How Independent Grocers Can Stay Local and Go Online with Instacart

There are many reasons why customers shop at local independent grocers. Some go for the product selection, knowing they’ll find local favorites, like their favorite steak spice or brand of tortillas. Others because they trust their local independent grocer more than any other chain.

As an independent grocer, you know the value you offer your customers and all the reasons they shop your store. It’s your edge. Adding eCommerce shouldn’t dilute the experiences, brand, and relationships you’ve built up over the years.

Customers expect you to be online, and will shop somewhere else if you don’t offer an eCommerce experience that matches their expectations.

Steve Edwards Jr., Special Projects Manager at Edwards Food Giant and Edwards Cash Saver — a family-owned, 15-store chain in Arkansas — put it plainly: "We're competing directly with large national retailers. We've got to make sure that we are not losing some of that market share by not offering a delivery program."

For many independent grocers, eCommerce sounds like a project that requires a tech team you don't have, infrastructure you can't afford to maintain, and staff attention that's already stretched thin.

Brian Junkins, owner of Friends' Marketplace, a two-store family grocer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, tried running eCommerce in-house for several years. “Running our own online shopping and delivery was disruptive,” he said, “and a losing proposition."

Fortunately, the infrastructure exists to solve this problem without building it yourself or pulling your team away from what they do best.

Get online fast. And see results even faster.

If you’re ready to launch your eCommerce channel, or relaunch one that’s not working for you, you can join the 2,200 retail banners already using Instacart. Think of it as opening a digital store. One you can launch in weeks without worrying about logistics or hands-on builds.

When you do, your store is immediately visible to the millions of active customers using our app to shop for groceries. Last year, more than 26 million customers ordered groceries with Instacart.

Included with Marketplace is Storefront: a standalone eCommerce experience dedicated to your brand with merchandising and marketing tools built to drive basket size and conversion. These include promotional banners, a shoppable weekly ad and flyer, collections and navigation tooling, campaigns tooling, and recipes. You're not just listed on a platform — you have a dedicated storefront with the tools to run and grow your own online business from day one.

Edwards Food Giant and Edwards Cash Saver: Building accountability in their operations

Edwards Food Giant first launched on the Instacart Marketplace with its Cash Saver banner in November 2024, later expanding to Food Giant locations. What stood out immediately was accountability. With Instacart, ordering, fulfillment, delivery, and customer support all operate within a single system — no more juggling multiple vendors or chasing down issues across providers.

"Being able to be hands-off with it is very helpful. If there's an issue, I know that Instacart's going to have it taken care of. Instacart is almost like having an extra office full of people down the hall that handles eCommerce." — Steve Edwards Jr., Special Projects Manager, Edwards Food Giant

Beyond operational simplicity, Marketplace brought reach — something independent grocers often struggle to build on their own. Comparing January 1–February 18, 2026 to the same period in 2025, Edwards has seen*:

• GMV increased by 141%
• Orders increased by 128%
• Users increased by 90%
• First-time orderers increased by 21.5%

In addition to the organic demand generated directly from Instacart, the Edwards team strategically runs promotions to build additional awareness throughout the year and reinforces visibility with consistent in-store marketing. The result: customers see Instacart messaging at the entrance, in the aisles, online, and in weekly ads — keeping digital ordering top of mind without requiring complex infrastructure.

“Offering promotions and discounts lowers that barrier to entry for a lot of people who might be hesitant,” Steve Edwards Jr. said.

As Edwards summed it up:"Being on Instacart has made life so much easier for us."

Friends' Marketplace: Capturing seasonal and local demand

It was a similar story with Friends’ Marketplace, which launched on the Instacart Marketplace in April 2025.

“With Instacart, the setup was easy,” Brian Junkins said, “We didn't over-engineer it. We just got set up, monitored a few reports, and let it run. The transition was seamless for our existing customers, and it's been a really pleasant surprise — incremental sales with very little effort. For a small independent grocer, that's huge."

They see a significant seasonal surge as tourists and vacation homeowners arrive each summer. The store's online volume followed natural seasonality patterns, and during peak season (May through September 2025), results at their larger location compared to the same period the prior year showed significant improvement*:

• 30x more online orders
• 15x growth in GMV
• Significant incremental sales from seasonal visitors, many placing substantial baskets worth hundreds of dollars

"Instacart brought us business we never would've received,” said Junkins. “If we weren't listed, those customers would've shopped somewhere else."

For Junkins, the platform also reinforces something central to what Friends' Marketplace is about: "We're as much a meeting place as a market. Instacart lets us extend that connection to customers who can't make it in-store."

Friends' Marketplace storefront on Instacart

Differentiated and integrated eCommerce with Storefront Pro

When you’re ready to take your digital presence further, Storefront Pro provides the natural upgrade path. It offers a fully branded commerce platform along with advanced capabilities including complex promotions, digital coupons, loyalty program integration, unified content management, and built-in retail media monetization that can offset platform fees.

Fully branding your online storefront helps to bring your customers along. After all, the trust you’ve built up with your customer base is a valuable differentiator.

