Maplebear Inc Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Nikhil Devnani - Bernstein - Analyst : I wanted to ask a longer-term one on advertising. How do you ensure that your ad platform continues to work very well for the long tail of ad buyers that maybe don't have as much organic brand recognition and search? Are there needs very different to that of your big CPG partners? So how do you solve and optimize for that?

Question: Nikhil Devnani - Bernstein - Analyst : And if I could just follow up on the small basket orders. Now that you've had a bit more time for that program to ramp, are you still confident that these are predominantly incremental orders? And any signs of better Instacart+ retention or conversion rates because of these changed delivery thresholds?

Question: Bernie McTernan - Needham & Company - Analyst : Great. Just given the acquisition of Wynshop, I was hoping we could just take a step back and Fidji, if you could just remind us of your enterprise strategy and if these are discrete revenue opportunities, or more so indirect where you have the opportunity to get more data and integration with your grocery partners, and what hole specifically is Wynshop filling for you guys?

Question: Bernie McTernan - Needham & Company - Analyst : That's great. And just one follow-up. I know that the shareholder layer talks about AOV declines primarily driven by the lower minimum delivery thresholds in restaurant. But I guess I just wanted to ask directly if you're seeing any trade down or smaller basket sizes within the larger basket? Any evidence of that on the platform or not?

Question: Deepak Mathivanan - Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst : Great. So first, on the small basket orders, you talked about the incrementality of these orders. Are you seeing any common theme on maybe the type of retailers you're seeing these orders go towards and perhaps that's helping you gain more scale with some of the retailers with fewer SKUs or so? Is there any theme in terms of diversifying the retailer side that you're observing? And then on Uber Eats, now that you've had it for over six months, can you update on the attach rates, penetration gains you're seeing? How has that also helped cart's core grocery business in terms of increasing frequency or perhaps new users coming in primarily through the restaurant orders?

Question: Mark Zgutowicz - The Benchmark Company - Analyst : Maybe just a follow-up on that last one in terms of restaurants. I'm just curious if you can provide any more color on the type of volume growth you're seeing there and what that trajectory looks like through the balance of the year? And then I just had one follow-up.

Question: Mark Zgutowicz - The Benchmark Company - Analyst : That's helpful. And then just in terms of the, I guess, indirect impacts from the affordability initiatives that you're putting in place. Obviously, this is more of an optics question given the higher order density that is coming about. But in terms of the declines in AOV you saw in the quarter as well as transaction revenue. Is that trajectory -- should that -- should we expect the trajectories of both those items to continue to decline a bit here through the year as that sort of filters through your model? Or are we looking at a new baseline, maybe just looking at AOV today, is that a new baseline that sort of look at maybe flatlining here for a little while?

Question: Andrew Boone - Citizens JMP Securities - Analyst : I would love to ask about partners for Carrot Ads and you guys with momentum there. Uber Eats was clearly a big sign in. Can you guys just talk about what is causing that momentum in the business, what you guys are seeing? And maybe how do you think about the positioning against the competitive set that's out there? And then Emily, this may be a more difficult question. But if I think about the demand generation that you guys are doing through promotions, through sales and marketing, can you maybe just compare that versus last year or two years ago and talk to the efficiency of what you guys are seeing on demand? Do you think your position is improving, deteriorating? Like how do you think about that?

Question: Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Maybe two, if I could. Fidji, one of the questions we continue to get from investors is elements of either household income skew or frequency skew among your existing customer base and how cyclical or not that customer base might be on the commerce side, if there was a slowdown in the economy. Would love to get any views you have philosophically on stress testing the existing behavior on the platform and how it might arc or change in different consumer behaviors? And then for Emily, similar question, if the economy were to slow down, how do you guys, as a company, think about what investments you might want to make are more fixed in nature because you don't want to miss out on the broader long-term growth opportunity relative to where there might be some flexibility in your investment priorities, looking out over the next six to nine months?

Question: Lee Horowitz - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : A couple on just price gap and price parity online relative to in-store. I guess, do you have any sense or can you give us maybe some high-level numbers about sort of where that stands across your network? And maybe relatedly, are you seeing any softness amongst those stores that don't have price parity more recently, perhaps an indication within those stores, consumers are looking for any affordability? And then maybe just through the cycle, can you envision a world where to the extent that the economy slows, maybe foot traffic into grocery stores slows a little bit, you guys become a more strategic partner and it could perhaps drive a greater adoption of price parity online in order to drive those volumes that they need against sort of a fixed cost base? Any help across those [two] would helpful and would be great. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 01, 2025 / 9:00PM, CART.OQ - Q1 2025 Maplebear Inc Earnings Call

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. - Analyst : So can you -- first one, can you talk about Storefront Pro adoption levels and what you're doing to drive higher adoption, you obviously alluded to the retailers that use that spend -- get more yield out of it? And then, Fidji, I just want to confirm, when you were answering the prior question about -- I think with Andrew's question about advertising, was that -- you were basically referring to what drove the the upside in advertising in the quarter and you were referring to, I think, both more spend and more -- the flywheel of more advertising, more spend for advertisers. But if that wasn't the answer to that question, just trying to understand what drove the strength in the advertising in the quarter? But don't repeat if that was the answer.

Question: Shweta Khajuria - Wolfe Research - Analyst : Can you hear me?

Question: Shweta Khajuria - Wolfe Research - Analyst : I apologize about the prior technical issue. My question is on advertising revenue. So it's a follow-up on one of the prior questions already. But when you speak with advertisers, and about forward spend or commitment, are they viewing -- I am assuming they're viewing you as bottom of the funnel spend bucket. And so what is top of mind for them ahead of what's going on? And do you fall under performance spend for them? And is that -- does that give you some level of confidence as we think about perhaps the next few months ahead?

Question: Miles Jakubiak - KeyBanc - Analyst : This is Miles Jakubiak on for Justin. Just a couple of quick ones. First, a follow-up on universal campaigns. I know it's still early, but just curious if there's any early learnings you can share with that product? And maybe any characteristics of the brands that are adopting that product? And then a similar question on Smart Shop. Just curious since you launched this suite of tools, if you've seen any changes in consumer behavior around this, whether it's with basket sizes or purchase conversion or anything around that would be helpful. Thanks.