Shopify and Instacart Partnership Could Be Coming Soon, and it's More Than What You Think
Shopify and Instacart Partnership Could Be Coming Soon, and it's More Than What You Think
This is speculation on my part, but the recent collab between Facebook Marketplace and Doordash reminded me once again of the power of Board of Directors relationships on corporate destiny.
DoorDash CEO's Tony Xu joined Meta's Board in January, and 8 months later, DoorDash and FB Marketplace partner in a mutually beneficial way.
December 2021 Fidji Simo joined Shopify's Board. Still waiting, but something is going to happen here. Two things in fact. One expected, and the other not.
First, the expected: Same-Day Delivery. Instacart (likely among others) is going to appear as a Shopify POS and eCommerce partnership for local deliveries from stores as well as for eCommerce deliveries same day. The growth of Shopify POS makes this more likely every day. Instacart needs to compete with Doordash, and Instacart Plus subscriptions are frankly crucial to the business. It might even become a benefit of Shop Pay. I would not be surprised for Shopify even to introduce a consumer subscription product (one day, not soon!) to pair with Shop Promise.
Second, the unexpected: Retail Media. Instacart's crown jewel isn't its delivery service, though it's necessary. It's advertising business has been ahead of its time in the retail media business. Instacart has distribution with its retail partners and its app. Shopify has a growing stable of brands that need exposure. That is a huge and growing source of advertising dollars for Instacart.
With Shopify's (still nascent) investments in gaining advertising exposure for its merchants, like Audiences, retail media makes sense as a partnership, and Shopify needs partners that are not named Amazon in this market. Walmart and Instacart both fit that bill.
This is something I'm going to keep an eye on as we go forward, as I do think that both companies could benefit from the partnership. Yes Shopify has a lot of smaller brands, mid-size DTC brands need retail distribution, and Instacart is trying to access these types of brands for freshness of supply and differentiation.
