How to Build an Instacart Clone with Bubble

What Instacart Actually Does

Instacart is a grocery delivery marketplace that connects customers with personal shoppers who pick and deliver groceries from local stores. Customers browse store catalogues, add products to a cart, choose a delivery window, and pay online. A personal shopper then goes to the store, picks the items, communicates with the customer about substitutions, and delivers the order. Instacart partners with grocery chains and retailers, digitising their inventory and handling the last-mile delivery logistics.

The key difference between Instacart and food delivery apps like DoorDash is the shopping step. The shopper does not just pick up a pre-made order. They walk through the store, find each item, handle out-of-stock situations with real-time customer communication, and make substitution decisions. This adds a layer of complexity to the order flow that is unique to grocery delivery.

Core Features to Build

For the customer side you need store browsing based on location, store pages with product catalogues organised by department and aisle, product search with filters, a cart that supports items from a single store per order, delivery window selection at checkout, payment processing, order tracking with real-time status updates, and in-order messaging with the shopper for substitution decisions. For the store side you need a product catalogue management interface, pricing and availability updates, and order analytics.

For the shopper side you need a batch of available orders to claim, a shopping list interface showing items to find in the store, a substitution and replacement workflow, item-by-item checkout tracking, and delivery navigation. Tipping and rating after delivery complete the feedback loop.

Data Types in Bubble

The core types are User, Store, Department, Product, Cart, CartItem, Order, OrderItem, Shopper, ShopperAssignment, DeliveryWindow, SubstitutionRequest, and Review. User has standard profile fields plus default delivery address, saved addresses, and payment method reference. Add a user type field for customer, store manager, and shopper roles.

Store has name, logo, banner image, description, geographic address, delivery radius, operating hours, delivery fee structure (flat fee or distance-based), minimum order amount, and is active flag. Department belongs to a Store with name, sort order, and icon. Product belongs to a Department and Store with name, description, image, price, unit (each, per pound, per litre), category, brand, is available flag, aisle location text, and barcode/SKU for shopper reference.

Products are the bulk of your data. A typical grocery store has 30,000 to 50,000 products. In Bubble, this volume is manageable but you need to be smart about search and loading. Use pagination aggressively and do not try to load all products in a single repeating group. Department-based browsing with search within a department keeps query sizes reasonable.

Cart belongs to a User and a Store with a subtotal field. CartItem links a Cart to a Product with quantity, unit price, line total, and a preferred substitution field (another Product reference or a text instruction for the shopper). Order captures the confirmed purchase with customer, store, items (list of OrderItems), subtotal, delivery fee, service fee, tax, tip, total, delivery address, delivery window (DeliveryWindow reference), order status, and placed time.

OrderItem mirrors CartItem but adds a found status (found, substituted, refunded), actual item (Product reference, may differ from original if substituted), and actual quantity. This tracks what the shopper actually picked versus what the customer ordered. DeliveryWindow has a store reference, date, start time, end time, capacity (max orders per window), and current orders count. When the count reaches capacity, that window is no longer available for selection.

Shopper extends User with vehicle type, geographic location, is available flag, current assignment reference, rating, and total deliveries. ShopperAssignment links an Order to a Shopper with status (assigned, shopping, checking out, delivering, delivered), started time, and completed time. SubstitutionRequest belongs to an Order and an OrderItem with original product, suggested substitute, customer response (approve, reject, refund), and shopper notes.

Shopping and Substitution Workflow

The shopping workflow is what makes Instacart unique and it is the most complex part of the build. When a shopper starts an order, they see a shopping list grouped by department for efficient store navigation. For each item, the shopper marks it as found (updating the OrderItem's found status) or not found. If an item is not found, the shopper can suggest a substitution by selecting an alternative product or entering a text description.

When a substitution is suggested, a SubstitutionRequest is created and the customer receives a notification. The customer can approve the substitute, reject it (remove the item), or request a refund for that item. This communication happens in near real-time through live updates on the SubstitutionRequest type. The shopper's interface shows the customer's response and they proceed accordingly.

If the customer has set a preferred substitution on the CartItem at order time, the shopper sees this preference and can auto-approve it without customer interaction. This reduces friction for common substitutions like brand swaps on basic items.

