Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) has made the deepest price reductions among third-party grocery delivery providers since tracking began, according to a new Wells Fargo survey.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) released findings from its Q2 grocery delivery pricing survey, covering price movements across major platforms since September 2025.
Instacart is the only third-party provider to cut both product prices and consumer fees over the tracking period, resulting in a 6% total basket cost decline.
That compares to a 2% total basket reduction for DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) and just 1% for Uber (NYSE: UBER) over the same period.
DoorDash moved in the opposite direction on fees, raising them 21% quarter-over-quarter while cutting product pricing by 4%, marking the third consecutive quarter of fee increases.
The fee increases have made DoorDash the highest-fee provider among the third-party platforms tracked in the Wells Fargo survey.
Uber cut fees by 40% since September 2025 but posted mild product price inflation of 3%, keeping its total basket costs roughly flat over the period.
The third-party premium versus first-party providers Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) held steady at 36% in Q2, flat quarter-over-quarter but down from approximately 42% in Q4 2025.
Amazon remains the lowest-cost provider overall, priced at roughly 27% below the delivery market average, reinforcing its position as the benchmark for value in the sector.
Walmart narrowed its premium to 14% in Q2, improving from 18% in Q1 and 21% in Q4 2025, signaling growing competitiveness from the big-box retailer.
Wells Fargo noted that first-party providers compete primarily on product pricing rather than fees, suggesting third-party and first-party delivery use cases are not yet directly competitive.
That distinction matters for investors assessing how pricing pressure from Amazon and Walmart may or may not translate into a direct threat to platforms like Instacart and DoorDash.
Following the survey’s release, Instacart shares edged up 0.07% in premarket trading, while DoorDash slipped 0.35% and Uber fell 0.51%.
