right to your door. A service like this skews toward a younger demographic, but the ad would entertain anyone and make them at least consider trying Instacart. 

Break the pattern: Opening on the weirdest mascot, Puppy Monkey Baby, was brilliant. Instant attention grab.

Adopt the form factor: The music choice is 'Take it to da house'. It’s the right tone and vibe, and literally on message, which is delivering all the items to the house!

Point the problem: They show how the parents are busy in helping their daughters cook some recipe and all of them are caught up together spending time but the grocery needs to be done.

Show the solution: With all the mascots for different products rushing to their, they are showing they can deliver it all and fast.

Make them trust you: With all the packaging and groceries looking clean intact at the door after the delivery they are showing the quality of delivery is great.

Establish urgency: When everything is delivered in the end, the father asks the mother if the milk came - it didn't! The ad ends up with a cow riding fast on a bike rushing to their house - showing last minute quick deliveries.

Channel Selection

Since our ICPs spend time on platforms - Instagram, Netflix/Amazon Prime and YouTube, it will be wise to focus on these.

Our ICPs are more into watching movies, it will be accurate to target them on OTT platforms like Prime and Netflix with ads in between the shows (this is for those with standard paid plan users on these platforms.

Currently, instacart does google ads as well. Looking for online grocery delivery near me or a related search gets sponsored Instacart ad on the top of the page!

Currently, Instacart has integrated with the following -

• Uber Eats: This has been recently integrated on the Instacart platform as a new tab called "Restaurants". The service is run by uber eats inside Instacart app. Since the ICPs we have captured are not just into online grocery shopping but ordering food from restaurants, so this give a big advantage to Instacart to compete in the market with others like Doordash.
• Instacart Membership Integrations: These come as exclusive offers from Instacart, $50 off on first year year of membership fee with PayPal; 2 free months of Instacart+ with Mastercard; Free subscription of Peacock tv; $20 off on membership with Costco

Another ICP insight:

Since our ICPs are using Netflix as a constant subscribed member throughout the year with a high frequency of interactions, 3+ days a week. These are important interactions as they are watching a series or movies after work in the evening or during the weekend movie nights with friends.

One proposal is to add Instacart as part of Netflix app.

Since our users are eating something while watching Netflix, Instacart can add value by helping the user to get snacks, drinks, groceries for ready to eat meals, or even proper lunch/dinner from restaurants with fast delivery.

There can be an integration with users getting discount on Instacart+ membership through Netflix subscription. This can be an offer for new users.

Advantage of this integration is to acquire users from competing apps like Doordash and others by getting the users of Netflix to use Instacart from within the platform.

Instacart Referral

Currently, it has a very basic referral system -

• $10 for you, $10 for a friend
• Send a text, share via apps like whatsApp, gmail, etc offered as part of device apps.
• Copy code

US has culture of giving gift cards. Instacart offers this service on their platform, as "Send a gift card".

This service lets you choose a design out of 20 different styles for the gift card, followed by a gift card value - $25 to $500 or any other custom number, then there is delivery method option - email or physical. It also gives an option to add Instacart+ membership for 3 months, 6 months or an annual plan. In the end, checking out with the details required for the sender and receiver.

It also offers corporate gift card portal under the same service!

Instacart Family Account

It offers free addition of any extra member - family or friend - under your account -

• Create family carts, collaborate and. follow with the delivery
• Share Instacart+ membership benefits like $0 delivery fees
• Switch to personal shopping anytime

Instacart Platform Currency

Right now, it uses instacart credits within the app - that are added either as gift cards or promo offers or also as refund amount if any ordered item is wrongly delivered or $10 credits as part of referral.