Cost to Build a Grocery Delivery App like Instacart

The penetration of internet facilities and the increasing availability of smartphones urge consumers to adopt online shopping behavior. 

Customers love ordering groceries online as they can easily have food items and other essentials delivered to their doorsteps.  

Online grocery shopping has become a daily routine without which they can’t live. 

Various grocery delivery players (Instacart, Amazon, Walmart) are making big waves in the industry. However, Instacart takes the front seat for online grocery sales in the US. 

Instacart is known as the largest grocery app with a larger user base because of the convenience it offers to customers along with speedy delivery.  

People get so much comfort that they have shifted to a weekday shopping pattern. 

That’s insane, isn’t it? 

So, if you too want to make a mark in the grocery market and expect an increase in sales, more orders, and a larger user base, then investing in grocery delivery apps like Instacart can change your business game. 

In this blog, we’ll explore what Instacart is, why it’s in demand, and how much it costs to build such a stellar grocery app. 

An overview of Instacart  

Instacart is an online platform that delivers groceries to customers living in the US and Canada.  

This leading grocery app service provider lets users shop from grocery stores, pet stores, wine shops, and other retailers. 

The company has partnered with hundreds of thousands of retailers and grocery suppliers. 

Users can fulfil their grocery-related needs by shopping from favourite speciality outlets and getting fresh produce at their doorsteps. 

They can buy grocery items from different stores, and add things to different shopping carts, and an Instacart shopper delivers them conveniently. 

Is developing a delivery app like Instacart profitable? 

Developing an Instacart-like app sounds like a huge investment when starting, but it’s going to bring increased revenue for entrepreneurs. 

Here’s why an on-demand grocery delivery app is at its peak –  

• The global market revenue of grocery delivery apps is expected to touch $770.90 billion by 2024.  

• The online grocery market in the US was valued at $50.28 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 26.8% from 2023-2030.  

• Online grocery sales in the US market are expected to touch $257.3 billion. By 2027, the grocery market can see a rise in sales worth $341.5 billion. This shows that grocery businesses are experiencing more online sales with a year-over-year increase. 

• 87% of customers prefer grocery shopping online through mobile devices as they get the convenience of having groceries delivered to their doorsteps. They need not worry about visiting stores physically, incurring travel costs and being stuck in traffic jams.  

• The number of users involved in grocery delivery is expected to reach 2215 million in 2029.  

• Consumers spend an average of $174 on groceries per order in 2024. That’s because of evolving shopping preferences and a shift in consumer behavior.  

• As shopping habits change, 40% of people order groceries online every week. That’s a huge revenue for grocery store owners. 

Why is the popularity of developing on-demand grocery delivery apps rising? 

The grocery delivery apps like Instacart are gaining huge prominence in the USA as they offer convenience to shoppers to order items and get them delivered without leaving their homes. 

Here’s why investing in a grocery delivery app like Instacart is a profitable deal for you-  

1. Gain a competitive advantage 

Creating a grocery delivery app gives your business a competitive advantage as you adapt to the changing customer preferences. 

While traditional grocery stores had limited customer access as they were confined to specific geographical areas. 

Moreover, it was time-consuming for customers as well to visit different grocery stores and find the one that fulfils their grocery-related needs. 

Developing an online grocery app like Instacart provides you with a way to expand your business horizon and serve your customer needs at any time of the day. Buyers can make hassle-free purchases speedily.  

2. No more human errors  

An on-demand delivery app like Instacart automates everything from tracking real-time inventory data to processing orders. No more human intervention is required. The online platform leaves no room for human errors.  

As the online delivery grocery app has intuitive features such as real-time navigation, customers can track the order on the fly. They can order products with ease.  

Moreover, the grocery store owner tracks the inventory level in real-time before it goes out of stock. Thus, they can maintain the minimum stock level to make products available to customers.  

3. Increases your business profits  

Investment in grocery delivery apps is a one-time effort.  

Once the app reaches a wider customer base, it can drive a substantial amount of revenue for your grocery business. 

Unlike traditional grocery delivery stores, on-demand apps allow businesses to offer grocery delivery services to customers at any time and anywhere. 

4. Increases customer loyalty  

Personalization in mobile apps increases app engagement as studies indicate that 71% of customers feel frustrated if the shopping experience lacks a personal touch.  

Personalized experiences are what keep customers coming back.  

Similarly, in the case of grocery apps, personalization takes the front seat as customers are more likely to purchase when they receive special offers and discounts. That encourages more repeat purchases.  

Features in developing a delivery app like Instacart

Instacart, the largest grocery delivery app in the US, serves over 10 million users today.   

This app has gained huge dominance in the US and Canadian markets as it delivers groceries instantly to users and offers them the convenience of shopping for unlimited groceries.  

There are 3 types of Grocery delivery apps – one is a consumer app, other is an admin app and third one is a rider app.  

CUSTOMER SIDE

Let’s discuss the key features of a customer app that make grocery delivery apps successful.  

1. User registration 

Make the onboarding process as simple as possible so that users can quickly create an account through the manual sign-up/sign-in by creating the username and password. 

The other way to offer users sign up on the app is through social media options such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. 

But don’t complicate the sign-up process by asking too much information from customers.  

2. Product browsing 

This feature allows customers to buy from a wide range of grocery and food items. They can search for products by selecting a particular category such as fruits. 

3. Payment option  

With this feature, you should offer multiple payment options to users such as credit cards, debit cards or digital wallets.  

Multiple payment options ensure that customers can make hassle-free purchases in real-time. 

4. Product tracking  

A real-time tracking system enables customers to keep an eye on delivery updates and track the driver or rider status from dispatching an order to delivering it on time.  