Davis Food & Drug: Building branded eCommerce on their terms

Davis Food & Drug, a 3-store independent chain in Utah, were competing against larger, established chains with well-established digital platforms. Even though no other independent grocer in their communities offered eCommerce, they knew to best serve their customers, they would have to.

“It’s not our job to tell customers how to shop,” said Alex Walker, Director of Operations, Davis Food & Drug. “It's our job to be there for them however they want to shop."

They turned to Storefront Pro because they needed a solution that could showcase promotions, support both delivery and pickup, and, crucially, put their brand front and center. They wanted to leverage the equity they’d built up in their brand to be clear. And communicate the same level of trust and care to their customers, no matter how they shopped. Which is also why Davis made the strategic choice to maintain price parity — the same prices in-store and online — reducing friction for customers ordering online for the first-time and reinforcing the trust in their relationship with customers.

Being able to run their promotions was also key. Promotions from their wholesale partner, Associated Food Stores, are surfaced clearly online, helping customers find savings while driving larger basket sizes.

"Storefront Pro allows us to feature promotions in a way that grows basket size and makes savings easy for customers to access,” said Walker.

In the12 weeks following their July 2025 Storefront Pro launch, Davis saw a 24% increase in sales compared to the same period the prior year.*

The shift in customer behavior tells its own story. Around 34% of orders in those 12 weeks were for delivery — and 69% of those were incremental to Davis's existing pickup business.* New customers who previously only shopped in-store have moved online.

"One of the biggest things we've seen is growth in delivery orders,” said Walker. “Customers we used to only see in-store are now ordering online."

Instacart's Storefront Pro integrated with Davis Food & Drug

Broulim’s Fresh Foods: Growing with the platform that pays you back

Broulim’s Fresh Foods, a 12-store regional grocer across Idaho and Wyoming, has long built its reputation on fresh, high-quality products and strong community ties. But their digital infrastructure, made up of multiple providers powering the company website, loyalty app, and eCommerce solution, created a fragmented experience for customers and operational inefficiencies for store teams.

They implemented Storefront Pro in July 2025, consolidating everything into a single platform.

“For us, the biggest win has been simplicity. Storefront Pro replaced three disconnected systems with one unified platform,” said Skyler Oswald, VP of Fresh & Marketing, Broulim's. “It's easier for our teams to manage, and it delivers a smoother, more consistent experience for our customers across every channel."

Customers can now browse weekly ads, clip digital coupons, earn loyalty rewards, and place online orders — all within one storefront that looks and feels like the Broulim's brand they trust. Enhanced search connects customers more easily to promotions, pharmacy information, and in-store services. An in-store shopping mode lets customers create lists, check off items, and explore products — blending digital convenience with the in-store experience Broulim's is known for.

Since launching on Storefront Pro, results compared to the same prior-year period include*:

• 14% year-over-year GMV growth
• 40% increase in users, while maintaining strong basket size

Some of the biggest improvements have been in the improved customer experience they’ve been able to deliver with the enterprise-grade technology in Storefront Pro. Real-time dashboards surface order trends, satisfaction ratings, and inventory coverage so managers can quickly understand what's working and where to improve.

"At Broulim's, we're committed to delivering exceptional in-store experiences and personalized service that truly sets us apart,” said Robert Broulim, President of Broulim's, connecting the digital investment back to the company's core values. “With Storefront Pro, we're able to extend that same level of excellence to our online storefronts — empowering us to operate seamlessly across channels and deliver even greater value to our customers."

On top of these great results, approximately 70% of eCommerce fees were paid for by net-new retail media revenue in the first months following launch.

Instacart's Storefront Pro integrated with Broulim's Fresh Foods

Start where you are. Ramp up when you're ready.

Want to get online quickly so that customers in your area looking to order groceries online see your store? Open a digital store on Instacart Marketplace with a branded Storefront. Take advantage of the enormous reach and large customer base actively using the app to order groceries. Grow basket size and conversion from day one with merchandising and promotional tools, while Instacart handles the logistics.

Storefront Pro is the natural upgrade when you're ready to consolidate systems, deepen your branded online experience, integrate loyalty, and unlock advanced promotional and retail media capabilities.

And they work together to drive incremental online growth. For example, Davis Food & Drug uses Storefront Pro as its owned channel while Marketplace captures incremental demand from tourists and customers new to the area.

What each of these grocers found is that the right eCommerce setup doesn't pull them away from what makes them good at their jobs. It gives them more capacity to focus on it.

Stay local and go online with Instacart.

To learn more about how Instacart supports independent grocers, click here.

*Results described are based on individual store and retailer performance and reflect specific time periods noted within each case study. Past performance is not indicative of future outcomes. Actual results may vary by store, region, and retailer. Edwards Food Giant/Cash Saver data reflects year-over-year comparison from January 1–February 18, 2025 to the same period in 2026. Friends' Marketplace data reflects peak season May–September 2025 compared to the same period the prior year. Davis Food & Drug data reflects the 12 weeks following July 2025 launch compared to the same prior-year period. Broulim's data reflects performance following the July 2025 launch compared to the same prior-year period.