Affordability is the single biggest reason shoppers abandon online grocery — and the biggest barrier keeping new customers from trying it, according to Instacart CEO Chris Rogers, who spoke at the Groceryshop conference in Las Vegas on Sept. 22, 2026.

"Affordability is the number one reason that people churn off online grocery," Rogers said during a keynote session. "It's actually the number one barrier to people adopting it in the first place, and so it's why it's been one of my biggest priorities since becoming CEO."

Rogers, who took over as Instacart's chief executive in August 2025, has spent more than a year lobbying the company's retail partners to price their online products at or just above in-store prices. He brought data to back the pitch: retailers that adopt price parity are growing their online sales 10 percentage points faster than retailers that mark up products, he said. Retailers that skip the markup also retain online shoppers more effectively — a critical advantage as low-price competitors win a growing share of consumer spending.

The math is not simple for grocers. Markups help cover fees and fulfillment costs tied to e-commerce orders, so cutting them pressures margins. Rogers acknowledged the tension.

"I've been meeting with so many people in this room on this topic. And I know it's a very difficult conversation," he said.

Instacart did not disclose how many of its retail partners currently offer price parity, but in an emailed announcement on Thursday, the company said 90% of U.S. consumers have access to no-markup retailers on its platform. Raley's, Bashas, Fareway and Grocery Outlet are among the chains that have recently eliminated markups.

"The cost of losing sales and share over time to some of the largest digital players might be greater than the cost of removing markups today," Rogers said.

Beyond price parity, Instacart is encouraging retailers to activate promotions and integrate their loyalty programs with its platform. The company is also marketing its Instacart+ membership, which waives delivery fees on grocery orders over $10 and restaurant orders over $25, and lower-fee options like no-rush delivery, which gives shoppers a $2 discount.

DoorDash is taking a softer approach with retailers. Mike Goldblatt, the company's vice president of grocery and retail partnerships, told Grocery Dive in an interview at Groceryshop that DoorDash has not made as aggressive a sales pitch around price parity as its rival.

"I would describe it as a two-way conversation," Goldblatt said. "It's not, 'Hey, this is all on you, retailers.' We're trying to make sure that there's a path that solves for the real profitability concerns that a grocer may have while also recognizing that over the long term we've got to get prices down."

Like Instacart, DoorDash is emphasizing the value of its membership program and working with retailers to enable promotions where it makes sense, Goldblatt said.

DoorDash also released data this week aimed at strengthening its affordability credentials around SNAP recipients. Three years after launching SNAP/EBT payments on its platform, 4.5 million shoppers have added their SNAP cards to DoorDash and 75,000 stores accept the benefit, according to the company. Eighty-five percent of consumers who used the benefit were new to the store where they redeemed it.

Both companies face mounting pressure from Walmart and Amazon, which are scaling proprietary delivery services and touting significant member savings. Amazon now offers same-day delivery in thousands of markets nationwide through a service that lets shoppers bundle groceries and non-grocery items in a single order.

Price will not be the only battleground. Rogers said the fight for online shopping dollars will also hinge on quality, speed and convenience — and he sees artificial intelligence as the decisive lever.

"I believe that AI is going to transform grocery more than any other technology shift to date, and I also think that grocery is going to be the category out of every retail category that's most transformed by AI," Rogers said.

Recent moves show both platforms investing on that front. DoorDash just announced delivery from Costco stores and rolled out an AI-powered shopping assistant this summer, while Instacart launched its own assistant and added Dollar General, Gopuff and Airbnb to its partner roster. For brands and retailers weighing marketplace strategies, the executives' message from Groceryshop was clear: the platforms will keep pressing on price, and AI-driven shopping tools will carry growing weight in where those price-sensitive dollars land.