Once all items are picked, the shopper marks the order as checking out, then as delivering after leaving the store. The customer sees these status updates on their tracking page. Upon delivery, the shopper marks it as delivered, the order is completed, and the customer is prompted to rate and tip.

Delivery Window Management

Delivery windows are time slots that customers select during checkout. Create DeliveryWindow entries for each store for each day, typically in 1 or 2-hour blocks from the store's opening to closing time. Each window has a capacity limit. When a customer selects a window, increment its current orders count. If the count equals the capacity, remove that window from the available options in the checkout flow.

Generate delivery windows automatically using a daily recurring backend workflow that creates windows for the next 3 to 7 days. Delete past windows with another cleanup workflow. Show available windows on the checkout page as a date picker followed by a repeating group of time slots for the selected date, filtering out windows that are at capacity.

UI Components and Layout

The customer home page shows a delivery address input and nearby stores in a grid layout with logo, name, delivery time estimate, and delivery fee. The store page has a department sidebar for navigation and a product grid as the main content area. Each product card shows the image, name, brand, price, unit, and an add-to-cart button with quantity controls.

Product search uses a search input at the top of the store page that filters products by name or brand within that store. Autocomplete suggestions help users find products faster. The cart is a slide-in panel showing items grouped by department with quantities, prices, substitution preferences, and a checkout button. The checkout page shows the order summary, delivery window selector, payment input, and tip options.

The order tracking page displays the order status with a step indicator (placed, shopper assigned, shopping, delivering, delivered), the shopper's name and photo when assigned, substitution notifications with approve or reject buttons, and a map with the shopper's location during delivery. The shopper's interface is a mobile-optimised shopping list with swipe or tap actions for marking items found, not found, or substituted.

Privacy Rules and Permissions

Store catalogues are public. Customer orders are visible to the customer, the store, and the assigned shopper. Substitution requests are visible to the relevant customer and shopper. Shopper location is only visible during active deliveries. Customer payment details are handled by Stripe (not stored in Bubble). Store analytics are visible to the store manager only. Shopper earnings are private to each shopper.

Privacy rules on Order check that the current user is the customer, the store manager, or the assigned shopper. SubstitutionRequest inherits access from its parent Order. Product data is public but product management (editing prices, availability) is restricted to the store's manager role.

What to Skip in V1

Skip multi-store orders (one order per store in V1), Instacart Express membership, recipe-based shopping lists, coupons and promotions, alcohol delivery with age verification, prescription delivery, detailed store aisle mapping, shopper chat (use substitution requests instead), and batch orders (assigning multiple small orders to one shopper). Focus on single-store ordering with a clean checkout and substitution flow. Validate that customers will order and that you can recruit reliable shoppers.

Cost and Timeline

An Instacart clone with store browsing, product catalogues, ordering, delivery windows, shopper assignment, and the substitution workflow takes 10 to 14 weeks for an experienced Bubble developer. The product catalogue and substitution system add significant complexity beyond a standard delivery app. Bubble's Team plan at $349 per month is recommended for the data volume. Product catalogue data entry or import is a separate effort; budget time for loading initial inventory.

DIY first-quarter costs run $1,200 to $1,800. Hiring a developer costs $12,000 to $28,000. The product data challenge (getting accurate catalogue data into the system) is often more work than building the app itself, so factor that into your planning.

DIY vs Hiring a Bubble Developer

Grocery delivery combines marketplace complexity with the unique substitution workflow. The shopping list interface, real-time substitution communication, and delivery window management require careful workflow orchestration. Most builders underestimate the data volume challenge: grocery catalogues are large and keeping prices and availability current is an ongoing operational task.

An experienced Bubble developer will architect the substitution flow correctly, build efficient product search across large catalogues, and set up the delivery window system with proper capacity management. If you are serious about launching a grocery delivery service, professional development ensures the operational complexity is handled in the software rather than becoming manual workarounds.

Ready to Build?

Related guides:

• Bubble google maps integration guide

• Bubble shopify integration guide

Grocery delivery platforms need seamless ordering and reliable shopper coordination. Talk to Goodspeed Studio about building your grocery delivery marketplace on Bubble with proper catalogue management and delivery logistics.