Instacart will pay shoppers to take videos of store shelves

Instacart is introducing a new way for shoppers to make money: taking videos of store shelves “one aisle at a time.” The new earning opportunity, called Store View, will allow Instacart to determine which products are available, as well as which ones are out of stock.

Instacart says Store View will also help its predictive models estimate when a store will restock a particular product. “If you place an order at night for early next-day delivery, we can predict whether the item is likely to be back on the shelves when the store reopens, and then verify that information in the morning,” Instacart explains.

Instacart confirmed it was testing this feature earlier this year. The company will launch Store View with select retailers in the coming weeks, but plans to bring it to more stores in the US and Canada during 2025.

In the future, Instacart says its smart Caper Carts will have the ability to keep track of stock, too. The outward-facing camera on the Caper Carts will soon give stores an “understanding of inventory down to the store level,” allowing Instacart to update stock levels as often as every hour of the day. 

Along with Store View, Instacart is rolling out Second Store Check in the coming months, which Instacart bills as a way to “source out-of-stock items from another location” of the retailer you select. If you order an item but a shopper can’t find it in-store, Instacart will automatically prompt a second shopper to check if it’s available at another store. The second shopper will then deliver the item “for no additional service or delivery fee,” but it’s not clear whether you can tip them.