How Instacart is tackling the healthy eating challenge for consumers and retailers

As consumers try to clear the obstacles on the road to healthy eating goals, Instacart saw a key opportunity: combining the convenience of e-commerce with digital tools like shoppable recipes and category-specific subsidies, while boosting sales for partner retailers.

However, healthy eating poses significant challenges for consumers and the retailers who want to reach them—from bland recipes to complex nutritional restrictions for various health conditions. While most grocers' recent initiatives have focused on broad healthy eating concepts, Instacart's Instacart Health program, launched in 2022, aims to address these issues through targeted partnerships, covering thousands of health service audiences.

For retailers, this means they can reach these consumers through Instacart, with the grocery tech company effectively acting as a connection channel.

This spring, Instacart Health announced an expanded partnership with supplemental health insurance provider Wellabe, offering Instacart's category-specific subsidy "Fresh Funds" to up to 100,000 members of that provider. Instacart Health also expanded its ability to support Medicaid managed care organizations in states that list nutrition food programs as covered services. Most recently, Instacart Health established a partnership with telehealth and virtual care company Teladoc.

"We are a retailer enablement company. We also want to be a healthcare enablement company," said Sarah Mastrorocco, Vice President and General Manager of Instacart Health, in an interview about the Teladoc partnership.

The grocery industry sees a massive consumer segment that retailers can tap into. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of American adults have at least one chronic disease, and more than half have two or more. Research from the National Institutes of Health shows that chronic disease care accounts for more than 85% of U.S. healthcare spending.

When announcing the Instacart Health partnership, the grocery tech company emphasized consumer demand for nutritious food and pointed out how e-commerce and digital shopping tools simplify the grocery shopping experience. Just as Instacart provides e-commerce services for many retailers, it sees itself playing a key role in helping retailers conduct health-oriented food retail.

Venturing into the complex healthcare and "food as medicine" space has always been challenging for retailers. Instacart sees its scale as a key advantage—the company claims to reach 98% of U.S. households and partners with about 100,000 stores. Mastrorocco said its "magic" lies in the technical ability to connect retailers, consumers, and platforms like Teladoc.

Specific paths to cracking healthy eating barriers

The Teladoc partnership is a typical example of how Instacart Health seeks to address the multiple challenges of healthy eating.

Erin Koffel, Director of Applied Behavioral Science at Teladoc Health, said in an interview that integrating Instacart's digital capabilities aims to reduce friction in healthy eating behaviors. Eligible Teladoc Health members can now earn Instacart Health Fresh Funds—a digital grocery subsidy that can be used to pay for specific food items at Instacart partner retailers—by completing device checks for specific programs, such as blood glucose readings, blood pressure readings, or smart scale weigh-ins.

"These checks are very important for catching problems early and helping people managing chronic conditions stay healthy, and research shows that rewards do help improve monitoring adherence and lead to better long-term outcomes," Koffel said.

Teladoc and Instacart can see whether someone has used Fresh Funds subsidies and what items they purchased—thereby accumulating useful data on the purchasing behavior of people with chronic conditions. In a blog post, Koffel noted that Fresh Funds can incentivize inactive Teladoc members to take action, supporting ongoing condition management.

"One of the things we're working toward is really motivating people to take action today, to serve tomorrow," Koffel said in the interview.

Teladoc members can access health coaching and nutrition guidance through curated recipes and articles, and through the partnership with Instacart, they can more easily build online grocery carts via shoppable content.

"If there's a member with high blood pressure looking for a heart-healthy meal plan, they can go into our curated recipes, search for a dish they want to make, and immediately add the ingredients to their cart," Koffel said.

She continued: "In contrast, someone might feel they need to eat healthier. They try to Google recipes, maybe have to look up nutrition information. They have to make their own list, go out to find the ingredients, and bring them home. Every step is a friction point that reduces the likelihood of the behavior happening."

Koffel noted that Teladoc's recipes are created by registered dietitians and nutritionists, while also catering to consumer tastes: "We found a recipe today titled 'Heart-healthy recipes that aren't sad salads.'"

Mastrorocco said that for consumers, seeing the real-time total price while building their basket helps them both stay on budget and maximize spending on healthy food.

Koffel said that to evaluate the partnership's effectiveness, Teladoc will track how many members complete device checks, test different types of rewards with Instacart to incentivize that behavior, and observe engagement rates with shoppable recipes.