Instacart VP of Commercial Partnerships Ryan Hamburger on Affordability, Expansion & Agentic AI

Omni Talk Retail’s Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga catch up with Ryan Hamburger, Instacart’s VP of Commercial Partnerships, live from the Fusion Group booth at NRF Europe in Paris. In this revealing conversation, Ryan shares insights on consumer behavior shifts, partnership strategies, international expansion plans, and how Instacart is preparing for an agentic AI future in grocery delivery.

Affordability: The New North Star for Grocery Delivery

Ryan immediately identifies affordability as the dominant trend shaping Instacart’s partnership strategy. With grocery delivery traditionally viewed as a premium service, the challenge becomes “how do we play that role in the ecosystem so we can bring what you want, how you want it, in a way that’s affordable to the consumer.”

This affordability focus manifests in two key areas: working with retail partners to ensure proper pricing and loyalty integrations, and leveraging what Ryan calls Instacart’s “fulfillment magic.” The platform now offers flexible delivery options where consumers can choose slower delivery times or bulk orders together for lower delivery prices, proving that value doesn’t always mean lowest price—it means getting good value for what you’re paying.

The data backs up this strategy: retailers who maintain same-as-in-store pricing on Instacart’s platform are growing 10% faster than those who mark up prices. This insight demonstrates how Instacart uses concrete performance metrics to guide retailer conversations about affordability and value positioning.

Partnership Strategy: Playing the Long Game

With over 10 years at Instacart, Ryan emphasizes the company’s long-term partnership approach. Rather than pushing retailers to “buy everything from us today,” Instacart positions itself as an enablement partner throughout retailers’ e-commerce journey. This philosophy centers on a crucial differentiation: “We’re not a retailer. We never want to be a retailer. We don’t own inventory.”

Instacart’s modular approach includes marketplace services, storefront pro technology, Caper smart carts, and pricing technology. Ryan highlights Sprouts as a prime example, where Instacart powers the retailer’s entire e-commerce operation from front-end through fulfillment. This enterprise retailer enablement represents a significant evolution from simple delivery partnerships to comprehensive technology solutions.

European Expansion: The Next Frontier

Ryan confirms that Europe represents Instacart’s primary expansion focus, with active conversations underway with retailers of all sizes across the European landscape. The company already has Caper technology live in Europe for over a year with Aldi, and recently announced a Morrison’s pilot program.

This European expansion strategy reflects Instacart’s broader international ambitions while maintaining its North American dominance, where the company works with “essentially every major and mid-market retailer at this point.”

Measuring Success: Beyond Sales Metrics

Ryan reveals that partnership success measurement varies by retailer objectives—whether focused on engagement, e-commerce market penetration, or loyalty growth. While sales remain “king,” Instacart tracks comprehensive metrics including Net Promoter Score (NPS), where the platform typically achieves mid-60s scores and Caper technology exceeds 70.

Perhaps most importantly, Instacart delivers 70-75% incrementality for retail partners, meaning the platform grows the overall pie rather than simply shifting existing sales channels. This incrementality metric proves crucial for marketplace partnerships, while owned-and-operated solutions focus more on engagement and penetration metrics since omnichannel shoppers demonstrate much higher retailer loyalty.

The Agentic AI Revolution: Preparing for Tomorrow’s Shopping

While the interview lasted 10 minutes before mentioning AI, Ryan’s insights on agentic shopping prove particularly forward-thinking. Instacart has been leveraging AI and machine learning for years, but Ryan acknowledges the coming transformation: “You think about an agentic world where you now have voice and other things that could be doing things on your behalf.”

Instacart was among the first to launch the operator model with OpenAI, positioning the company ahead of the agentic curve. Ryan emphasizes that success won’t be determined by price competition alone, but rather by “personalization, convenience, and making sure you can still get what you want when you want it.”

The urgency is real: “It does feel a little bit of like hurry up and wait right now… but I do think you have to be thinking about it today because it’s going to come fast and if you’re not ready, you can quickly get passed up.”

Key Strategic Takeaways

Affordability Focus: Consumer price sensitivity is driving both retailer pricing strategies and platform delivery options
Long-term Partnerships: Success comes from enablement partnerships rather than transactional relationships
International Opportunity: European expansion represents significant growth potential for established platforms
Incrementality Matters: Platforms must prove they’re growing the overall market, not just shifting channels
AI Preparation: Companies must prepare now for agentic shopping experiences that will arrive faster than expected

The Road Ahead

Ryan’s insights reveal an industry in transition, where traditional grocery delivery is evolving into comprehensive retail enablement. Instacart’s approach—combining affordability focus, modular technology solutions, and agentic AI preparation—provides a roadmap for how platforms can grow alongside their retail partners rather than compete with them.

As consumer expectations continue evolving and AI agents begin shopping on our behalf, Instacart’s decade-long partnership approach and early AI investments position the company well for the next phase of grocery retail innovation.

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