Latest / GrocerTalk / Instacart’s Ryan Hamburger on AI Affordability and What Retailers Need Next | Groceryshop 2026

Transcript

Instacart’s Ryan Hamburger on AI Affordability and What Retailers Need Next | Groceryshop 2026 · GrocerTalk

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone.
• 0:00
  This is Omnitalk Retail.
• 0:02
  I am Ben Miller, host of grocertalk, and I'm coming to you live from Las Vegas from the Vuzion podcast studio at booth 913 at grocery shop.
• 0:13
  And joining me now is Ryan Hamburger, Chief Commercial Officer of Instacart.
• 0:18
  Welcome to omnitalk.
• 0:20
  Thank you for having me.
• 0:21
  Okay, go on.
• 0:22
  First up, Chief Commercial Officer, what does that mean?
• 0:27
  Yeah, it's maybe a big title, but really what it comes down to is I work with all of our retail partners, excuse me, across North America and globally to really ensure that not only on the marketplace side, but
• 0:39
  on the enterprise side, that we're deploying the tools that can help them grow their e commerce and in store business, but also look after a lot of the partnerships that are non retail as well.
• 0:47
  So think everything from grubhub, airbnb from a growth side, as well as all the product partnerships that we do as well to keep the platform running day in and day out.
• 0:56
  Fantastic.
• 0:57
  And I love the fact you mentioned Airbnb already.
• 0:59
  We'll come back to that, which is great.
• 1:02
  Okay, we are coming at you.
• 1:04
  It's early afternoon, day one of Grocery Shop.
• 1:07
  Couple of hours ago, your CEO, your boss, Chris Rogers, was on the keynote stage.
• 1:12
  So what we're going to do, if it's all right with you, we're going to do a little spin room.
• 1:15
  Yeah.
• 1:15
  All right.
• 1:16
  Okay.
• 1:16
  So we've had the formal debate.
• 1:18
  Now we're in the spin room, so you get to tell me the key messages.
• 1:22
  So let's start off with how did your boss do?
• 1:24
  Did he do all right?
• 1:25
  You know, it pains me to say this, but I thought he did quite well, to be honest.
• 1:29
  I thought he crushed it.
• 1:31
  So you're happy.
• 1:32
  That's great.
• 1:34
  What were your key takeaways?
• 1:36
  What did you send him up to say, and what did you hear him say?
• 1:39
  Yeah, I mean, I think, look, what he hit on is really what we're seeing in the market, he touched on enterprise, that it continues to be a phenomenal growth factor for us and our retail partners.
• 1:48
  He mentioned the idea of being a grocery OS operating system.
• 1:52
  And what that comes down to is how do we make sure we're building the best technology for grocery retailers of all sizes, but ensure that it's not a one size fits all Right.
• 2:01
  There are different problems retailers are trying to solve, and we want our technology to be able to help them solve that.
• 2:06
  I think the second, you know, AI being the disruptor that it is, no one can predict where that's going to take us, but we know it's going to be a game changer for the grocery industry.
• 2:16
  How consumers shop, how they find products, how they find retailers.
• 2:19
  But equally, what I don't think he touched on too much on the conversation this morning is how is it going to help retailers operate better in their stores?
• 2:26
  And I think there's a lot of opportunity there.
• 2:29
  And the last is retail media, which at a conference like this, you probably can't really get away from mentioning how do you make money offering E Com.
• 2:35
  It's always a challenge and retail media plays a key role.
• 2:38
  Yeah.
• 2:39
  Lovely summary.
• 2:40
  So the second, the middle one you said was AI, that was probably one of the things that struck me that Chris said was one of the.
• 2:45
  He really went big and he said that consumer to customer shopper facing AI is going to have the biggest impact on grocery of any retail sector.
• 2:55
  Okay.
• 2:55
  That's big and bold.
• 2:58
  So do you agree?
• 2:59
  I do.
• 3:00
  And again, not to oversimplify, he mentioned it on stage, but we all struggle.
• 3:04
  80% of consumers struggle with that simple question of what's for dinner tonight?
• 3:08
  Yeah.
• 3:08
  And you know, you go a click deeper and it's, it's not just what's for dinner, it's what's for dinner.
• 3:13
  What do I need, how do I get it?
• 3:15
  And is it going to show up in time for me to cook dinner tonight?
• 3:18
  And I say that not as a cook, but someone who wants to make sure we're not eating out.
• 3:22
  I have two little kids at home as well.
• 3:24
  And you need tools to simplify your life in today's day.
• 3:28
  Okay, really interesting.
• 3:29
  So one of the other things that he went big on was affordability, which kind of surprised me.
• 3:36
  So I was expecting to hear Chris talking about AI talk about affordability.
• 3:41
  Why is that so important that your CEO wants to be on the keynote stage talking about it at the moment?
• 3:46
  Yeah.
• 3:47
  Look, affordability doesn't always mean lowest price, Right?
