Instacart will retain its status as grocery delivery king this year, capturing 73.0% of US digital grocery sales among third-party delivery services, per our forecast. However, competitors such as DoorDash and Uber will continue to eat away at its dominance.

We all know that 2023 will be the year of retail media, social commerce, and lingering economic uncertainty. But here are some more targeted possibilities for the year ahead.

Will the promise of same-day delivery—often accompanied by additional fees—be enough to woo consumers away from the ecommerce giant?

What retailers need to know about the new wave of delivery apps and quick-commerce startups.

The digital advertising landscape is shifting and it’s every person for themselves in a fight to the top. Let’s get to know the players and place our bets on who will win the battle royale for ad dollars.

BJ’s Wholesale Club is the latest retailer to launch a media network: At the same time, Instacart is adding more promotional capabilities to help drive sales among cost-conscious shoppers.

Good Measures launches prescription food delivery powered by Instacart: We unpack how health systems, health plans, and grocers are getting behind the food as medicine trend.

Consumers now expect more from brands and their loyalty programs, which need to incorporate value, ease of use, and personalization to stand out in a crowded market.

Walmart takes a shot across the bow at Amazon: The retailer’s latest holiday marketing campaign aims to go after Amazon’s dominance of online shopping holidays.

Retail media is one of the hottest advertising and retail topics of 2022. Why? For starters, it’s growing—and fast.

Instacart puts its IPO plans on ice: With Wall Street looking for safe bets and consumers adjusting their shopping habits, there’s little appetite for an Instacart IPO right now.

A proposed rule would make it easier to reclassify gig workers as employees: That could have severe repercussions for DoorDash, Amazon, Uber, and countless others that rely on the gig economy.

The top five digital grocers in the US will capture 67.2% of the country’s grocery ecommerce sales in 2022. That figure will rise slightly over the next two years, with leaders Walmart Inc. and Amazon growing their shares by about 1 percentage point each.

Drizly is the latest company to roll out an ad network: The Uber-owned alcohol delivery service’s ad products may enable advertisers to run finely targeted multimedia campaigns.

Instacart looks to extend its technological reach: At the same time, it also plans to focus most of its IPO on employees’ share to help it retain and attract talent.

Since May 2022, online grocery prices have risen faster than those of any other ecommerce category, per Adobe’s Digital Price Index. In July, the year-over-year price change for online grocery reached 13.4%, a record high for the year.

Inflation will drive sales growth, but consumers are also spending more of their overall grocery dollars online.

The digital shelf has grown more competitive for CPG brands amid the rise of grocery ecommerce and increasing retail media ad spend.

Instacart jumped from 10.2% of US digital grocery sales in 2019 to 21.5% in 2020, taking over share as people pivoted to online grocery deliveries. Walmart has had the highest digital grocery share since 2020, which put it in good shape this past earnings season when consumers cut back on superfluous spending and sought grocery savings.

Once again, Walmart takes the No. 1 spot in our US grocery ecommerce sales forecast, but Instacart and Amazon are fighting for the second spot.