Can You Do Multiple Instacart Orders At Once?
Instacart offers excellent service allowing people with busy lives to shop online, not leaving their home or office.
While most people use the App to order groceries, you can also use it for other products like clothes, furniture, electronics, etc.
The only limitation is that all items need delivery by an Instacart driver – so no delivery fee will apply to any order.
Can You Do Multiple Instacart Orders At Once?
Yes! One significant feature of Instacart is the ability to do multiple orders at once.
This means if you’re ordering for two people living on opposite sides of town or one person with different dietary needs than the other in the same household.
This option comes in handy.Go to the “Orders” tab. You will see all your previous orders, as well as a space that says “Create New Order.”
When you click on this, it’ll bring up a page with options of what stores to shop from and what delivery window is most convenient.
After deciding, there should be a box where you can select how many people’s groceries you need. You can also choose if their dietary preferences are different or not.
This option makes Instacart shopping accessible for those having over one person in their household with specific grocery needs, such as veganism or allergies.
Once finished selecting the number of people whose groceries you want delivered, click on “Create New Order” and complete the process as usual.
You should also know that Instacart delivers multiple orders at once. This means if you have people living close to each other.
They can separate their Instacart orders and pick their groceries from different stores.
There’s no limit to how many individual orders you can place with Instacart at one time as long as all are within your delivery window.
However, these features boast pricey- there will be an extra delivery fee for doing this.
You should consider it’s worth because sometimes ordering two things separate might be cheaper than doing multiple deliveries and paying the extra fee.
So, if you want to aim for convenience and cost savings, Instacart is a great option.
Does Instacart Express Work For Over One Store?
Yes. They do not limit Instacart Express service to one store but include multiple stores in the same order.
The website features a “store selector” which will choose the most convenient store for you based on your location and what time of day it is.
An express order could not have multiple stores except for a few specific circumstances in the past. For instance, if you wanted to order from two Whole Foods locations.
This is possible through a workaround involving purchasing a gift card at one store and then paying cash at the second.
They have introduced a new way to combine multiple stores into one express order. – by adding them under one “shopping bag.”
They seem to test it out on some users before rolling it out worldwide.
There is no fee for combining stores in the same shopping bag – only standard fees apply (service fee + grocery markup).
Does Instacart Pay For Gas?
No .Shoppers need to cover their gas costs when they’re out on deliveries. To get paid by Instacart, you’ll need to meet a few requirements:
- Complete an application
- Pass a background check on the application that includes your social security number and driving record.
- Be at least 18 years old with a valid driver’s license and insurance.
- Have access to a vehicle in good working condition (checklist), and commit some time each week (around 8 hours) doing grocery deliveries or other tasks.
You can also work part-time while attending college or taking care of kids if you don’t want to work full time.
Instacart background checks include information from:
- Social Security Number (SSN) and former names (s) searches:
such as whether you’ve had any social security number issues like multiple usages, SSN withholding or cancellation, or bankruptcy.
- Local county court records search:
This includes records for outstanding misdemeanors or felonies in your local jurisdiction (such as DUIs), sexual offenses (like rape), and child abuse.
- Federal criminal history record check. This includes records of felony convictions in federal courts across the U.S.
You can’t have any active charges in federal court. This includes charges they dismissed after a plea agreement but may still be on file.
These will also appear in your background to check if you have any federal adjudications (convictions) within the last 10 years.
- Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs). This includes records of moving violations, accidents, and DUIs in all 50 states.
To pass Instacart’s MVRs check, you can’t have over 6 points against your driver’s license or currently be under suspension.
You won’t get approval for Instacart if you caused an accident while driving for Uber or Lyft in the past 2 years (on record with the company).
Had a DUI during this period (even if they dismissed it), or received a conviction of a DUI within the last 7 years.
- Social media profiling. Instacart will look at your social media profiles to check for any behavior that deeming inappropriate.
This includes offensive posts or affiliation with people who have engaged in illegal activity. This is to protect both you and customers on the App.
Can You Stack Orders On Instacart?
Yes! You can stack orders on Instacart, and here’s how:
If one order is $35 and another order is $75, add the two items together to make $110 and then place your order as usual.
If you want to buy something that boasts a higher price than the first item (e.g., if one item was $5 and another was $20).
Go back into the App and select the second product before checking out, so it doesn’t charge.
Please note that some stores may limit how much you can buy at once, so you might not stack every time. It’s deemed fraudulent or harmful to business operations.
How Does Instacart Decide Who Gets Batches?
