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Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) executives outlined priorities around marketplace growth, enterprise retail technology, advertising, artificial intelligence, and international expansion during a discussion at a Morgan Stanley event. The company also reiterated its capital allocation framework, including continued share repurchases on an opportunistic basis.
Positioning as a grocery technology platform
The executive emphasized that one of the most misunderstood aspects of the company is an external perception that it is primarily a consumer marketplace. Internally, the company views itself as a leading grocery technology company in North America, with a strategy designed to reinforce multiple connected business lines.
Category complexity and recent growth drivers
Management said grocery remains a highly complex category—local, perishable, and low-margin—despite its large size and recurring, essential nature. The executive argued that this complexity is a competitive advantage for the company because it has built retailer integrations, delivery density, and data capabilities over many years. The executive also cited online grocery penetration of roughly 13% as evidence of runway, describing the broader market opportunity as large and still early.
On performance, the company pointed to what it called its best growth as a public company, including 14% GTV growth in the most recently referenced quarter and guidance of 11% to 13% GTV growth for the current quarter. Management attributed momentum to executing across several areas:
- Marketplace experience and affordability: The executive highlighted efforts to improve affordability and discussed “price parity” initiatives with retailers, citing Hy-Vee and Raley’s as having moved to price parity, and stating the company was about to reach price parity with Fairway on both Storefront Pro and the marketplace.
- Enterprise scaling: Management said it had reached 380 storefronts where it powers retailers’ e-commerce experiences and continued to expand enterprise offerings across its client base.
- Advertising: The company described continued scaling of its ads and data advantage, noting 9,000 brands and 310 retailer sites that it powers.
- AI: Management said AI is a major priority, with an ambition to build “agentic” shopping experiences on the Instacart app and to productize those capabilities for retailers.
Competition and large-basket focus
Addressing competitive concerns involving large players in grocery, the executive said the company does not “obsess” over competition but watches it closely. Management argued that large baskets represent about 75% of the market and are where loyalty and lifetime value are built, describing the company as particularly strong in large weekly shops while also performing well in smaller fill-in orders.
Management contrasted its approach with competitors it characterized as more oriented toward smaller, incremental baskets. The executive stated that Maplebear’s average order values are “over $100,” and cited scale and selection—2,200 retailers, 100,000 stores, and 22 million unique items—as key differentiators. The executive also referenced service quality metrics, saying the company’s “perfect order fill rate” improved by another five points in the most recent quarter mentioned, and that on-demand orders (described as 75% of orders) were delivered on average in 90 minutes, with many delivered in under 30 minutes.
AI roadmap: agentic shopping and controlled partnerships
Management described its AI goal as building the “best” grocery assistant directly on Instacart, using the company’s data and in-store signals to help consumers build and refine baskets based on preferences, dietary needs, budgets, availability, and promotions. The executive said the company intends to work with external AI platforms while controlling what data is surfaced, framing those partnerships as a form of lead generation and incremental sales rather than a replacement for on-platform experiences.
On enterprise AI, the executive said Sprouts and Kroger were the first retailers signed up to work with the company on AI initiatives.
Advertising, international expansion, and capital allocation
In advertising, management said the ad business grew 10% in the referenced quarter and guided to 11% to 14% growth for the current quarter, on top of a 14% prior-year comparison for that period. The executive described an “ecosystem” strategy that spans on-platform surfaces (marketplace, retailer sites, and Caper Carts) and off-platform activation using first-party data for campaign planning on third-party channels. The company cited partnerships with Pinterest, TikTok, Google, and Meta, and noted that off-platform spend can carry higher cost of revenue, which management said is intentional because it draws from incremental search and social budgets and is aimed at generating incremental profit dollars. Management reiterated a longer-term goal of advertising reaching 4% to 5% of GTV.
On international expansion, the executive said the company is taking its technology abroad for the first time via an enterprise-led approach using existing products including Storefront Pro, Caper, and FoodStorm. The executive said the company recently launched with Costco in Spain and France and described a plan to enter major markets with anchor partners, localizing around those relationships. Management said success over the next year would include building out international operations “in a meaningful way,” including signing net-new partners.
Finally, management outlined capital allocation priorities in three tiers: reinvestment for growth, maintaining capacity for M&A, and opportunistic share repurchases. The executive cited prior acquisitions including Wynshop (in 2025) and earlier purchases of Caper, FoodStorm, and Rosie. On repurchases, the executive said the company bought back $1.4 billion of stock in 2025, including $1.1 billion in Q4, and expects to continue repurchasing shares opportunistically.
About Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART)
Maplebear, Inc, doing business as Instacart, operates a leading online grocery and essentials marketplace that connects consumers, retail partners and personal shoppers through its digital platform. The company enables customers to order groceries, household items and specialty products for same-day or scheduled delivery, as well as in-store pickup. By integrating its technology with retailers’ existing inventory and point-of-sale systems, Maplebear streamlines the shopping experience and provides real-time availability and pricing.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Maplebear has grown from a regional startup to a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ under the ticker CART.
