Instacart is not primarily a technology company, a logistics business, or even a grocery platform. Increasingly, it’s an advertising business — one that sits on some of the most valuable CPG purchase data in North America and is using it to build a meaningful retail media operation.
The Cross-Retailer Data Advantage
Instacart operates across more than 1,400 retail banner partners in North America — which means it has visibility into shopper behaviour across a wide range of retailers, not just one. A consumer using Instacart to shop Kroger one week and Costco the next is contributing purchase data from both retailers. This cross-retailer view of consumer behaviour is rare and valuable. For CPG brands, it makes Instacart’s advertising offering particularly interesting: the ability to target consumers based on multi-retailer grocery behaviour, with attribution linked to actual transactions, addresses needs that no single retailer’s media network can meet alone.
The Ad Products and Measurement Push
Instacart’s advertising suite includes featured product placements within search results, display advertising on-platform, and off-site audience activation. It has been one of the more aggressive platforms in building self-serve capabilities, making it accessible to brands without large retail media buying teams. The platform has also been building advanced measurement capabilities — including brand lift studies and incrementality testing — directly addressing the concerns that hold back CPG investment in newer retail media networks.
Where Instacart Fits in Your Strategy
Instacart went public in September 2023, with advertising revenue central to its investment case. Advertising revenue as a percentage of gross order value has been growing steadily. For brands building retail media strategies, Instacart represents a complementary — rather than competing — channel to retailer-direct media networks. Its cross-retailer data view and improving measurement capabilities make it worth investing in alongside the major retailer networks, particularly for CPG brands with distribution across multiple grocery chains.