INSTACART FOUND HONESTY ABOUT STOCKOUTS LIFTS SPENDING 5.8%

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

A field experiment involving roughly 1.2 million Instacart shoppers found that proactively warning customers about low-stock items increased spending 5.8% over six months, driven primarily by higher order frequency rather than larger basket sizes. Warned shoppers were 25% less likely to select the flagged item, switching to better-stocked alternatives instead, which reduced out-of-stock refunds by 2.6%. The findings reframe stockout warnings from a conversion risk into a trust signal, with customers returning more often to platforms they perceive as reliable.