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2025_03_0 Release Notes

Release date: March 25, 2025

The release notes describe changes to Storefront for this release, including new features and enhancements. In addition to these changes, Instacart continually updates the platform to improve accessibility, performance, and stability and to ensure the best user experience for your customers.

New features​

The following new features are available in this release.

Jump to page in Instacart Platform Portal​

You can now search for and navigate to any tool or report in Instacart Platform Portal. You can use the Jump to page function by clicking the search button in the top toolbar, or using either the Ctrl+K or Cmd+K keyboard shortcut. The Jump to page function provides quick access to the tools and reports that you use within Instacart Platform Portal.

The following image shows the Jump to page function in Instacart Platform Portal:

Shows a dropdown menu with a search bar labeled "Jump to page... (Cmd + K)" and a list of Instacart Platform Portal pages and tools.

For more information, see Instacart Platform Portal overview.

Enterprise Technical Support in Instacart Platform Portal​

You can now access Instacart Enterprise Technical Support directly from Instacart Platform Portal. The Enterprise Technical Support team handles technical concerns, tasks, questions, and feedback for Instacart Platform offerings. You can contact the team by clicking the Service Desk button in Instacart Platform Portal.

The following image shows the Service Desk button:

Shows a dropdown menu triggered by a help icon in the navigation bar of Instacart Platform Portal. Options include Documentation, Privacy, and Service Desk, which is highlighted.

For more information, see Instacart Enterprise Technical Support.

Free service offers​

When you create an offer in the Instacart Platform Portal, you can allow customers to receive free service, such as delivery, pick up, priority fees, and service fees, or a discount on these fees. You can use this feature to create incentives for your customers, such as No delivery fee during the Superbowl weekend, Free priority fee on your next order, and Free service fee when you spend $35.

If a customer uses a coupon, the service is free. If the discount is applied automatically, they can either receive a free service or a discount on it.

The following image shows the offer setup in the Instacart Platform Portal:

Shows the free delivery from when Fee Discount is selected as a Discount type.

For more information, see Define the offer.

Include alcohol items in offer conditions​

You can allow customers to purchase alcohol to count towards minimum spend condition requirements. This is useful when you want to create an offer that targets non-alcohol sales due to marketing or regulatory reasons. By selecting this checkbox, any alcohol item added to the customer’s cart will count toward the offer’s spend condition.

The following image shows the Allow alcohol items checkbox in the Instacart Platform Portal:

Shows Allow alcohol items to contribute to minimum spend checkbox.

For more information, see Define the offer.

Offers for weighted items​

You can create incentives to drive growth of your weighted items. Using the Instacart Platform Portal, you can now create weighted item offers, such as Get beef for $4/lb when you buy 2lbs or more. To do so, select Minimum product quantity as your offer’s requirement, then select Weight. From the Reward section, set the price per unit/lbs for this offer.

The following image show the offer requirements and reward setup for weighted items:

Shows minimum product quantity with weight selected.

For more information, see Define the offer.

Additional offer conditions​

You can now add the following conditions for offer redemption in the Instacart Platform Portal:

  • Payment type. Set the condition for the offer based on the order payment type. This applies to Basket orders and Fee Discount types only.
  • Fulfillment type. Delivery or pickup or both. This applies to Basket offer discount types only.
  • Loyalty status at the time of checkout. This applies to Basket offers and Fee Discount types only.
  • Order count restriction. Limit the offer to the first X number of orders. This applies to all Discount types.

While these conditions are optional, applying advanced offer conditions allows more flexibility in creating promotions that encourage specific user behaviors. For example, you can apply the Members Only condition to create exclusive deals for loyalty program members, thereby increasing the value and appeal of your loyalty program.

The following image shows the additional offer condition options in the Instacart Platform Portal:

Show additional conditions such as payment type, loyalty member, restriction on orders.

For more information, see Define the offer.

Item offer cart progress tracker​

The cart features a progress tracker for item-level offers. This visual indicator shows customers how many items they need and highlights how close they are to qualifying for the offer. This can encourage them to add more items to their cart to satisfy the offer.

The following image shows the Item offer cart progress tracker in a customer's cart:

Shows customer's cart of having one item when two are needed to get five dollars off.

