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Referral Bonus on Instacart - EVERYTHING You MUST Know!!

There are a bunch of different ways you can earn money on Instacart, and one of those ways is through the Referral Bonus Program on Instacart. On one hand there is the Refer a customer bonus and the other is Refer a Shopper, which is where we are going to focus today!


So in this article, We are talking about:

  • EVERYTHING You MUST Know about the Refer a Shopper Bonus on Instacart

  • What they tell you vs how it ACTUALLY is

  • Everything in between!


Disclaimer: The content of this video does not contain and is never intended to be legal, business, financial, tax, or health advice of any kind, This video is for entertainment purposes only. It is advised that you conduct your own research and consult with qualified professionals before applying anything you find online. 


I also want to be clear that everything we are going over in this video is very market dependent, and what applies to me and my market may not apply to you.



Referring a friend to shop with Instacart is a huge compliment, which is why we created our referral bonus program. 


I don’t know if compliment is really the right word here but it does bring up an important point, the people you refer to can affect you on the platform, and vice versa so be careful who you refer to the platform. 


On Doordash, Your Driver Mike was deactivated for “referral fraud” and because of that his deactivation caused someone he referred to get deactivated as well. 


Now I know that is a Doordash issue, but these companies also like to copy each other's homework too so don’t be surprised if that comes up as well.


To qualify for a referral bonus, you must—


  1. Be an active shopper in good standing. 

  2. Have completed at least 40 hours of services on the Instacart platform in the last 6 months.


Which makes sense in some regard but let’s do some quick math on this, 40 hours of service doesn’t mean hours online, it means hours of work completed. 


For a shopper that prioritizes shopping orders, this is no problem and would make that number within 50 or 60 orders, depending how long you spend on the order. 


Then there are drivers who just prefer the smaller orders and prioritize just delivery, which means this will be less available to them unless they are in a market with a lot of small and easy shop orders that pay well. 


I would think this is in a market with a lot of pharmacy orders, convenience store orders or Alcohol orders. 


To qualify for a referral bonus, your referral must—


  1. Enter the shopper referral code on their application in order for you to be eligible to receive the bonus.

    • The referral code is only accepted at the start of the application,because we can’t add the code after the signup process. Once a referral code is used on an application, a shopper can't create another application using another referral code.


I already see a BUNCH of friction with this, and a lot of claims of:


Instacart Chat Support: Well if they didn’t use the code, you wouldn’t get the bonus!


Really, I watched him do it, I helped him apply. How do you explain that? 


Instacart Chat Support: Uuuuh, Well if they didn’t use the co-


Dude now you are just repeating yourself, I asked you how that is possible when I watched him put it in. 


*Chat disconnect


So don’t be surprised if this happens on your part. 


Complete their bonus requirements (minimum number of batches) within a specific number of days on the Instacart platform. 

  • Requirements vary by zone and role. Find the zone requirements in the Referral section of the Instacart Shopper app.


Standard for most gig apps, but don’t be surprised if most of the people that you onboard stay at 0 batches completed, not everyone has the work ethic for this. 


Complete their bonus requirements in the region they applied in. 

  • Requirements vary by zone and role. Find the zone requirements in the Referral section of the Instacart Shopper app.


If you are in an area like mine, where the best zones for these orders are divided into two separate sections by a nearby road in their system, then you might see this a LOT. 


I get a lot of orders from 2 separate locations and I wouldn’t be surprised if they just said only one of those sections count towards the bonus. 


To find your referral code in-app—


  • Tap the Account icon in the bottom right corner.

  • Tap Refer a friend and earn $X.

  • Copy your code and tap Share Invites.

  • Here you can send a text message or email to friends with your code.


Check in-app to see your referral’s deadline and requirements for you to get a referral bonus. Once they complete the referral requirements, you’ll get your referral bonus in the next pay period.


Like I said earlier, don’t be surprised if you hear your friends sign on and you don't see their names on your referral page because they “forgot” to use your code or if they sign on and they don’t actually do the work. Your friends are not like you in most cases. 


Referral Bonus Amount


The amount you receive for the referral bonus depends on many factors such as—


  • Zone

  • Role

  • Time the referral code is used


This might be the most interesting part of this, time isn’t all that surprising, most companies like to play games with this and claim they will pay a lot and then backpedal on their deals. 


Zone is going to be the main technicality they will use to justify not paying you out. 


Role is new though, like is there a different role for In-Store shoppers that I don’t know about? Different roles for what they apply for? I feel like there aren’t many answers to this. 


Referral bonus amounts may change depending on demand for shoppers in a particular zone. The referral amount you receive is the amount that zone is offering when the referral actually signs up.


This is their way of saying if we feel like paying you we will, but if we can find the slightest of technicalities we will just… not. 


I also think that they will eventually find a way to weaponize their waitlist systems in some markets to make the referral code “fail to apply” or something like that.


Like they hit the waitlist for a couple of days, and then got onboarded so that was just enough time to make sure no one got paid for the referral. Which is just the kind of shady nonsense I’d expect from this company. 


Walk Them Through it


I kind of eluded to this earlier, but one of the best ways for you to guarantee the success of the code and link working properly is to walk them through the sign on process. 


Also, having someone with you during your early days is helpful to you if you are just getting started, why not be that person for them?


This way, they feel more confident in doing this with someone. That said, don’t be surprised if they don’t have the same follow-through you do. 


Oversaturation


One of the major arguments that a lot of people make against the concept of oversaturating your own market. Which is fair, if you see money in a certain market and it is oversaturated with drivers, then people who are already on the platform will be making less money.


The problem with that logic is that these companies are already going to do that with or without you, so that point is mute. So why not make some money in the process. 


Weaponized Waitlists


All apps do this to a certain degree, but some apps like to weaponize the waitlist system to claim that you never referred the driver during the time in which the promo was active so you end up losing money because of it. 


So don’t be surprised if you are told that your friend is now on a waitlist for a month after you referred them and yet someone without any kind of referral gets in without any kind of wait time. 


Careful Who You Onboard


As we said earlier, Your Driver Mike got deactivated on Doordash and one of the people they onboarded got deactivated as well. That said, it is also possible someone you onboard can get deactivated as well. 


So if you onboard one of your friends who kind of acts a bit shifty and pulls some shady shit but they said they can use the money, might not be a great fit for you.


Same with friends that always have a hard time holding a job for performance issues. 


This isn’t to claim anyone is bad or that they aren’t cool to be around but it isn’t always a good idea for us to link our names to them professionally. 


Affiliate Links vs Referral Links


So one of the things that people think of is the concept of treating the referral link as an affiliate link and it needs to be clear that there is a difference. 


A referral link is for your friends and family and cannot be used for commercial purposes. 


An affiliate link is the opposite, where you can use it for commercial purposes, such as a blog or a YouTube Channel and not friends and family. 


Don’t think just because it seems like it can mean you should, they can track where the customer is coming from. 


This is the literal basis of referral fraud. Make sure you use the right kind of link for the right purposes. 


If you would like to add some other perspective to how Customer Ratings work on Doordash, feel free to email me: drivenwyld@gmail.com and who knows? Maybe your email or perspective and be featured in a post as well!

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