safeway vs. instacart - user engagement teardown

User Engagement Teardown

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User Engagement Teardown

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A Quick Word on Iterable

Iterable is the growth marketing and user engagement platform.

• Segment users, build workflows, automate touchpoints and test strategies at scale without engineering support.

• Everything you see here (and more) can be done with Iterable. You can see other teardowns at: iterable.com/teardown


What is a “User Engagement Teardown?”

We analyze an user engagement over a defined period post-signup.

• We offer constructive evaluation and feedback.

• We cover all types of B2C businesses: e-commerce, marketplaces, media, politics, etc.


Background on Safeway and Instacart

Safeway and Instacart provide two leading grocery delivery services in the U.S.

• Safeway, founded in 1915, is an American supermarket chain with 1,300+ locations.

• Instacart, founded in 2012, serves 25 states in the U.S. and is currently valued at $3.4B.


What We Did

Signed up and received messages over 3 weeks between May — June 2017

We escalated activity over time:• Completed user profiles• Downloaded mobile apps• Abandoned shopping carts at checkout• Completed a purchase with each delivery service • Reviewed orders after received deliveries


On to the User Engagement Timeline…

User Engagement Timeline


Mes

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We’ll show you what we (the user) did here…

Message TypeActivity TypeBlast

Transactional

TriggeredDesktop Mobile

SMS/Push

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity



Transactional


SMS/Push

…and the messages we received here.

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity



Transactional


SMS/Push

…and the messages we received here.Activities and message types are color coded as shown in this key.

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Now let’s look at Safeway and Instacart’s user engagement.

First, Safeway…

The Safeway User Engagement Timeline


Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview

Completeduserprofile



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


After creating a new account, we received a welcome email with

featured coupons and offers.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


We completed tasks on desktop and mobile, but they did not trigger any messages.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


Safeway sent a stream of email blasts with offers, as well as an encouragement to download the

mobile app, which we had already done.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


None of these messages responded to our recent cart abandonment.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


We then received a cart recovery email 3 days after the second time we abandoned

the cart, 5 days after our first attempt.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


After we completed our purchase, Safeway sent an order confirmation email. The day after, we

received a delivery notification email.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


Two days after we placed the order, Safeway sent a triggered email that encouraged us to

write a review, as well as a regular blast.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


However, Safeway did not respond after we wrote a review, but sent two

promotional blasts instead.

Now let’s look at Instacart’s user engagement…

The Instacart User Engagement Timeline


Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview




Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


After we created a new account, we received a welcome email that offered 7-day free delivery

and encouraged us to download the mobile app.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


However, we did not receive any messages triggered by our mobile actions. Instead, Instacart sent a stream of blasts to

count down to the end of the free promotion.

All of these emails went to the spam folder.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


Instacart also did not react to our cart abandonment. They extended the free delivery offer and sent another

stream of reminder emails that went to spam.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


After we completed our purchase, Instacart sent a total of 3 emails: 2 order

confirmations and 1 blast email.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


Instacart also sent 4 mobile messages during delivery: 1 push notification with estimated

delivery time, and 3 SMS regarding purchase, shipping and delivery, respectively.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


The next day, we received another triggered email asking us to review our order, as well

as a blast about referral.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


We received a thank you note the day after writing our review.



Mes

sage

sU

ser A

ctiv

ity


Transactional


SMS/Push

Creatednewaccount

Downloadedapp

SignedupforSMS

Days fromstart: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 211 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

Completedpurchase

Mobilecheck-in

Abandonedcart

Abandonedcartagain

Wrotereview


One week after ordering, Instacart sent a restocking email, featuring items we

purchased, but it went to spam again.

Frequency Takeaways

During the 3 weeks, Safeway and Instacart differed in the frequency of messages per channel.

• Safeway: 12 emails• Instacart: 19 emails, 1 push notification, 3 SMS


Differing Priorities

Instacart tried to engage with users more often by sending more blasts, although deliverability appeared to be an issue.

Safeway relied on single-channel email messaging and did not send any mobile messages.


Now let’s look at the message content…


These are three standard Safeway messages (as depicted in Outlook).

You’ll notice…


Relevant images with color


Emphasis on offers and promotions


Clear calls to action to complete an order on desktop.


Cramped text that seems to suggest issues related to the email client and design

responsiveness.


These are three standard Instacart emails (as depicted on Outlook).

You’ll notice…


Consistent branding in imagery


Clear calls to action with mobile responsiveness


Mobile app download buttons


Modern, personal voice & emoji usage

Content Takeaways

Each company’s content reflects its approach to delivery promotion.

Safeway Delivery:

• Highlights numerous offers and coupons• Encourages desktop purchases

Instacart:

• Prioritizes mobile interactions

• Offers are often limited in a time-sensitive promotion


Recommendations

Both companies could improve their triggered content by sending timely, personalized messages that react to user actions.

Instacart could improve their email deliverability to reach more customers and increase user engagement.

Safeway could enhance their mobile engagement by coordinating messaging across email, push and SMS to increase app usage.


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safeway vs. instacart - user engagement teardown

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