Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash: A Comparison
Using various parameters we will put the three big grocery-delivering companies and the food-delivery company against each other to see how they fare against each other. And if there are people out there who are considering working for either of the grocery delivering platforms then we will also be covering info on stuff like, can you work for Shipt and Instacart at the same time. But first, let’s get the introductions out of the way.
About Shipt
Owned by Target Corporation and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, US, Shipt is an American delivery service company. The company was founded in 2014 by Bill Smith. The company operates across most of metropolitan America in the retail sector. In 2018 the company had revenue of 1 billion dollars. The current CEO of the company is Kamau Witherspoon. And the company’s app is available on iOS and Android devices while also being available to use via the website. Shipt was acquired by Target for 550 million dollars in 2017. Today it operates as an independent subsidiary of the company and apart from grocery they also deliver other home products and certain electronic items. It has partnerships with various other retailers apart from Target and this was done so that the company could enter the same-day delivery market segment which they soon began with. Today, more than 3,00,000 Shipt Shoppers are available on the platform who deliver items right to your doorstep. Before moving to the comparison of Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash, now we introduce you to the second player in the game.
About Instacart
Instacart is a grocery delivery and pick-up company that operates in the USA and Canada. The headquarters of this company is at 50 Beale Street, San Francisco, California, U.S. The company was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo. Maplebear Inc. is the owner of this private company. The current CEO of the company is Fidji Simo. The company operates in the retail segment. In 2021 its revenue stood at 1.8 billion dollars. Currently, around 3,000 people work for this company. The company has an app that is available on the App Store and Google Play and it can also be used through the website. Initially, the company operated only in a few US states and began expanding its operation slowly to the point that they were also able to enter Canadian markets by November 2017. Instacart saw its valuation rise drastically which also helped them raise more funds for business and plan an IPO, however, in a turn of events the company started slashing its valuation severely while also dropping any current IPO plans. Just one more introduction left before we can move the Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash comparison.
About DoorDash
From America, we have a food delivery company DoorDash that takes care of online food orders. Based in San Francisco, California, US, this is a public company that got listed in 2020. The company was founded in 2013 in Palo Alto, California by Tony Xu, Andy Fang, Stanley Tang, and Evan Moore. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California, United States. The company operates in a few countries and those are Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, and the United States. In 2021 the company’s revenue stood at 4.88 billion dollars. In 2021 the company had more than 6,000 employees on its payroll. Tony Xu is currently the CEO of this company, Andy Fang is the CTO and Christopher Payne is the President. With more than 50% share in the market, the company is the US’s largest food company. The company started as PaloAltoDelivery.com before switching to its current identity, DoorDash. Such was the growth of the company, that it left established businesses Uber Eats and GrubHub in its wake to emerge number one player in the market. And now we move to the Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash comparison and Shipt vs Instacart delivery information.
Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash
Before the comparison can even begin it already feels a little out of place, why? Because you have three delivery apps and while Shipt and Instacart belong to the same grocery category, DoorDash is from the food delivery segment and thus there is a difference between the three before we even begin to go further. However, what more differences do these three shares amongst them?
Area of Operations
Instacart operates not just in the US but in Canada as well and covers 70% of households in both the states where their services are available. On the other hand, Shipt is only available in the US and is present in more than 50 markets in the country. The main retailer for Shipt is Target while it has also partnered with other retailers, Instacart has also partnered with a lot of local retailers for its on-day delivery program. We already saw above the places where DoorDash operates. Of the 4,000 cities and 3,10,000 partner restaurants, 80% of these places are present in the US. This means that their reach is better than the other two names on the list and so 1 point to it.
Pricing
You can sign up for Shipt membership for 14 dollars a month or 99 dollars a year. For Instacart the membership cost is 9.99 dollars a month or 99 dollars a year. You can sign up for a DoorDash membership by paying 9.99 dollars a month or 96 dollars a year. All these costs are just the membership cost there are also other charges in place that you include on ordering items that you want to be delivered quickly or that are under a certain amount, however, if we just compare these prices to compare Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash then again it is the double D that wins another point.
Earnings
If you work for Shipt then you can make approximately 22.14 dollars an hour which is 38% above the national average, however, this figure drops to 17.21 dollars per hour for an Instacart employee. And in case you choose to work for DoorDash then again you can expect to make somewhere between 15 to 25 dollars an hour which is better than either two. That should give you a perspective as to how the three fare against each other. When pitted against each other DoorDash emerges as the better option even though it does not fit their niche. At the end of the day in the broader scope of things, all these businesses belong to the retail sector and so you can already find your peace in that fact as far as this comparison is concerned. Also Read: Shipt vs Instacart: Which is the best?
Working for Shipt vs Instacart
So we saw above that DoorDash bested the Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash comparison thoroughly. However, if we leave it out of the competition then we have got only Shipt and Instacart, the two companies which feel more like direct competitors. Among these two the availability remains the same. However, Instacart is the better company when it comes to delivery and pricing parameters while Shipt pays its workers better. That puts Instacart a place ahead of Shipt but how does working for Shipt vs Instacart comparison works out? Who wins there? Let’s see. Pay wise the battle has been won by Shipt but there are smaller wars that need to be considered which might help Instacart retain some credibility and help it pose as a better company. When working for Shipt you are only delivering stuff whereas working for Instacart means delivery as well as shopping in-store. So this means Shipt people have less work and get paid more. But then Instacart operates in 2 countries or 5,500 cities while Shipt is present in 1 country or 5,000 cities, providing options to more people. On the requirement side, both these companies need you to be 18+ if you wish to work for them. Instacart requires you to be eligible to be able to work in the USA and also needs you to have a newer and reliable Android or iPhone. Shipt on the other hand requires you to have a US driver’s license and auto insurance. A reliable car from 1997 or later is also required. Instacart also requires you to have constant access to a vehicle and you should be able to lift products worth 50 pounds at least. On the other hand, Shipt requires you to have a newer smartphone just like its competitor, and the ability to be able to lift products worth 40 pounds. Shipt might not have emerged strongly from the Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash comparison nor could it beat Instacart in the pricing or delivery segment, however when it comes to working for either of the company, Shipt edges out Instacart to be a better employer as the pay is substantially more and the work is also less with the requirements being more or less similar. Let us now cover Shipt vs Instacart delivery.
