"A recent study published by Consumer Reports alleges that Instacart has been conducting AI-led dynamic pricing experiments that, in some cases, are drastically inflating the cost of certain products. CR and its research partner, Groundwork Collaborative, found that the delivery app was conducting these experiments at the platform's retail partner locations-places like Kroger, Albertsons, Costco and Safeway. In some cases, consumers were paying as much as 23% more than other shoppers for the exact same product, the report says."
"The software involved in the experiments, Eversight, is a SaaS product that offers grocers a retail pricing suite designed to "unlock revenue growth" and capitalize on "pricing solutions that scale your pricing strategy and uncover optimal prices your customers expect." Instacart discloses on its Eversight page that some shoppers "may see slightly higher prices" than others. However, as previously noted, some of those price hikes seem slightly higher than "slightly higher." A 23% price hike isn't exactly chump change."
Instacart used Eversight’s AI-driven pricing tools to run limited dynamic pricing tests at some retail partner locations, including Kroger, Albertsons, Costco and Safeway. Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative found that these experiments sometimes resulted in identical products being offered at different prices, with some shoppers paying up to 23% more than others. Instacart acknowledged that about 10 U.S. retail partners run online pricing tests and that some shoppers “may see slightly higher prices.” These findings raise concerns about substantial, opaque price variation and echo similar dynamic-pricing controversies at other e-commerce platforms.
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