Instacart

Instacart (Maplebear Inc.) provides the storefront, the shoppers, and increasingly the ads for grocery retailers. Many chains use it instead of building pickup themselves. Some also run their own sites and use Instacart as a second channel.

The company sells advertising against search inside the grocery app. A brand that pays is more visible than a brand that only wins on price. That is the retail-media version of search self-preferencing, with the grocer and Instacart splitting the ad dollar.

Data on what a household buys is valuable to brands and to the grocer. Who may use it, and whether a brand can get the same data if it does not advertise, is a data-lock-in question.

Instacart has signed exclusive or preferred partnerships with chains. A rival delivery app then cannot carry that grocer. Those vertical restraints decide which app a city actually has.

In-app sponsored search is paid placement in a necessity market.

Exclusive chain partnerships foreclose rival delivery apps.

Purchase data sold back to brands is an input rivals do not have.

White-label storefronts can make the grocer dependent on one technology vendor.

Shoppers see a 'recommended' product that may be an ad. The delivery fee is separate from that bias.

A small food brand that cannot buy the slot loses the digital shelf even when the physical shelf still has it.