Shipt vs Instacart Delivery
Shipt and Instacart have a good back-and-forth going with each company bettering the other in one segment and then being beaten in the other. So far it feels like a tie between the two of them as they have each fared better in two segments each. However, if we get into the details of delivery then maybe we can squeeze out a few more points. So let’s dive into Shipt vs Instacart delivery to try and separate these two. Area wise there is no doubt that Instacart is present in more cities and countries than Shipt and so that is already a bad thing for Shipt. But the next bad thing is Shipt has partnered with retailers which include Walgreens, Sephora, Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS, Office Depot, Target, Big Lots, Petco, GNC, and Kroger. Instacart has partnered with Five Below, Dick’s Sporting goods, The Container Store, 10Box Cost Plus, Michael’s, Lowe’s, Bath and Body works, Petco, Walgreens Kroger, Office Depot, Target, CVS, Sunbasket, and more. So you see that most of the places that Shipt has partnered with are also partnered up with Instacart. In addition, Instacart has tied up with sporting goods and meal companies as well which increases their range of products. Originally Instacart is into grocery delivery and alcohol delivery while Shipt is into grocery delivery, home products, and certain electronics product deliveries. On the surface, it would appear Shipt wins but in actuality, it is Instacart that fares better. When we did the Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash comparison we already had seen Instacart perform better than Shipt in the delivery segment. However, with this in-depth comparison, we only further strengthen the point that Instacart is superior in delivery terms be it area covered or products offered. With that being said, Shipt is not at all as bad as people would be thinking it to be. It is just not on par with its competitor, that’s it, however, even still you might have people opting for Shipt over Instacart, especially the people who wish to work for either company. But you might also receive better service from Shipt than from Instacart in the area you live and so you might end up choosing Shipt and then this comparison would not be much of a difference maker. This was all about Shipt vs Instacart delivery system.
Can you work for Shipt and Instacart at the same time?
How would you feel if you get the best of both worlds? We have established that Shipt pays more than Instacart while their workers also have less work to do and on the other hand, Instacart has fewer requirements that you need to meet to be able to work for them. So how good would it be if you could work for Instacart and earn the wages of Shipt employees? Well there is another way to make this happen and the answer to it lies in the question, can you work for Shipt and Instacart at the same time? Brace yourselves for some good news coming your way. You can indeed work for the two companies at the same time. Both these companies are hiring independent contractors or part-time workers. This leaves you with much flexibility and power of choice to do as you wish. You are your boss to a certain extent and that leaves a window of opportunity for you to choose to work for both of these companies at the same time provided you get the job done in time and don’t mess up. The Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash section of the article highlighted strong points of both these companies and apart from that, there are also employment benefits that come with both these companies. To add to that you also get this while working for either of these companies. Your salary doubles up. And the times we live in one job is not enough anyways for a lot of people. So everything points to it working out well if you decide to work for both companies at the same time. Also, since the requirement of both companies is more or less similar you don’t need to sweat over going the extra mile to work both jobs at the same time. However, you need to be cautious to not deliver the wrong order to the wrong person. Also, Instacart has a delivery tracker feature which might prove to be an issue for you if you work for the two companies simultaneously and so you would need to take care of that. Lastly, as long as you pick up smaller orders, orders that are from the same store or location, and orders that need to be delivered in the same area you can make it work for you to be working these two jobs at a time. Also Read: Sam’s Club One Day Pass: Shop Without a Membership
Pros and Cons
So far the two companies have been inseparable ever since we compared them in the Shipt vs Instacart vs DoorDash section and later on. We had to even jot down if working for both was possible at the same time to declare a truce. However, there needs to be one winner among the two for the sake of satisfaction and in a last-ditch attempt we will jot down the pros and cons of either app to determine the better option.
Pros
For Shipt the main pro it has is that it has an official delivery partner in Target whereas Instacart has none. But then Instacart’s main pro is its presence in two countries which is not the case with Shipt. The shared pro of both these companies is that they can deliver groceries on the same day through their multiple retail partners. Shipt is available in major metropolitan cities in the US which is one of its strong points. For Instacart, its lower delivery charge is a pro when compared to its competitor.
Cons
On the bad side of things, the problem for Shipt lies in the fact that their one-time delivery fee is high and that might repel the customers who don’t wish to sign up for membership. For Instacart the problem is that they have received poor reviews for their customer service and this might be a considerable deal breaker. Being limited to just serving in the US also has to be a big con for Shipt when compared to Instacart which themselves have a problem in hand for offering products whose price is more than their in-store prices. But Shipt also has the same problem as they too offer products for higher prices than their in-store price. Instacart charges a service fee for all orders and that might not go down well with regular customers.
