Instacart, a leading retail enablement company in North America, has announced a reimagined customer ratings system, delivering a more helpful, informative, and fair experience for shoppers. Instead of prioritization of batches being based on having the highest rating possible, shoppers will now need to maintain a 4.7 average rating or above for batch prioritization. In addition, Instacart is forgiving more ratings for reasons that may be outside of a shopper’s control, including if a customer consistently rates shoppers below 5 stars.
Instacart is also introducing a new “Your stats” screen that shows helpful information about a shopper’s experience on the platform, including their average customer rating, customer feedback, and statistics like how many orders they’ve completed. In addition, shoppers will see a new section within the Shopper app that will provide them with information about batch accuracy, including details about items found, replacements, and more. A shopper’s accuracy information does not have any impact on their rating or access to batches, but it can provide valuable insights into their shopping experience on the app.
“Our reimagined ratings system was developed in close collaboration with the shopper community to better support their needs,” said John Adams, Vice President of Shopper & Fulfillment Product at Instacart. “It’s incredibly important to us to nurture a community built on best intent — deepening the trust between shoppers, customers, and all of us at Instacart. By delivering on shopper feedback to make the customer ratings system even more fair, accurate, and reliable, we’re taking another step in ensuring that shoppers feel heard and supported through their experience.”
Because location is the most important factor in a shopper’s access to batches, shoppers will also now see text in the app notifying them when they are close enough to a store location to see available batches. When a shopper enters a store’s designated vicinity, text will appear in the app to let them know that they are ideally situated, and if they can expect to see batches from this retail location in the near future. The app may also show other recommended store locations nearby that have higher batch availability, in case they would prefer to move to another nearby store location.
To gain even more insight about shoppers’ experience, Instacart will now solicit batch-level feedback after each batch shoppers complete. As part of this feedback, shoppers can share if they had an issue with a customer and would no longer like to be paired with them moving forward. If a shopper notes that they had a rude customer, they will have the option to block that customer from their list of batches moving forward, giving the shopper more ability to customize their experience.
Each of these features and updates was developed based on direct shopper feedback, and is focused on Instacart’s commitment to nurturing a community built on best intent. This announcement is the third in Instacart’s four-month rollout of new commitments to the shopper community, following support while you shop and beyond in March and ingredients to earn on your terms in April. Instacart will deliver product features related to its fourth commitment, recognition and rewards for the best of the bunch, next month.
