How Much to Tip Instacart Shoppers? Instacart Tipping Etiquette (2023)

While Instacart has been around since 2012, it’s really taken off this 12 months as more people select grocery deliveries to keep up social distance.

This latest normal has also brought up latest etiquette questions: do you tip grocery delivery? How much do you tip Instacart? Let’s look into Instacart tipping etiquette.

Do You Tip Grocery Delivery? Instacart Tipping FAQ

Try these common questions on recommendations on grocery delivery and Instacart tipping specifically.

Should You Tip on Grocery Delivery?

The short answer: yes, absolutely tip grocery delivery. At the very least within the U.S., grocery delivery is a service-based industry where employees depend on tricks to earn an honest wage.

We’re all used to tipping delivery drivers for pizza and Chinese food, and grocery delivery tends to involve quite a bit more labor than restaurant deliveries.

Typically, your shopper might be walking throughout the shop, collecting items out of your list, checking expiration dates, potentially communicating with you about out-of-stock items and substitutions, coping with crowds, waiting in lines, loading the luggage, processing refunds for items that weren’t available, driving your groceries to you, and carrying them to your door.

They usually need to do all of this as quickly as possible, since most are paid by the batch as an alternative of by the hour. So tip your Instacart shoppers—they earn it!

Are Instacart Shoppers and Drivers the Same Person?

For the vast majority of cases, yes, your Instacart shopper will even be the one who delivers your groceries. Employees who fulfill each roles are called “full-service shoppers” on Instacart.

Nevertheless, this isn’t all the time the case. Sometimes, Instacart will hire a dedicated “in-store shopper” for a busy location, after which have a full-service driver bring your order to you.

In case you do occur to get a separate shopper and driver, Instacart tipping is ready up in order that your tip goes to the driving force.

(As we’ll cover in the following section, the In-Store Shoppers are paid the next fixed hourly wage to make up for not being eligible for suggestions.)

How Much Do Instacart Employees Make?

Your decision on how much to tip Instacart drivers might vary based on the form of work involved and the way much they’re making, so let’s go over that real quick!

Full-Service Instacart Shopper Compensation

Full-service Instacart shoppers (those who shop and deliver) are paid by the batch. Exact compensation can vary quite a bit depending on their location, the scale of an order batch, the space of deliveries, etc.

In 2023, the Instacart payment structure is:

A minimum of $7-$10 per batch for a store + delivery (full service)
$5 per batch for just delivery (if the shopping is finished by an in-store shopper)
An additional amount per mile driven (is dependent upon town, but an example rate per mile is $.60)
An additional amount for big orders or heavy items

They aren’t paid for driving to the shop, driving home, tolls or automotive expenses, etc.

Also, bear in mind that each one these shoppers are considered independent contractors, which suggests they will not be eligible for employment advantages, and so they pay self-employment taxes on their earnings.

Those are two aspects that could make suggestions more vital to someone.

In-Store Instacart Shopper Compensation

In-store shoppers are considered part-time employees of Instacart, fairly than independent contractors.

They earn a set hourly rate of $13.50 on average. In-store shoppers will not be eligible for Instacart tipping, but they’re eligible for employment advantages and pay regular taxes.

How Much to Tip Instacart Shoppers/Drivers

Now that we’ve all of the relevant details about what working for Instacart involves, we are able to make a more informed decision about how much to tip Instacart shoppers or drivers.

The suggested default Instacart tip is 5% of the order amount. There may be a minimum suggested tip of $2 per individual store delivery.

Personally, I find that figure a bit of low. At a restaurant, the default tip amount is 15-20%, and full-service shoppers are doing a comparable amount of labor as a table server (although servers are likely to have a lower base wage as well).

Once you add within the indisputable fact that we’re in a world crisis and Instacart shoppers are doing the work to allow you to stay at home, I might aim for at least 10%, or more if you happen to can afford it.

One other possible rule of thumb is to take into consideration how long your order might take to buy. In case you’re purchasing 75 items that each one cost $1, that’s plenty of effort for the patron that isn’t reflected within the order total.

Bump up the quantity if you will have a sophisticated order, otherwise you live in an upstairs apartment that requires more carrying effort. You’ll be able to give Instacart money suggestions on the door or do it via the app.

In case you see different names for the patron and the driving force in your order, it means the order was collected by an in-store shopper and the driving force just picked it up. In these cases, tip the driving force about as much as you’d tip for a restaurant delivery, or more for a giant order.

Ultimately, how much to tip Instacart shoppers and drivers is as much as you, but if you happen to’re ready to be generous, being a very good tipper is rarely the flawed decision!

To fight against tip-baiting Instacart adjusted its tipping policy. As of April 2022, the corporate will cover the fee of a consumer’s tip, as much as $10 if customers zero-out the tip they gave after receiving their delivery.