• 3:50
  To me, I connect affordability and value.
• 3:52
  And so if you're using an experience like Instacart or if you're getting delivery from your favorite retailer, the idea of making sure you're paying the same prices in store is important to the consumer.
• 4:02
  We see it in the growth retailers that price the same as in store grow 10 percentage points faster.
• 4:08
  We also know that from a marketplace standpoint, there's no marketplace out there that has the same number of same as in store retailers as us.
• 4:15
  And the last thing before I let you follow up with that is 90% of our consumers have access to a retailer at the same as in store pricing.
• 4:22
  That's critical because if you're searching value, we want to make sure we have an option for you.
• 4:27
  Ryan, can you just go with that stat?
• 4:28
  Because there was a stat that Chris dropped in as well.
• 4:30
  And I think it's a really important one.
• 4:32
  That 10%.
• 4:33
  Just take us through that.
• 4:34
  Unpack that slowly for me.
• 4:35
  Yeah.
• 4:36
  So if you take, you know, two tranches of retailers, right.
• 4:38
  Retailers that add a markup to the base price and retailers that, you know, do white tag pricing, as I'll call it, are adding no markup to what's in store.
• 4:46
  The retailers that offer that in store pricing on our platform consistently grow 10 percentage points faster than the retailers with a markup for what we believe to be the simple reason that obviously we're going to highlight retailers that
• 4:59
  offer same as in store pricing.
• 5:01
  And the consumer is out there seeking those retailers out.
• 5:04
  They're stickier.
• 5:05
  Chris mentioned the retention is higher, which, you know, at the end of the day, of course sales is great.
• 5:09
  But we all know acquiring customers expense is expensive.
• 5:12
  Reacquiring a customer is even more expensive.
• 5:15
  And so having tools that allow you to retain that customer in your ecosystem is just so critical to your long term growth.
• 5:21
  Okay.
• 5:22
  So at the moment, so your job, we talked about it, you're spending a lot of time taking the instacart proposition out to retailers.
• 5:29
  There is an affordability message within that.
• 5:31
  How is that resonating with retailers who are, you know, they're being hit by affordability on their margins as well.
• 5:38
  Yeah.
• 5:38
  And it gets back to how do we build the right structure for that retailer?
• 5:42
  So not every, no retailer really is created equal or in the same way.
• 5:47
  Yeah.
• 5:48
  And so similar to how we take, take it with our enterprise conversation of which parts of our tech stack, if you will, can we deploy to help you solve your challenges?
• 5:56
  How can we help you crack the affordability approach?
• 5:58
  Again, it could be combination of pricing, speed, assortment.
• 6:03
  There's a lot of different ways to do it.
• 6:05
  He mentioned loyalty on stage, which I think is another critical one.
• 6:08
  Retailers have had loyalty programs for years.
• 6:10
  It's one of the best data sources that they have.
• 6:13
  So how do we make sure we integrate with their loyalty programs?
• 6:16
  Not just unlock that value for the consumer but.
• 6:18
  But allow that marketplace data to flow back into their ecosystem via that channel so they have a better, more full picture of what the consumer is doing.
• 6:25
  Yeah.
• 6:26
  Interesting.
• 6:26
  So tell me kind of where are you on that journey?
• 6:29
  Because that feels like a really critical part of the proposition we're pretty far.
• 6:33
  Along at this point.
• 6:34
  I mean, early days we had a pretty out of the box solution.
• 6:38
  I would say over the last three, four years, we've just gone full bore in integrating directly with the retailer's existing program.
• 6:45
  They've spent years building it, they've spent years building their brands.
• 6:48
  They've got their consumer, you know, I would say, habituated to using that loyalty program.
• 6:53
  We don't want to change that.
• 6:54
  Right.
• 6:54
  So what we do now is we just integrate directly with those programs.
• 6:58
  It surfaces on the marketplace so consumers can validate it, add it, and then that just attaches to their profile so that it flows then back into the retailer's system.
• 7:06
  Got it, Got it.
• 7:08
  Let's step back a bit.
• 7:09
  So obviously you're in lost conversations with retail partners.
• 7:12
  What's the biggest challenge you're hearing from them at the moment?
• 7:16
  You know, I think growth is obviously top of mind, not just digital growth.
• 7:21
  Even, you know, foot traffic.
• 7:22
  We're seeing the stats.
• 7:23
  Foot traffic is down in a lot of retailers.
• 7:25
  And so how do you create a value proposition that wants the consumer to engage?
• 7:29
  And that's where, you know, you and I, I don't want to date ourselves.
• 7:32
  We've been saying omnichannel forever, right?
• 7:34
  It's been a buzzword for quite some time.
• 7:36
  The reality is we're finally in a phase where omnichannel is playing out how I think we all expect, which is if you have an in store customer that you activate digitally, you're going to increase your share of wallet
• 7:47
  by 30% of that consumer because again, you're meeting the consumer where they are.
