Shipt vs Instacart: Which is the best?
Before shopping apps people had to take time out of their day to go to the grocery and pick up each item one by one, then stand in a queue to pay for it, get it packed, and then return home. E-commerce apps changed all that. And seeing the demand there are many companies that are launching their grocery shopping apps but we will compare only the best ones like Cornershop vs Shipt. Let us get started.
About Shipt
Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, US, Shipt is a delivery service company that was founded in 2014. It is a US-based app and is operational only in certain metropolitan states of the US. Bill Smith is the founder of the company. The company revenue was 1 billion US dollars in 2018. The parent organization of this company is Target Corporation which purchased the company for 550 million dollars in 2017. The app is available to download on iOS and Android devices while also being usable on the web. Apart from groceries the company also delivers home products and certain electronic items. The company is mainly known for its same-day delivery policy where the customer’s orders are fulfilled on the same day as they order. Shipt has partnered with various other local retailers apart from Target. The company has more than 3,00,000 shoppers that fulfill customer orders working on behalf of the company. People can get a membership of the company by paying 99 dollars a year. Kamau Witherspoon has been the CEO of the company since 1st March 2022. Before we can look at Shipt vs Instacart we now introduce you to Instacart.
About Instacart
With 3,000 employees on its payroll, Instacart is yet another company that is into grocery delivery and pick-up services. The company was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo. In 2021 the company’s revenue was 1.8 billion dollars. The services of the company are usable through the app on Android and iOS devices or by using their website. The company headquarters are in San Francisco, California, U.S. Fidji Simo is the CEO of the company and Maplebear Inc. is the owner of the company. The app is usable in the US and Canada and they also started delivering alcohol in certain locations. People can pay 9.99 dollars a month or 99 dollars yearly to get a membership to the Instacart+ program. The company has partnered with various local businesses to be able to make same-day delivery possible. The delivery is done by the shoppers who pick, pack and deliver customer orders. Again, they are self-employed and not company employees. Now that we know about our first two competitors it’s time to shift our attention to Shipt vs Instacart comparison.
Shipt vs Instacart
So we know that the US has at least two big and reputed grocery delivery companies in Shipt and Instacart. However, here begins the battle for being called the best as we look to compare both apps side by side on various parameters to find out the better alternative.
User Experience
When using Shipt you can be in contact with your shopper in real-time. You can be interacting with the shopper when they work on your order to ensure you get your preferred item. As the customer, you get to pick the store you want your items to be shopped from. You also get to choose alternative options for items that might not be available and you choose the time when you want your order delivered. Also, their customer service team is available to you 24/7 for 365 days a year. Instacart is the same when it comes to choosing the shop you want your items to be shopped from and choosing the alternative products in advance. You can also interact with the shopper in real time for order-related issues. The shopper picks, packs, and delivers your order as per your requirement. Both apps provide the same service in this area and therefore there is no clear winner in this section.
Membership
Shipt gives you the option of choosing the 99-dollar annual plan or you can pay 9.99 dollars for each order under 35 dollars. If you become a member then you pay no delivery fees for orders above 35 dollars and also get unlimited same-day delivery options and exclusive in-app coupons. For Instacart you can pay 9.99 dollars a month or 99 dollars annually to become a member. Again you get a waiver on the delivery charge if you are a member and your order is above 35 dollars. Members also don’t pay peak hour charges and get a 5% discount on service fees. Here Instacart emerges as the better option among the two because it has a monthly option in place and also its benefits sound better than that of Shipt.
Delivery
The main feature of both apps is grocery delivery and so this is one of the most important parameters to consider in the Shipt vs Instacart comparison. Both Shipt and Instacart have partnered with various local retailers and other businesses to make same-day delivery possible. With Shipt you get your orders in less than an hour for some cities while Instacart might also deliver orders in less than two hours. Shipt delivers groceries in more than 5,000 cities and Instacart delivers in more than 5,500 cities. Shipt is only covering 80% of US households while Instacart covers 85% of the US and 75% of Canada. So you see again it is Instacart that emerges as the better option among the two.
