Making everyday payday with Instant Cashout

Overview

Just as Instacart shoppers want to fulfill orders when it works for them, we want them to experience the same flexibility and control when it comes to accessing their earnings. The Instant Cashout feature allows people to access funds in minutes, so they can choose to get paid whenever they want.

The Problem

Giving shoppers the ability to cash out earnings in real-time meant making fundamental changes to the way earnings have worked since Instacart started. Historically, a shopper’s earnings would accrue on a weekly basis before automatically transferring to their bank accounts.

Moving away from an accrued model to pave the way for Instant Cashout required a ground-up rethinking of the way earnings are organized and displayed on the Shopper app.

Pay is a crucial aspect of any job but it can also be technically complex. The most difficult part about designing this feature was addressing all potential error states and edge cases that can occur during a transaction. To maintain trust with shoppers and to ensure that they were getting paid without delay, we used concise copy and clear visuals to help them understand what was happening at each step and to guide them to resolve any errors.

Research

Determined to make the new earnings feature work the way shoppers want, we conducted four rounds of user testing with iterations based on feedback — and shopper expertise proved crucial as we conducted this testing.

Releasing funds for Instant Cashout can be more complex than it seems. With Instacart, customers can add or adjust their tips for three days following their order, so the listed amount of earnings may fluctuate. Because we want to give customers as much time as possible to add a tip, we kept the same rollover schedule for tips: Once the three-day period ends and tips are totaled, they are deposited on a regular, weekly basis. However, we thought it was crucial for shoppers to access their core earnings immediately, anytime they want.

Complex challenges like this were among several identified during user research sessions, and validating this and other solutions before implementation was key to our short three-month turnaround.

How it works

Bank Linking Made Easy

Digging up bank account and routing numbers is a hassle. We made it easy for shoppers to start using Instant Cashout… well, instantly… by allowing them to scan their debit card in a few simple steps.

One-Tap Cashout

Before initiating their Instant Cashout, shoppers are given a brief statement of earnings and fees, minus tips, which continue to be issued weekly.

Trusted Payment Tracking

In the previous system, shoppers could track how much they earned each week, but not when those earnings would be deposited into their bank account. We built a Transaction History page to give shoppers more oversight of their payouts.

Results

The feedback we received from shoppers was extremely positive, with many noting the convenience of having their funds available immediately.

“Sometimes I need money right away, and Instant Cashout allows me to have that.” — Sonnie J

Beyond a boost in positive sentiment, we’ve also seen an increase in retention and engagement from shoppers as a direct result of rolling out this feature.

Come build with us.

If you’re excited about defining the future of a one trillion dollar industry, building an ad-serving network for groceries, scaling the world’s most extensive grocery catalog, perfecting a real-time on-demand logistics chain, all while simultaneously designing the future of food for millions of people, you should take a look at the available opportunities or reach out to someone from the team.

Interested in learning more about Design at Instacart? Head over to our Design blog.