• 7:51
  It doesn't always have to be in stores.
• 7:52
  Sometimes they're on the way to work, sometimes you're at soccer practice, sometimes you're like me laying on the couch watching football.
• 7:57
  And you just want to be able to engage with the retailer how you want, when you want.
• 8:01
  And that's what we believe we can bring to the retailer for that reason.
• 8:05
  So if we think we're at the point now where we finally got Omni Channel figured out closer.
• 8:09
  Anyways, along comes the gentic.
• 8:12
  Okay, so how are you guys thinking?
• 8:13
  How are you thinking about agentic commerce?
• 8:16
  To me, it's just that next step in that omni journey.
• 8:19
  You know, agentic tools are only as good as the data that underpins them.
• 8:23
  And so from our side, we bring 1.6 billion orders in our history to the table.
• 8:28
  Retailers have a plethora of information on their consumer.
• 8:31
  And so how do we tie those together?
• 8:32
  So the retailer can create the best understanding of what the consumer wants based off everything they know and everything we've seen in our history.
• 8:40
  And, and to me, that again, gets back to the Omni journey of not just delivery, but it could be pickup.
• 8:45
  It could be when you're in store, pulling up the chat.
• 8:48
  It could be any of the above, building recipes for the week.
• 8:51
  AI helps piece all of those things together.
• 8:53
  Okay, I've got it.
• 8:54
  Right.
• 8:55
  Change tact.
• 8:56
  We've already worked out your role, Chief Customer Officer.
• 8:59
  You've obviously been really busy because there's been a slew of announcements just this week.
• 9:04
  So GoPuff, Airbnb one over that I'm not sure we can talk about.
• 9:08
  You tell me now.
• 9:10
  You've said it.
• 9:11
  So.
• 9:11
  Okay, I think we're going to break some news.
• 9:13
  We're going to break some news.
• 9:13
  So tell me, who's joining the platform?
• 9:16
  What's coming up?
• 9:17
  Yeah, I mean, a bunch going on this week, but I would say, you know, three top of mind.
• 9:20
  You mentioned Airbnb, so we've been doing a pilot with them in a select number of markets since January.
• 9:25
  It's been going incredibly well.
• 9:26
  Again, the whole premise of meeting the consumer where they need to be.
• 9:29
  Right.
• 9:30
  You book a house on Airbnb, the first thing you're going to do is understand how can I get food?
• 9:34
  Food.
• 9:35
  You know what, I'm going to the grocery store delivered.
• 9:37
  That's right.
• 9:37
  It's a very natural partnership.
• 9:38
  So excited to announce that we are scaling across the US and Canada with Airbnb.
• 9:43
  So that's exciting.
• 9:44
  GoPuff, as Chris mentioned on stage today, what I will call a two sided partnership there, they are now going to be using us as their retail media arm for their marketplace.
• 9:53
  And they will also be joining the Instacart Marketplace here as well, which is exciting.
• 9:57
  And then last but not least, dollar general.
• 9:59
  So dollar general, yeah.
• 10:01
  Excited to have their 20,000 plus stores joining the Instacart Marketplace at same as in store.
• 10:06
  So again, going back to affordability, Dollar General does a phenomenal job servicing so many folks throughout the United States through a value oriented lens.
• 10:15
  And them joining our platform is just one more way for us to bring that same affordability to our consumers as well.
• 10:20
  Okay.
• 10:21
  And I'm going to take a wild stab.
• 10:23
  Are you going to find the same prices in store on the marketplace in general?
• 10:27
  Very good, Very good.
• 10:28
  All right, come on, let's get you out.
• 10:29
  One last question.
• 10:32
  Is there something that you would wish that Chris had talked about on the keynote stage?
• 10:36
  Today that he didn't.
• 10:38
  You know, I'll just.
• 10:40
  Again, he did.
• 10:40
  I do think he did a great job hitting the messages.
• 10:43
  I'm going to double down on one thing that I think he just lightly touched on, which is our enterprise technology is truly built for retailers of all sizes.
• 10:50
  I think a lot of folks, you know, they look at launching a front end, launching fulfillment, launching delivery, launching loyalty.
• 10:57
  It sounds so complex.
• 10:58
  We would not be here today if we didn't do it in a way that was adaptable to the largest of large and the smallest of small and everywhere in between.
• 11:06
  And so when I think about our enterprise technology, I just continue to remind our retailers do not shy away from tossing the hard problem our way.
• 11:13
  We're here to help you solve it.
• 11:15
  I love that.
• 11:15
  So look, Ryan, thank you so much for joining us.
• 11:18
  Thank you for having me.
• 11:18
  Thank you for the exclusive.
• 11:20
  We really appreciate that.
• 11:21
  And thank you to teams at Fusion and Grocery Shop for making all of our coverage of this conference possible.
• 11:26
  And stay tuned for more.