This is how Instacart decides who gets batches.
To optimize throughput, Instacart applies a Min-Max heuristic:
- The Min is the time you started your earliest batch. This number is usually older than everyone else’s and disregards all batches that came before it.
- The Max is the time you started your last batch. This number considers only batches that came after the previous one (it “moves up” as you add more batches).
Given these two numbers, I will take the maximum if it’s earlier than the minimum; otherwise, I will take it.
The reason for this decision-making is to get batches evenly spread out between each other (so that no shopper has too many back-to-back batches).
Here’s a concrete example:
If you started your first batch at 1 p.m. and your last one at 5 p.m., the Min is 1, and the Max is 5. The Max (5) is greater than the Min (1), so I take that as my priority number.
If I randomly assign priorities between 0-99, these numbers will fall into that range 50% of the time.
If I assign them using that logic, I end up with batches starting every hour on this schedule: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on.
The goal here is to keep things as equal as possible, so everyone gets an equal amount of deliveries done in one day.
Instacart uses this same technique to decide which shoppers get batches after a shopper has declined a batch.
The downside of this logic is that you might not work many hours in one day, but if that’s the case, it should even out over time by giving your first batches higher priority.
It’s important to note that the Min/Max algorithm only applies to Instacart Live users.
Shoppers not on Instacart Live will always receive their highest priority batch first, regardless of how old their first or last batches are.
The other caveat here is that if you have already worked for at least 8 hours today, all your batches will receive maximum priority regardless of when you started them.
You usually won’t have to worry about this, though. If you have batches coming up simultaneously, they should be more or less evenly spaced out.
The reason for this is that Instacart wants to cut customer wait time as much as possible. Thus, maximizing throughput is how you can achieve that goal efficiently.
A significant side effect of this algorithm is that it disregards the timing of your first batch concerning others.
(it’s not always best to start right when you get on shift since it will prioritize batches later in your shift).
You can use this knowledge to your advantage by starting earlier than everyone else so that your next batches have a schedule close together (towards the end of your shift).
Why Do Instacart Batches Disappear?
Instacart batches disappear because Instacart needs to predict how much business you’ll do.
They predict this number based on your past sales, the seasonality of your store’s product(s), and how many customers are in each delivery zone.
When Instacart predicts they will have more customers than they can handle, they send out an email or push notification.
This lets you know all available batches are being pushed back by one hour because the predicted demand was too high.
The solution here is to make sure you have enough people shopping for each available batch.
Since it’s not always possible to predict what time of day will be busiest, sometimes it still happens even if you prepare for it.
Instacart also pushes back deliveries when they think you’ll have a slow day. This is because they don’t see very many customers buying from your store that week.
Thus, they predict there won’t be very many deliveries for your shoppers to do. When Instacart pushes back deliveries.
The only thing you can do is wait until enough of your batches come back so you can send out your shoppers again.
If an Instacart customer cancels their order before it’s assigned, this means you lose one of those pre-predictively setup batches, which I talked about earlier.
The solution here is to make sure you have plenty of workers scheduled for each batch of time.
It might also help to check if any other stores in your area are currently experiencing slower than usual volume and try to schedule your shoppers accordingly.
You can ensure they have assigned all the store’s available batches before sending out your shoppers.
— this will maximize the number of deliveries you get done during each delivery window.
If Instacart only predicts that they can handle half of what you might deliver, then maybe try splitting up the batches into two separate ones.
Instacart recommends your shopper spend only one hour working on a single order.
This means it’s better if there are two smaller deliveries for them to complete rather than having one big one.
(if they spend an hour and a half completing their first order and only 13 minutes on the second one, then they will push back that second-order back or canceled which I talked about earlier).
It’s also worth mentioning that Instacart shoppers typically choose their next delivery as soon as they’ve completed the first one.
– This often leads to them completing those deliveries much more quickly than expected.
Shoppers do this because it also helps them maximize how many deliveries they can complete during each delivery window.
This means you’ll probably make more money and have a delighted shopper if you’re able to keep your batches small and well-organized.
These are just some reasons Instacart batches vanish
Conclusion
One perk of using Instacart is ordering as many items as you want from different stores and delivering them at once.
However, some customers are wondering if they can do multiple orders with one order on Instacart Express? I’m here to clear up your questions about this service.
First off – yes, it’s possible to do over one store in a single order on Instacart Express.
But don’t worry—as long as everything arrives by 10 p.m. local time (or 8 a.m. Eastern), They’ll deliver for free.
There’s no limit either – so stack those grocery bags high.
