Should you work with Amazon Fresh or Instacart?

Amazon Fresh & Instacart Comparison

There are two companies that provide grocery delivery services: Amazon Fresh and Instacart. These reputable entities have made life easier for many people, giving them the ability to order groceries online or through an app on their phone from anywhere.

Both of these companies have high standards in terms of service quality which makes them solid go-to options for those who need groceries delivered to their doorsteps without having to leave home.

However, which one will work best for your needs?

In this post, we will review the services of these companies in an effort to help you make a decision.

What is Amazon Fresh?

Amazon Fresh is the best way to make sure you never go grocery shopping again. You can order all your favorite foods and groceries through an app or website, so there will always be something new for dinner.

Amazon Fresh allows people to get their ordered goods quickly with just a few clicks of the finger on either desktop or mobile devices no matter how big that cart might be.

Amazon Fresh
Amazon Fresh offers

The Amazon Fresh system lets people buy groceries from a variety of supermarkets and local shops in their city.

You can find just about anything on Amazon Fresh. You'll be able to get your groceries, snack foods, and meats all in one place with their huge selection of items.

  • Attended Delivery,
  • Doorstep Delivery,
  • Pickup (in select cities)

The program offers free delivery services for orders over $35 (before taxes) if the delivery address is in an eligible region. Deliveries made to all other regions are free if it is more than $50 (before taxes).

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If your order is under the local free-shipping threshold (before tax), you will be asked to pay a $9.99 delivery fee.

The pickup option is available for the Prime members in select cities without having an additional cost, and even without minimum order. Prime members can choose to pick up their products at one of many different locations.

Join prime

Amazon Fresh program applies a subscription fee in order to benefit from their program. Prime members can use this program by only making an additional $14.99 per month payment.

In fact, you can benefit from their 30-day free trial, and only then you will be paying the above-mentioned monthly payment.

If you are an Amazon Prime Subscriber, it makes a lot of sense to use Amazon Fresh since it really simplifies life by leaving you more personal time to enjoy.

The program is available only in select cities but it is gradually expanding its coverage to include more cities as their service areas.

shop groceries with Amazon Fresh

If your delivery address is an eligible location, you can schedule your 2-hour grocery delivery for free provided that your order is above the minimum threshold I have just mentioned.

How could you know if your order is qualified for free delivery?

Sign in to your Amazon account and enter your zip code to learn, that is it.

How soon does Amazon Fresh deliver the orders?

There is a free 2-hour grocery delivery for Prime members in select regions on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market if the order meets with the minimum purchase amount requirement.

It is also possible to receive orders 1-hour and under 1-hour if you agree to pay delivery fees.

The Comparison of Amazon Fresh & Instacart

Amazon Fresh Pros

  • Prices are usually cheaper than most convenient local options.
  • The quality of the products is equally as good as the local options.
  • Fast and easy refund if an item is missing or the quality doesn't meet your expectations.
  • Multiple delivery options.
  • Generally up to %10 more affordable than Instacart on most items.

Amazon Fresh Cons

  • The $14.99 monthly fee to pay every month.
  • Delivery charge to pay for the orders don't meet the minimum order threshold.
  • Not all US cities are included in the program. (Cities that products currently delivered are New York Metro, Boston, Baltimore, Stamford, Seattle Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago, London and parts of California, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia.)
  • Coupons are not applicable to discount the checkout price.

What is Instacart?

Instacart is an on-demand grocery delivery service that brings groceries to your door in as little as an hour or two! It was founded in 2012 and quickly scaled its operations all around the US. It offers same-day grocery delivery and grocery pickup services. By 2017, the company also started to begin deliveries in Canada.

Instacart

Instacart Pros

  • Instacart's delivery tends to be faster than Amazon Fresh.
  • Serves in more cities (5500 cities in North America by partnering 350 national, regional and local retailer partners, 25000 different grocery stores in North America.)
  • Some of the Instacart partners are Albertsons, ALDI, Costco, CVS, Kroger, Sam's Club, Loblaw, Sprouts, Wegmans and Publix.
  • Accessible to over 85% of U.S. households, serving in all 50 states, and 70% of Canadian households.
  • Ability to provide real-time updates.
  • Multiple delivery options that are similar to Amazon Fresh.

Instacart Cons

  • Most items are more expensive than Amazon and even than local grocery stores.
  • It is claimed by many people that missing items is a common issue.
  • It comes with an extra service fee that you only notice once you want to checkout.

Instacart has blanketed almost the entire US and operating in almost every major city. At this point, Amazon is playing to catch its competitor. Since Instacart has partnered with almost every major grocery store except Walmart, Amazon should work harder if it wants to dominate the grocery delivery service with Amazon Fresh.

How About Missing Items?

Both Instacart and Amazon Fresh occasionally forget to include certain items in packaging which can create additional tasks for you to deal with.

I mean you save your time and energy by not driving to the store. However, dealing with unshipped products by outreaching these companies and keeping a back and forth communication can ruin your day.

Is Amazon Fresh cheaper than Instacart?

Prices on Amazon and Instacart are very identical. However, Amazon is relatively cheaper on most items, sometimes up to 10%. Instacart charges an additional service fee that gets tacked onto your total purchase price.

Unless you buy many items at once you will not likely see any significant price difference using these services.

Bottom Line:

I've always been a fan of Amazon Fresh because I find the interface, pricing, and checkout process much better. But if you're looking for Instacart to deliver your groceries then it's still a great company that is worth working with!