Maplebear Inc., a Delaware corporation registered in California, is doing business as Instacart Inc. Instacart, offers users same-day delivery of groceries from different local stores around the city. Users place an order using the company’s website or mobile application and will have their groceries delivered to them within hours.

Instacart offers free delivery for users’ first order of $35 or more. For two-hour delivery, users will be charged a flat fee of $3.99 or $14.99 for one-hour delivery. Annual membership is also available to users for $99, and will allow users to place orders over $35 at no additional charge.

Instacart, announced today that it now offers its services in Los Angeles. Instacart now operates in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, San Jose, Washington DC and now Los Angeles. The company plans to continue growing

Instacart is currently working with national food chain stores such as Whole Foods and Costco, as well as smaller local stores such as Dominick’s in Chicago. The company plans to continue growing aggressively to assure that users everywhere can get the groceries of their choice.

HOW DOES IT WORK

Instacart is simple. Users can either visit the company website from their computers or by using their mobile devices. Users then add the items of their choice to their carts, just as they would at a traditional brick and mortar grocery store.

Once finished shopping, users choose a specific time and address they would like their groceries delivered. Lastly, users check out using a credit card.

Once an order is placed, Instacart pings users’ grocery list to a personal shopper working for the company. The shopper then arrives at the grocery store, purchases the groceries, and deliveries to goods to the specified location at the specified time.

Users benefit from Instacart because they can avoid the headache and hustle associated with grocery shopping. Annoying shoppers who leave their carts in the middle of an aisle, long lines with slow checkouts, and hundreds of dollars wasted on gas can all be avoided. Most importantly, the chocolate bars staring down users at the check out lines will not be tempting to the Instacart users.

BUSINESS MOTTO

Instacart has exploded since it was first launched in the San Francisco Bay Area. The founder Apoorva Mehta is a former software design engineer for Amazon’s Fullfillment Optimization division.

We have seen this done before. Specifically, Amazon recently launched Amazon Fresh services that allow users to purchase their groceries online and have them delivered the same or next day. Amazon has even made things easier for users by recently introducing a wireless device called Amazon Dash. Amazon Dash allows users to create a grocery list using their device. The device connects directly to users’ Amazon pages using Wi-Fi.

Mehta says the major advantage Instacart users have over Amazon Fresh users is the ability to order from their preferred stores. That means, users get to choose their favorite products from their favorite stores, without compromising anything. This is a major advantage for users since Amazon Fresh users can only purchase items contained in the Amazon warehouse.

Furthermore Mehta adds, Instacart uses personal shoppers who are contracted with the company. The personal shoppers are the ones making purchases and deliveries for the company. As a result, Instacart does not have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on maintaining stock, space to keep the stock, and transportation. Simple math can tell you, less money spent on overhead costs means less costs carried over onto the purchasers.

With no infrastructure, Instacart is able to launch services in new cities daily. That is why business has boomed for Instacart. In the months prior to its New York City launched, Instacart sales have increased nearly two and a half times.

To maintain supply and demand, the company is considering raising an additional round of funding. Last year, in a campaign led by Sequoia Capital, Instacart received $8.5 million in funding. Instacart has raised approximately $11 million to date.

With the world evolving into a society running on technology, why wouldn’t the most simple and basic task take place over the Internet? Between juggling jobs, family, and a social life, do people really have time to shop for groceries…the most basic and fundamental aspect of human life?

Topics: Apps, Delaware, Small Business, Startups