Instacart enabling orders from multiple retailers - for just one delivery fee
Shopping for multiple items to get you through the week, but they’re only available at different retailers? Don’t worry– now you can OrderUp! Instacart users will now be able to add items from additional retailers to their original grocery shopping trip, and have their orders delivered at no additional cost!
Instacart has launched a new feature, known as OrderUp!, that lets customers order items from two retailers but only pay one delivery fee, the e-commerce company announced on Friday.
After placing a grocery order from one retailer, customers will have a limited time to shop from an additional retailer without incurring a second delivery charge.
The feature comes at a time when third-party e-commerce providers are refining and rolling out new abilities for customers, workers and grocers.
Instacart, the market leader in the third-party grocery e-commerce space, has been fighting to keep its dominance among grocers and relevance among shoppers as companies like Uber and DoorDash ramp up their grocery game.
Instacart’s OrderUp! feature is similar to DoorDash’s DoubleDash, which DoorDash introduced last year as a way to let shoppers add items from another merchant to their original order for no additional delivery fee or order minimum. Both companies’ features allow customers to get more items with fewer fees.
The recommendations OrderUp! provides can include alcohol, beauty, pets, electronics, office supplies and other types of products.
In the announcement, Instacart noted that customers may not always be available to find all of the items they need from one retailer, which is where OrderUp! steps in. Customers must meet a $10 minimum in order to buy items from an additional retailer with OrderUp!, Instacart told TechCrunch.
The tools from Instacart and DoorDash mimic in-person shopping where customers will make multiple stops in one trip to buy the items they need.
DoorDash’s DoubleDash feature has proven popular among customers. Half of DoubleDash users order from merchants they haven’t ordered from before, Fortune noted in February. “More customers place a bundled order now than ever before,” Helena Seo, head of design for DoorDash, told Fortune, calling the feature “a huge success.”
Another competitor, Uber, recently rolled out a series of changes to its Uber Eats app to make grocery shopping for both customers and gig workers more convenient. Last year, Uber launched its own tool on Uber Eats with convenience stores, like Wawa and 7-Eleven, that is similar to DoubleDash, Fortune noted. Insider said at the time it was announced that the add-on feature bundles food and grocery orders under one delivery fee.
