If we make a list of our daily, weekly, and monthly chores, it will be very long. From cooking to laundry, trash picking to mowing your lawn, and how can we forget the responsibility of kitchen cabinets and fridge stocked with food?
What if you get a helping hand?
Of course, you can get help for managing your responsibilities. How about an online grocery delivery service to your doorstep?
Sounds nice, right!
Instacart is a grocery delivery service in the United States and Canada. You can save yourself from the hassle of taking out your car, driving to the grocery store, picking up the items needed, and driving back. All you have to do is place your order, sit back, relax, wait, and receive your grocery items at the comfort of your home.
Instacart also offers a more affordable package –Instacart Express. There are a lot of benefits attached to this premium subscription which we will be talking about. You might have already become addicted to ordering your grocery items from Instacart, but we will help you decide if upgrading to Instacart express is worth the money or not.
What Is Instacart Express?
Instacart is a 24/7 grocery delivery service that offers residents of Canada and the USA to order groceries from their favorite retailer. On the other hand, Instacart express is the premium subscription of Instacart that offers a lot of perks besides grocery delivery.
Some of the exciting perks include discounts and free shipping. The membership can be availed by paying a monthly subscription fee. Another enticing feature of an Instacart subscription is the freedom of choosing your payment method. You can choose how you will pay for your grocery order.
You can compare the Instacart subscription with Amazon Prime as it allows you to save money and enjoy online shopping after paying a monthly fee. Frequent users of Instacart can capitalize on the opportunity of having great convenience and budget-friendliness.
What Does Instacart Express Offer?
When you’ve got the Instacart subscription, you can place your orders directly on the retailer’s website. The personal shopper of every retailer will get your grocery collected from the store and delivered to your doorstep. When you place your grocery orders with Instacart, you pay a service fee of 5% and at least $3.99 for your grocery delivery charges.
The platform also enables its customers to track their orders throughout. The first step is when you place the order. The available shopper accepts the order. You can track what your shopper is adding to the cart and when the shopper has purchased all stuff. Now, the journey to your doorstep starts, and it is also visible with Instacart tracking.
Instacart works across 50 states in the USA, and it is not it. You also get the facility of ordering groceries in 9 Canadian provinces. However, the company is still not working in Quebec. All you have to do is enter your ZIP code and check if you can order groceries with Instacart in your area. The network of 50,000 shoppers is always ready to get your grocery collected and delivered to you.
With a strong network of dedicated shoppers, you can place orders for as fast as one hour or up to a week. The delivery timings of Instacart are 9 am to midnight.
What Do You Get In Instacart Express Subscription?
When you upgrade your Instacart subscription to Instacart Express, you unlock a lot of exciting features for you. You get everything that the basic plan offers, but it also includes:
- Reduction in the service fee
- You’re not charged extra dollars(busy pricing fee) when shopping during prime hours
- No extra charges on shopping from more than one retailer at a time
- There is no service or pickup fee when you choose to pick up your order.
- $0 delivery fees when you place orders above $35
- You can pay for all orders or parts of your orders using your EBT card if you’ve SNAP assistance
- Unlimited shopping options from different retailers and stores
- One of the most enticing benefits is ordering from Costco or Sams without club membership that will save you $50 per year.
If you’re a regular user, you can save a lot of service fees with the premium subscription.
Subscription Plans And Pricing
Instacart Express offers you exclusive benefits at a reasonable price. You can get your grocery online via Instacart Express by choosing the paid subscription. Although there is only one premium membership of Instacart, they give you two choices when choosing a billing pattern.
Monthly Subscription
If you choose a monthly subscription, you will be billed for every month. The charges per month are around $9.99.
Annual Subscription
The second option of the Instacart Express subscription is the annual one. Since you’re billed annually, the monthly cost comes down. The annual payment of Instacart Express is $99.9, which becomes $8.25 per month.
Cost Of Instacart Express
When you choose Instacart Express for shopping and delivering your grocery orders to your doorstep, many costs are associated with the whole process. The total fee you pay for your grocery orders placed through Instacart Express includes:
Delivery Fee
Delivery fee is the most basic cost that any online delivery service charges you. Similarly, you pay a delivery fee on Instacart as well. The amount of delivery fee depends on your location, the order size, the delivery time chosen by you, and available delivery people.
Generally, the delivery fee starts from $3.99 for same-day orders of over $35. However, you can skip the fee by purchasing a subscription to Instacart Express
Service Fee
Instacart also charges a service fee on every order like other online delivery services. The service fee varies according to the market, order price, etc. The platform charges the service fee as a percentage of your total order, excluding alcohol. The service fee helps Instacart support their internal costs like marketing, finance, payment processing, customer support, etc.
If you do not subscribe to a premium subscription, the service charges are 5% of your order price. However, you can save a lot by paying as low a service fee as 1.9% of your orders.
Cost Of Groceries
Of course, you have to pay the grocery cost that you’re ordering from different stores and retailers.
Bottle Deposit and Bag Fees
Being responsible citizens of the Earth, we should avoid using plastic bags. State legislatures in the US and Canada have taken different initiatives to reduce the use of plastic bags at grocery stores in general. Therefore, if you choose to use the disposable bag, the state charges you a fee for discouraging the use of these bags. Therefore, when you order from Instacart, bottle deposit or bag fees will be charged if you consume one.
Heavy Fee
The heavy packages and orders like beverages, pet food, etc., make you pay a portion of the order total as a heavy fee. When you place an order with Instacart and package size exceeds 50 lbs, a fee is charged that starts from 5% of your order price.
Small Order Fee
Lucky you, there is no small order fee on Instacart. It makes sense that why would someone bother to pay 4$ for placing an order of $10, right!
Instacart has a minimum order requirement of $10. Therefore, you only place an order with Instacart if you want some serious grocery items.
Benefits
Let’s summarize the benefits of subscribing to Instacart Express:
- It brings great convenience with affordability across the US and Canada
- People with physical disabilities can also take benefit of this amazing grocery delivery service
- Cost-saving on the delivery fee, heavy fee, and service fee is amazing with the premium subscription
- Order your grocery from several large grocery store chains around you
- You can get your orders delivered on the same day
- Free shipping over orders of $35
- One of the most enticing benefits is ordering from Costco or Sams without club membership that will save you $50 per year.
Downsides
Everything has some downsides, so is the Instacart subscription:
- You cannot order groceries in rural areas due to the unavailability of the service
- Prices of some retailers might be high than actual in-store prices
- It can be tricky to use the service due to so many costs involved
- Paying a tip every time might not be a welcoming experience for many users
- The pleasure of shopping in-store by comparing and choosing is not available with this online mode
Final Verdict: Is Instacart Express Worth Subscribing?
Big Question:
Is Instacart Express worth to subscribe?
YES!
Paying an annual fee of $99 is a great choice for people who are ordering groceries every week or many times a month. However, occasional buyers are not encouraged to get a premium subscription. It is more feasible to pay $3.99 for one order you place in a month than to pay $8.25+ other costs. However, if you order groceries every week in a month and year, you can save a lot on your grocery bills.
Besides, if you’re okay with a slightly higher pricing of various items listed on Instacart, Instacart is indeed for you. In the end, you’re the one who will decide if the premium option is for you or not. Analyze all factors and decide.
Our final verdict is: Instacart Express is worth subscribing and money, but it depends on who subscribes to it.