Dollar General and Instacart on demand delivery partnership kicks off with pilot across six US states

Instacart and Dollar General have announced a new partnership to offer same-day delivery of the latter’s everyday essentials through the former’s app and website. The partnership will launch with a pilot at approximately 7,000 Dollar General and pOpshelf stores in six states in the coming weeks with plans to expand to approximately 20,000 stores across 48 states this autumn.

“Dollar General’s vast footprint and longstanding commitment to affordability make them an important addition to the Instacart Marketplace,” says Ryan Hamburger, Chief Commercial Officer at Instacart. “As we expand this partnership to approximately 20,000 Dollar General and pOpshelf stores, we’ll help provide customers in communities across the country with even greater access to affordable food and everyday essentials, with the convenience of same-day delivery.”

“Our mission is Serving Others, and we continually look for new ways to provide customers with the value and convenience they count on," says Tony Rogers, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Dollar General. "Our partnership with Instacart provides another convenient way for customers to access affordable food, household essentials and other products they need while saving them valuable time."

Dollar General and Instacart on demand delivery partnership kicks off with pilot across six US states

So hot right now

Instacart is included in RTIH’s first ever Retail Technology Hot 100 List. Launching in August, this sees us bringing you the hottest companies whose solutions and systems are helping drive the retail sector forward.

Our Founder and Editor, Scott Thompson, drew up a list of 150 companies that had consistently been on his radar over the past 12 months whilst bringing our community the latest retail tech news and views that matter. These companies operate across the omnichannel retail landscape (stores, online, mobile, supply chain, payments etc).

Our judging panel, including Vineta Bajaj, Group CFO, Holland & Barrett, Dan McGrath, JD Group Customer Operations, JD Sports, Dr. Astha Purohit, Director of Product Management, Customer Data and Identity, Walmart, and Paula Bobbett, Chief Data and Digital Officer, Boots, provided feedback on those who have the most innovative, forward thinking technology offerings and are also best addressing retailers' current challenges, painpoints, and opportunities.

The judges used the following framework when making their picks:

1. Retailer problem fit - how meaningful, strategic, and widely felt the retailer pain being addressed is.
2. Production traction in retail (2025–2026) - real named retailer deployments, pilots.
3. Innovation and defensibility - genuine technical novelty paired with a defensible competitive position.

And there was also a public vote, with thousands of members of our community of retail tech enthusiasts getting involved. Thanks to all those who took part! Based on the judging panel's feedback and the public vote, we then drew up our first ever RTIH Retail Technology Hot 100.

So, without further ado, here are the 100 hottest global retail technology ventures right now. Drum roll, please…

You can download the hot 100 in pdf format here. Enjoy!

Scott Thompson

Editor and Founder of Retail Technology Innovation Hub

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