Instacart Teams With Fabric to Provide Automated Grocery Fulfillment Solutions

July 23, 2021

Instacart, a leading online grocery platform in North America, has announced the first phase of its next-generation fulfillment initiative, designed to bring automated technology solutions to retailers in the U.S. and Canada. As part of this initiative, the company has signed a multi-year strategic deal with Fabric as a fulfillment automation partner to pair Fabric software and robotics with Instacart technology.

The initiative will help create new e-commerce services for retail partners, as well as a faster, more effortless online grocery shopping experience for customers. The toal is to marry the speed of robotics with the human touch and attention to detail of Instacart shoppers, enabling faster fulfillment of customers’ full grocery shop from packaged goods, household essentials and produce to deli items, frozen foods and alcohol, Instacart said. Once orders are packed, shoppers will deliver orders to customers’ doors or place them in staging areas for curbside pickup. Instacart said it plans to kick off early-stage concept pilots in partnership with Fabric and grocery retail partners over the coming year and beyond.

“Our next-gen fulfillment initiative combines our robust technology suite and dedicated community of shoppers with robotics solutions to give retailers even more innovative ways to compete and serve their customers online,” said Mark Schaaf, CTO of Instacart. “Our next-gen fulfillment work will also help reduce some of the things that make in-store shopping cumbersome for Instacart shoppers, like crowded store aisles, out-of-stock items and long checkout lines. Over the long term, we believe partnering with retailers to bring next-gen fulfillment technologies together with the personal touch and care of Instacart’s shopper community will create an even more seamless online grocery experience that’s faster and more affordable for customers and delivers even more value and growth to retailers.”

“Everything about our micro-fulfillment solution has been built for speed, efficiency, and elasticity to meet today’s on-demand requirements,” said Elam Goren, CEO and co-founder of Fabric. “Our software-led robotics and modular solution gives grocery retailers the flexibility to build the fulfillment solution that best fits the needs of their business. With Instacart as a partner, we see an enormous opportunity to integrate our product and services into Instacart’s ecommerce solutions to provide a compelling service offering for grocers.”

For more details on Fabric’s robot systems, visit its website here.

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