Instacart has launched a new standalone app, Fizz, to help groups plan, purchase, and pay for party snacks and drinks.

• The app is aimed at Gen Z consumers over 21, with colorful imagery and a streamlined user experience.
• Once a user starts a cart, it's open for others to add items and pay for their selections, eliminating the need for bill splitting.

The app’s origin is rooted in research, according to Daniel Danker, chief product officer at Instacart.

“We rarely launch new apps,” he said. “And if you’re going to build a new app, you better understand your customer. So a lot of insights went into it.”

• That customer, in this case, is a younger demographic that approaches party planning as a more collaborative activity.
• “The first place consumers look when they go into a group cart is to see what everybody else has added,” said Danker.
• This helps avoid duplicates and encourages a natural sense of contribution.
• “There’s a desire for people to share the load, not assume that the host is covering all the costs,” said Danker. “It’s not about someone paying for my drinks or food. It’s about the social—we want to gather, and we want to gather often. And it can be expensive if we do that.”

Fizz also offers Snack Bucks, a reward feature that lets users earn credit for snacks when they buy certain drinks.

• “It’s another way that we can create a more affordable product for hosts and guests,” said Danker.
• Brands can choose which items to promote, helping them provide consumers with more targeted discounts.

Getting the party started: To promote its launch, Fizz is partnering with Partiful, an event-planning platform popular with Gen Z.

“For people in their 20s, Partiful is literally how they manage social calendars,” said Danker. “It’s so popular that for some people… they use it as their everyday calendar. If they’re going to go to the gym, they create a Partiful for it.”

Hosts can embed Fizz carts directly into Partiful invites, allowing invitees to add items and check out—without needing to download the app.

• This easy-to-use design is highly intentional, according to Danker.
• “We wanted to make it really lightweight and really easy,” he said.
• It reflects a broader trend toward digital experiences that meet consumers where they are—without requiring more friction or app fatigue.

All in the family: Though Fizz is distinct in branding and purpose, it’s powered by Instacart’s infrastructure. That means access to the same inventory, shopper network, and delivery windows—which benefits retailers, shoppers, and advertisers within the Instacart ecosystem, said Danker.

• Retailers get access to a younger demographic they’ve historically found difficult to reach and shoppers can fulfill multiple Fizz and Instacart orders simultaneously—often more efficiently since the orders go to the same location.
• Meanwhile, advertisers can leverage Instacart’s ad platform without starting from scratch.
• “If you are a brand and you've already bought ads through sponsored products on Instacart, they automatically flow through to Fizz,” said Danker. “So you don't have to buy two things separately. You can look at the results separately, but you don't have two separate jobs to do.”

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