Dive Brief:
- Instacart announced Tuesday it has launched a business-to-business service, allowing businesses to place online orders of supplies and food from retailers.
- Called Instacart Business, the service allows businesses to browse more than 1.5 million products, including bulk and value essentials. Instacart Business users don’t have monthly minimums.
- Instacart Business is the latest move by Instacart to diversify its revenue stream and the newest one aimed at helping small clients and partners.
Dive Insight:
While officially a new service for Instacart, the company spotlighted that it is no stranger to B2B since it already fulfilled “millions” of business orders per quarter in 2022.
Instacart Business taps into Instacart’s partnership network of more than 1,100 national, regional and local retail banners across the U.S. and Canada. In announcing the new service, Instacart highlighted its partnerships with retailers like Costco Business Center, Staples, Restaurant Depot, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Gordon Food Service.
The Information, which first reported on Instacart Business two weeks ago, noted that the service might help Instacart expand its reputation beyond groceries.
In recent years, businesses have faced supply chain and staffing issues, inflation and an economic downturn, compounding existing problems like high inventory costs, increasing real estate prices and other financial strains, Instacart said.
When it comes to procuring office supplies, small businesses tend to have smaller order volumes in comparison to large companies, meaning they often face higher prices and order minimums, the announcement said. Smaller businesses also often work with multiple vendors to get the lowest prices, Instacart noted.
Instacart Business aims to save businesses, especially small and local ones, time, money and resources. Instacart provides businesses with a range of fulfillment options, like same-day delivery, discounted no-rush delivery and long-distance delivery.
Features of the service include the ability to make stock lists that can be shared among team members; re-ordering and auto-order capabilities; and the option to use “business credits” with category restrictions, invoicing and monthly reporting tools.
In select states, eligible pilot businesses like nonprofits, healthcare and political organizations can provide valid tax exemption certificates to get discounts on eligible tax-exempt items. Instacart currently has a waitlist for business owners who want to participate.
Instacart’s emphasis on small businesses in the Tuesday announcement comes less than a week after the company unveiled four digital solutions that it said can especially benefit small grocers.
In the Tuesday announcement, Instacart also said that it is partnering with several national organizations that expand access to diverse small businesses including the U.S. Black Chambers, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Pan Asian American Chambers of Commerce, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and Black Enterprise.