Instacart upgrades subscription service with Instacart+

Online delivery giant Instacart is making it a plus for consumers to sign up for its enhanced subscription service.

Unveiled today, the new Instacart program is a refreshed take on San Francisco-based Instacart’s value-driven subscription plan that this week debuts several family shopping options. Previously known as Instacart Express, the service also gives households free delivery on orders over $35, 5% credit back on all eligible pickup orders and reduced service fees.

Over the next week, Instacart will start rolling out what it called “first of their kind” features to make family grocery shopping easier and a more collaborative affair:

• Family Accounts: Family members can share all the benefits of Instacart with another person for free. Instacart caters to all kinds of households, whether they’re parents with teenagers who want a say in the weekly shopping, two young professional roommates or a multi-generational family living together under one roof, Instacart said.

• Family Carts: Households can collaborate in the cart-building process and shop together, adding their own items to a shared cart.

• Exclusive benefits for Chase cardmembers: Instacart is also expanding its partnership with Chase. Beginning today, Chase cardmembers will be eligible to unlock free Instacart memberships, with Sapphire Reserve cardmembers able to receive one year free, Sapphire Preferred cardmembers six months free, and Freedom and Slate cardmembers three months free.

Related:Instacart aims to drive brand storytelling with shoppable videos, ads

“With today’s launch, we’re making Instacart the most cost-effective way for families to buy groceries and essentials with Instacart, delivered in as fast as 30 minutes,” Daniel Danker, head of product at Instacart, said in a statement. “In addition to free delivery on orders over $35, credit back on pickup and reduced service fees, subscribers can now share Instacart with another person for free and shop together to make ordering truly effortless.”

Instacart noted that subscribers are among the company’s most engaged customers, spending nearly two times more each month versus non-subscribers because of increased orders, higher gross transaction value (GTV) per customer, habitual ordering and access to a wider range of retailers.

Instacart comes nearly three months after the launch of Instacart Platform, an enterprise-grade solutions suite offering end-to-end omnichannel functionality to give grocery retailers access to the technologies behind Instacart’s consumer marketplace. Last month, Instacart also introduced a new customer-ratings system for its personal shoppers as well as new formats for its advertising product suite enable CPG brand marketers to run shoppable video ads and enhanced shoppable display ads.

Related:Instacart fine-tunes personal shopper ratings system

The new offerings are designed to bring Instacart into its next phase of growth after building up a critical mass of retail partners across grocery, mass, drug, convenience and other retail sectors. In May, the company to a first step toward an initial public offering, filing a confidential S-1 draft registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Overall, Instacart partners with more than 800 national, regional and local retailers in North America and provides online shopping, delivery and pickup from more than 70,000 stores in over 5,500 cities. Its services reach more than 85% of U.S. households and about 90% of Canadian households.