For more information, see Cart.

Brand name rule for building dynamic collections (Storefront Pro 5)​

In Instacart Platform Portal, you can now create dynamic collections that includes brand name products in your catalog. For example, you can build a dynamic collection that includes brand name chips and soda products.

For more information, see Dynamic collections and Create a collection.

Search engine optimization (SEO) metadata for content pages and custom homepages (Storefront Pro 5)​

You can now configure SEO metadata tags for page titles and descriptions based on the locales available to a particular storefront page. This helps ensure consistent search engine indexing, better visibility, and easier retailer configurations.

While configuring your metadata, you can preview how the page will appear in search engine results. The following image shows the new metadata tag configuration for a content page:

Shows a page details editor with fields for the name, slug, meta locale, meta title, and meta description, along with a search results preview displaying entered content.

For more information, see Manage content pages and Manage custom homepages.

Enhancements​

The following enhancements are available in this release.

User experience improvements for family accounts​

Customers can now invite others to their family accounts directly from the storefront page or their shopping cart. They can also manage their family accounts from these locations. These new entry points make it easier for customers to discover and manage family accounts and carts.

Additional user interface enhancements include:

  • Viewing invite status
  • Accepting and declining invitations
  • Collaborating on family carts
  • Viewing family order confirmation
  • Viewing family order history

For more information, see Family accounts.

Simplified Instacart+ membership cancellation experience​

Customers can now cancel their Instacart+ memberships with fewer clicks. When canceling a paid membership, customers are shown how much savings they’ve earned as a member. If they have not placed an order as a member, they are shown an average of potential savings benefits. They can also switch their membership plan between monthly and annual.

The following images show the paid membership cancellation experience:

Shows three screens for canceling an Instacart+ membership, including savings summary, options to switch to a monthly plan, and cancellation confirmation.

If a customer is canceling a trial membership, they’re reminded of the membership benefits and how many days they have left in their trial.

The following images show the trial membership cancellation experience:

Shows three screens for canceling an Instacart+ trial membership, highlighting benefits, a confirmation prompt for cancellation, and a final cancellation acknowledgment.

For more information, see Instacart+.

Dedicated retailer profiles for SMS communication​

Retailers can now customize SMS communication with customers by using dedicated profiles. These profiles allow retailers to display their name and phone number in SMS messages to their customers for a more personalized experience. This allows customers to know who is sending them SMS messages.

Contact your Instacart+ representative for help with your dedicated profile.

Improved bot protection​

Using the AWS Bot Control SDK, new bot protection measures have been added to detect and mitigate malicious bot traffic on your storefront site. Key benefits include improved storefront performance, pricing protection, and real-time detection through features such as security tokens and bot detection signals.

Executive summary filter improvements​

In Instacart Platform Portal, added the following filters to the Executive summary dashboard:

  • Store
  • Store state
  • Store region
  • Order fulfilment type (Pickup, Delivery)
  • Order source (Instacart App, Storefront Pro)
  • Order platform (Web, Mobile Web, iOS, Android)

Custom homepages for complex retailer structures (Storefront Pro 5)​

For retailers with multiple banners or sites, you can now configure custom homepages for each site. If a custom homepage has not been created, Instacart displays a default homepage with machine learning driven product carousels. The Custom homepage tool includes a list of homepages that displays the status and details.

note

This feature is only available for complex retailer structures. To configure this feature, contact your Instacart representative.

For more information, see Custom homepages for complex retailer structures.

For retailers with multiple banners, you can now configure the links in your navigation menus across all banners. When you create or edit a link, you can choose the banners where the link appears. For example, you can configure a link to the Buy it again page to appear on all banners under a site, or only one banner. Links can be configured across banners for desktop header, mobile web, and native app more menus.

For more information, see Manage desktop navigation, Manage mobile web navigation, and Manage native app navigation.

Enhanced image loading and display for banner creatives (Storefront Pro 5)​

Instacart has migrated the storage of images uploaded to Instacart Platform Portal for banner creatives to a new internal system. The file sizes of uploaded images are now optimized, resulting in faster load times when viewing primary and secondary banners on the storefront. This update improves site speed and enhances customer experience.

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