Some Other Comparisons
With Shipt you get pass offers using which you can get five orders for eight dollars and three orders for nine dollars. Referring a friend also gets you 10 dollars. Instacart on the other hand charges you 3.99 dollars per order for orders over 35 dollars if you are not a member. Also, you have to place a minimum order of 10 dollars each time. However, Instacart has more reach across US and Canada and they also deliver alcohol in several locations. So overall, it is another win for Instacart and that is a clean sweep over Shipt. So as we have seen Shipt vs Instacart ends with Instacart emerging as the better app with no competition whatsoever. With that, it is time to shift our attention to other apps that might be able to challenge Instacart or Shipt. So before we look at other comparisons first let us introduce you to the companies Shopify and Cornershop. Also Read: Shopify Affiliate Marketing Program Review
About Shopify
After two American companies, we have the first Canadian company on the list which is a multinational e-commerce company. Founded by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake in 2006 the company headquarters are in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In 2021 the company had a revenue of 4.61 billion dollars. Shopify is a global player and serves people all over the world. It is a public company that got listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 and today is among the top 20 largest publicly traded companies there in terms of market capitalization. In February 2021 the company also entered the Esports space. The company has also invested in a digital logistics startup, Swyft in April 2021.
About Cornershop
From Chile, you have another grocery-shopping app that operates in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, the United States, Columbia, Peru, Canada, and Mexico. With Cornershop, you make a shopping list on your phone which a shopper then goes and purchases for you. Daniel Undurraga, Juan Pablo Cuevas, and Swede Oskar Hjertonsson were the people who founded the company. For around 220 million dollars they were bought by Uber in 2020 after Walmart’s attempt to buy them in 2018 for 225 million dollars failed. The app also places service charges between 0 and 18% on the products. The company was initially helped to develop by Santiago Innova a company in Chile and is a growing business as of today. Now that we know our next two players we are ready to move to more comparisons like Shipt vs Instacart to determine if there are better alternatives around or just relatively inexperienced ones.
Shopify vs Instacart
First off we look at Shopify vs Instacart comparison as the winner from the previous round looks to take on this global e-commerce platform head-to-head in a battle of supremacy.
Functionality
Shopify is an e-commerce platform where you can create your online store and sell products from it and earn money for the same while Instacart is a grocery delivery and pick-up service. There is no common ground to compare the two as they both belong to different sectors and thus this feels like a tie.
Area of Operation
Instacart is a US-based app that caters to people in the US and Canada. Shopify is a company based in Canada but they have a global presence and cater to a global audience. This means that in terms of reach Shopify has a bigger audience base they reach out to and that is why it poses as the better app here. So here Instacart falls behind Shopify unlike the case of Shipt vs Instacart where it was the clear winner.
Charges
If you are planning to get a membership on Shopify then you have the option of signing up for a plan worth 5 dollars a month, 29 dollars a month, 79 dollars a month, 299 dollars a month, and 2,000 dollars a month. Whereas Instacart gives you the option of signing up for membership by paying 9.99 dollars a month or 99 dollars yearly. Since Instacart has a yearly and a cheaper monthly option it is the better of the two apps in this case.
Some Other Comparisons
Shopify is 6 years older than Instacart as the former was founded in 2006 and the latter was founded in 2012. Shopify has 10,000 employees on its payroll as opposed to 3,000 of Instacart. The company revenues in 2021 were 4.61 dollars for Shopify as opposed to 1.8 billion dollars for Instacart. Shopify is a Public company whereas Instacart is a Private company. Both companies offer their services through an app on Android and iOS devices and are also usable via the website. Looming at various facts and figures mentioned here it is clear that Shopify fares better in this section. And so here Shopify does to Instacart what it did to Shipt in the comparison. However, it is worth noting that Shopify is the odd-one-out app in this article and not a direct competitor to either Instacart or Shipt. The other two apps were direct competitors and Instacart was the clear winner there which makes it the best grocery shopping app on the list so far unless Cornershop has something better to offer. Let us now begin Cornershop vs Shipt. Also Read: Sam’s Club One Day Pass: Shop Without a Membership
Cornershop vs Shipt
Earlier we saw a Shipt vs Instacart comparison in which the services and offerings of the Shipt app were no match for that of Instacart. However, we now compare Shipt and Cornershop to see if Shipt can still manage to be the second-best grocery app that offers its services in the US or if Cornershop is better than Shipt and maybe even Instacart.
