Instacart Launches Tip Protection, Pilots New Ways to Earn

At a time when attracting and retaining workers remains a challenge, Instacart is investing in its shoppers with a new suite of features that allows them to “earn on their terms," the company said. Among the new features are tip protection, the ability to able to cash out tips just two hours after an order is delivered, and new batch types for shoppers to maximize earning opportunities.

Through the San Francisco-based company's tip protection offer, in an instance where a customer zeroes out their tip after an order is delivered without reporting an order issue, Instacart will cover the amount of the zeroed-out tip up to $10. While the company said a zeroed-out tip is rare, Instacart said it “wants to ensure that shoppers are supported in the event that this happens.”

Instacart is also making it easier for its shoppers to access their tips, with a new option to cash them out two hours after an order is delivered—a decrease from the current 24-hour window. And to encourage higher tipping, customers who rate their shopper 5 stars will be prompted to consider increasing their tip after checkout. This feature, Instacart said, has resulted in a 6% average increase in shoppers’ earnings from tips on eligible orders as it has been rolled out over the past few months.

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Additionally, customers who select not to leave a tip will be encouraged at checkout to add one. Instacart said that during testing of the feature, the prompt resulted in a 12% average reduction in customers choosing not to leave a tip.

Instacart is also piloting additional batch types for shoppers to increase their earnings opportunities across the platform. Currently being tested in markets across North America, multistore batches give shoppers the opportunity to shop from more than one store location in a single batch, maximizing the amount of time they can spend earning, Instacart said. Shoppers can also accept an add-on order while they are in the grocery store, adding another customer order to the batch they are already shopping. Previously, shoppers could only accept an add-on order before shopping a batch.

“It’s our job to give shoppers the ingredients to earn on their terms—so they can understand when, where and how to maximize their earning potential on our platform,” John Adams, VP of shopper and fulfillment product for Instacart, said in a news release. “With today’s improvements to tipping and batching on the platform, we’re making shopping with Instacart an even more reliable, profitable experience for the more than 600,000 individuals who choose to earn with us.”

Instacart partners with more than 750 national, regional and local retail brands to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America.