Thus, users can schedule their tasks accordingly.  

5. Delivery Schedule  

This feature allows customers to pick the right time slot and schedule their delivery as and when they’re available. 

6. Reviews and Ratings 

A ratings and review feature allows buyers to share their ratings and app experience.  

It builds trust among the buyers as the app gives them accountability to make better-informed choices in the future. 

Additionally, this feature can make or break the reputation of your grocery delivery app. 

7. Push notifications  

Push notifications are the best way to gauge a customer’s attention and remind them of special offers, discounts and coupons. 

ADMIN SIDE

Let’s talk about MUST HAVE features to be included in developing a grocery app on the admin side-  

1. Manage inventory levels  

Admin can manage inventory, maintain the stock level and handle orders effectively and efficiently. 

If they think that the inventory is going to be finished soon, they can restock the inventory to get maximum profit. 

2. Assign the orders  

Admin can view the status of all orders, such as which ones are recent, approved, or dispatched. They can then assign the order to the delivery person who will deliver the item to the person concerned. 

Also, administrators can track the orders assigned to the delivery personnel and monitor their earnings per order. 

3. Customer management  

It involves handling customers’ orders, and their ratings and reviews. The admin can inform the customer about the current order. At times, they can resolve the user queries on the fly. 

4. Analytics  

The Analytics feature provides detailed insights on the performance of your riders, measures customer satisfaction and evaluates the sales over the period. They can see which products are in high demand and can offer discounts/sales on them. 

By keeping an eye on these metrics, the admin can frame the business plan accordingly to enhance the customer experience and hence increase sales.  

5. Manage items and categories  

This feature enables the administrator to manage the product categories they wish to sell. This way the store manager or admin can manage their entire business.  

6. Dashboard  

A dashboard acts as a central hub for the admin to manage the backend operations of the business, keep track of inventory levels, see what orders are coming from customers and manage payment collections.  

DELIVERY PANEL SIDE

1. Accept or reject the order  

This functionality allows delivery partners to accept or reject the orders. They can reject the order if the location of the customer is too far.  

An online delivery app like Instacart updates the delivery personnel about the orders to be picked up and other delivery-related details.  

2. In-app chat or calling  

The delivery partner can directly communicate with the customer anytime if they’re unable to track their location.   

Also Read – How AI & Chatbot Apps Are Transforming Mobile Technology?

3. Generating an invoice  

The on-demand grocery delivery app allows the delivery agent to generate an invoice for customers, and get their signature signed confirming that products have been delivered.  

4. Delivery history  

Delivery history features seem like similar functionality to customer history.  

Here, the rider can check orders that are delivered, payment received per order and what orders are yet to be delivered. They can view the total number of order requests they have received. 

How much does it cost to build an Instacart-like grocery delivery app?  

Building a grocery delivery app like Instacart isn’t an easy affair. 

The process involves multiple stages such as market research, planning, design, development and finally launching the app. 

To give you a ballpark figure, the cost of developing a grocery app like Instacart would cost around $25,000 to $85,000. 

This is just an estimated cost. The grocery delivery app development cost depends on various factors such as the location of the app development team, app features, platform, technologies and timeline required to develop an app. 

There are just a few factors that affect the grocery app development cost which include the –  

1. Size and location of developers  

Whether the development team you collaborate with is big or small, affects the overall app development cost. How many app developers are involved in the app development process?  

It varies between projects and depends on the experience that each developer has.  

To create a top-notch application, you require the support of a dedicated development team consisting of app developers, designers, Q/A specialists and project managers.  

The greater the number of people involved, the more the application cost.  

Similarly, if you’re hiring developers from the US, they would charge you a greater amount because of the rising cost of living.  

If you collaborate with an Indian developer having the same level of expertise, the cost would be much lower. 

2. Platform  

There are primarily 2 app platforms – one is Android and the other is iOS.  

Developing an app for 2 different platforms (Android or iOS) costs you more.  

While, if you choose to develop a cross-platform app that works on multiple platforms, then it’s a cheaper alternative for you. 

3. App Features  

The cost of grocery app development is directly proportional to the app features and functionalities.  

Developing a simple grocery application with basic functionalities is cheaper than an advanced application that supports AI/ML algorithms and has chatbot integration. 

In a nutshell, the more features you add to an application, the more the app development cost will become. 

4. Tech stack  

Every company uses different technologies for creating a grocery delivery application like Instacart. Some technologies can be open source while others can be paid.  

It depends on the skillset of developers as to which technology they’re most compatible with.  

5. Timeline to create the project  

If the app development project must be completed quickly, it would require more resources. The more resources you hire, the more expensive the app will become. 

Note – You can save your app development cost by developing an MVP that looks like an app prototype.  

Ask your app development agency to launch your product as a minimal version of the app. Take feedback from users and then fine-tune the full version accordingly.   

Wrapping up  

Today consumers have become tech savvy, and they no longer want to visit the traditional brick-and-mortar stores to get the items. 

Just like Instacart understood the changing customer preferences that they want ease in ordering, easy online payments and a single platform to choose from hundreds of categories.  

The app sticks to the consumers today, because the higher customer engagement, the higher will sales and revenue. 

So, if you’re looking to create a formidable presence in the grocery market, then you need to find skilled developers who have decades of experience in delivering app development services. 

At BigOhTech, we deal in a variety of apps for grocery stores and businesses such as supermarket delivery apps, direct-to-home delivery apps and the list is ON that too with a blend of customization.  

We’ve already served premier grocery brands such as Walmart and FnP through innovative solutions that bring repeat orders from their customers.