User Experience
When using Shipt you can be in contact with your shopper in real-time. You can be interacting with the shopper when they work on your order to ensure you get your preferred item. As the customer, you get to pick the store you want your items to be shopped from. You also get to choose alternative options for items that might not be available and you choose the time when you want your order delivered. Also, their customer service team is available to you 24/7 for 365 days a year. When using Cornershop you again make a list of goods that you need and then it will be assigned to a shopper who buys and delivers those items to you. If the product is not available they call you and ask if you need an alternative product. You can also request the shopper to shop for items that might not be shown on the app. You also have the option of canceling an item without being charged for the same. So in the Cornershop vs Shipt comparison, we begin with a draw.
Membership
Shipt gives you the option of choosing the 99-dollar annual plan or you can pay 9.99 dollars for each order under 35 dollars. If you become a member then you pay no delivery fees for orders above 35 dollars and also get unlimited same-day delivery options and exclusive in-app coupons. With Cornershop, the app is free just like with Shipt, however, to be eligible to get items delivered you need to order items worth more than 10 dollars. If you order items worth more than 150 dollars then the delivery is free and if your order is worth less than 35 dollars then you pay 9.99 dollars as a charge. Orders between 150 dollars and 35 dollars are charged 3.99 dollars in all areas except New York where the charge is 5.99 dollars. Cornershop also allows you to shop at Costco even if you aren’t its member but the charges are different for it. If you pay 99 dollars a year then all your deliveries worth above 30 dollars are free even if it is from Costco. Here Cornershop has more range of options and their charges are more or less similar to that of Shipt. Cornershop comes across as a similar platform to Instacart here and takes the lead over Shipt in this parameter just like it happened in Shipt vs Instacart comparison. Let us now do Cornershop vs Shipt delivery comparison.
Delivery
Shipt has partnered with various local retailers and other businesses to make same-day delivery possible. With Shipt you get your orders in less than an hour for some cities. Shipt delivers groceries in more than 5,000 cities. Shipt covers 80% of US households. Cornershop is available in various South American countries and after the acquisition by Uber, it has also started operations in the US as well as Canada. This means their area of operation exceeds that of Shipt as they operate only within the US. So yet again Cornershop emerges as the better alternative among the two. Also Read: Cash App vs Venmo vs Zelle: Which is the best?
Some Other Comparisons
The acquisition by Uber has put Cornershop on the global map while Shipt is not known much outside of the US. Shipt was founded in 2014 and Cornershop was founded in 2015. Both apps are available to download on Apple and Android devices and their services can be used via the website as well. Shipt referral gives you 10 dollars per person while for Cornershop you can sign up for an Uber membership and get deliveries for free and with that, you get other discounts for it as well. Again there is no common middle ground here and thus it is a tie. So just like it happened with Shipt vs Instacart, the same result is repeated for Cornershop vs Shipt. Shipt fails to beat its competitor. However, the result isn’t surprising because Cornershop is a platform similar to Instacart and might be a stronger and better competitor to it as both these apps fared better than Shipt. So things that we have understood through the article is that Shopify does not belong to the category of Shipt, Instacart, or Cornershop since it is an e-commerce platform unlike the other three. Apart from that, Shipt vs Instacart and Cornershop vs Shipt showed a clear picture that Shipt is the third-best app among the three. Instacart and Cornershop are more or less similar kinds of platforms and more of a competitor to each other than Shipt. So that means you could opt for either of these apps depending on your requirement and preference. Having said that, all comparisons made have been made from a certain point of view that may differ from the user’s perspective and so the choice of the app might differ from person to person and location to location.
