Study Shows Instacart May Be Charging Some Shoppers 20% More for the Same Product

A recent study published by Consumer Reports (CR) reports that Instacart has been conducting AI-driven dynamic pricing experiments that, in some cases, drastically inflate the cost of certain products.

In partnership with Groundwork Collaborative, CR found that these experiments were conducted at retail partners' locations, including Kroger, Albertsons, Costco, and Safeway. The research revealed that some consumers were paying up to 23% more for the same product as other shoppers.

The software used for these experiments, Eversight, is a SaaS product offering grocers a suite of pricing solutions designed to "unlock reven growth." The platform promises to help grocers scale their pricing strategy and identify optimal prices based on customer expectations. Instacart notes on its Eversight page that some shoppers "may see sslightlyhigher prices" than others.

However, as the report points out, a 23% price hike hardly qualifies as "slightly higher," raising concerns over the extent of the price disparities.

When contacted for comment, Instacart referred TechCrunch to a statement the company had previously released. It clarified that, as physical stores have long experimented with pricing, a small subset of U.S. retail partners (specifically, 10 retail partners) has opted to apply markups using Instacart's EInstacart technology to run limited online pricing tests.

Dynamic pricing has become more common in recent years, with many major e-commerce sites facing accusations of employing similar strategies. A recent report also claimed that Amazon's dynamic system led school districts across the U.S. to pay higher prices for basic school supplies. Amazon responded, calling the report "flawed and misleading."