Growing Instacart's Business Segment: Acquiring and Retaining Offices, Restaurants and Shops

You are a product manager at Instacart and own growth of the business customers segment. What strategies would you put in place to bring in, and keep, business buyers such as restaurants, retailers and offices? ```hint Split the segment Restaurants, retailers and offices buy different things for different reasons on different schedules. Decide which to lead with, and treat what wins a first order separately from what keeps a business reordering. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does the segment mean businesses ordering supplies for their own use? Retailers already work with Instacart as sellers, so should I treat them here only as buyers? - Is the goal more business accounts, more orders per account, or segment revenue and profit? - Which sizes are in scope: independent cafes and small offices, or also multi-location companies with procurement departments? - Should I assume orders are fulfilled by the existing shopper network from the same partner stores that serve households? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for the segment and a reasoned choice of which business type and size to prioritize first - How business needs (recurring orders, bulk quantities, approvals, invoicing, reliability) differ from household grocery buying - Distinct acquisition and retention strategies, prioritized by impact and effort - Success metrics for accounts, ordering frequency and retention, with guardrails for household service quality and order economics - Competitive and operational risks, such as wholesale distributors' prices and large orders straining shoppers and store stock ### Follow-up Questions - If leadership let you fund only restaurants or only offices this year, which would you choose, and how would the roadmap change? - How would you stop large business orders from hurting availability and delivery times for household customers? - Which single metric would you report to leadership each month for this segment, and why?