Trade publications suggest that Instacart represented 54 percent of the home delivery market for groceries in March rising to 57 percent in April.  The total of on-line grocery sales rose 65 percent from March to $6.6 billion in value during May as a result of COVID-19 home confinement.  Forty-three million customers shopped online in April up from 40 million in March. 

Walmart delivered 31 percent of all on-line orders in May including click-and-collect.  Shipt, owned by Target was responsible for seven percent of deliveries and Peapod a subsidiary of Ahold-Delhaize delivered three percent of online grocery orders.

Instacart recently raised $220 million to allow for expansion and intends hiring as many as 250,000 workers over and above the 300,000 announced in March.  Instacart took advantage of the reluctance of major supermarkets to establish their own delivery at the onset of COVID-19 restrictions.  Instacart now serves Albertsons, Aldi, Cosco and Kroger.  Supermarkets recognize the relatively low profit from home delivery and are concentrating on click-and-collect leaving the actual delivery to specialist companies including Instacart. 

During the surge in home delivery, there were numerous complaints over incorrect and incomplete orders, delays and cancellations.  The question going forward is whether shoppers will return to supermarkets for their grocery purchases or will continue to use on-line ordering, with or without delivery.