- Instacart has three availability terms they give for their items to alert customers on stock issues with any items, and to give customers the option to choose a replacement or not.
- These availability terms are as follows:
- Low-stock mode —For low-availability items, the customer can choose a replacement item.
- Tighter availability—Some products - such as hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, rice, water, and cold medicine - may be running low. Instacart continuously updates availability to ensure customers are notified of any order changes or updates in real-time.
- Item purchase limit—Some of Instacart’s retail partners have put item purchase limits in place for certain products on the marketplace. Attempting to add more than the purchase limit for these items automatically resets the selection to the maximum limit and lets customers know they’ve exceeded the purchase limit.