Maplebear Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Douglas Anmuth - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Great. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Can you talk more about some of the key investment areas that you're thinking about for '25, especially some of the in-store solutions. You called out paper carts. And then curious, you highlighted restaurants as well, so if you could talk about those? And then Emily, perhaps just when you're thinking about steady annual adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, can you help us understand how you'd frame that? And does that mean carrying through like incremental margins that you're seeing in 1Q through the year or something different than that? Thanks. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 25, 2025 / 10:00PM, CART.OQ - Q4 2024 Maplebear Inc Earnings Call

Question: Douglas Anmuth - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Thank you both.

Question: Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Thank you so much. Maybe if I could just ask one question. Looking back to progress you made in 2024, how do you see the platform set up for a mixture of driven and non-grocery driven growth with respect to the contribution to GTV as you see what you're seeing in terms of how users might be using the platform differently or changing behavior or the acceptability of a wider of supply on the platform from a commerce standpoint?

Question: Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Nikhil Devnani - AllianceBernstein Holding LP - Analyst : Hi, thank you for taking my question. I want to ask two, please. First, around the reduction in free delivery thresholds for Instacart Plus, how do we think about the economics of these incremental orders? Do you expect the smaller baskets to be loss leaders to better retain customers and drive LTV? Or do the economics work on a stand-alone basis if someone is placing a $10 or $20 order with free delivery? And then my second question, the Coles Australia partnership is quite interesting. While it might be expensive to build consumer-facing platforms internationally, do you see an opportunity to be a global enterprise solution for more grocery stores in more countries, even if you're not operating a consumer-facing marketplace in those regions? Thank you.

Question: Nikhil Devnani - AllianceBernstein Holding LP - Analyst : Thank you, Fiji.

Question: Ronald Josey - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Great. Thanks for taking question. I had a question for Fiji, and then one for Emily on cost sale. So on affordability FG, I just wanted to understand or hear your thoughts on the investments that Instacart's made to improve overall affordability. Obviously, we just talked about lower delivery fees but then the Kroger partnership on same pricing, there's couponing now on the site. I would love to hear how these aspects or perhaps core drivers of order growth, so one is on affordability progress. And then Emily, just on guidance here, we all saw the Super Bowl ad, that was fun. Congrats. I wanted to hear about the impact on marketing spend and if you see any benefits from the ad thus far? Thank you.

Question: Ross Sandler - Barclays Capital Inc - Analyst : Great. One on advertising and then the obligatory AI question. So first on advertising, so the environment for CPG looks a little bit mixed here in 2025. How would you guys characterize your pipeline between large and large CPG and emerging brands? And do you think this new category share of digital shelf space metric is going to help with future budget allocations to Instacart? And Emily, I think you said adds would grow faster than GTV for -- was that for the full year for 1Q? And then I'll follow up with the second.

Question: Ross Sandler - Barclays Capital Inc - Analyst : That's great. And then if I can squeeze one more in on AI. So you guys mentioned how you're using AI to track store inventory and substitutions, and ultimately, reduce the error rates of ordering. So could you just elaborate on that? And then how meaningful of an impact could that kind of thing have on overall customer retention and ultimately, I guess, profitability for the business?

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer Holdings Inc - Analyst : Just one question. GTV and order growth for the fourth quarter and first quarter outlook is solid, but we're struggling to understand why the company can't grow advertising faster. I think most people would look at these numbers and think you're losing share to the larger retail media platforms. So I guess the question is like what is the unlock to get advertising growth to 15% to 20% over some kind of medium term -- or is this like an unrealistic expectation? Or however you want to take the question?

Question: James Lee - Mizuho Securities - Analyst : Great. My question is regarding shopper supply trends. Can you maybe talk about the supply and demand dynamics there? Any impact on tighter immigration controls here? Thank you.

Question: James Lee - Mizuho Securities - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Michael Morton - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Thank you so much for the question. I was wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit about the take rate quarter-over-quarter and just also thinking about the seasonality compared to last year. Could you talk about some of the drivers behind it, where you're investing some of the impacts of the fee structure, contra revenue and you have restaurants flowing through the business? And then there's a lot of moving parts with inflation and grocery and you were talking about the macro environment. Could you maybe talk about the performance for AOVs of the core grocery business year over year? Thank you.

Question: Michael Morton - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co LLC - Analyst : I have two. The first one actually goes back to your last point about sort of the trade-offs you make and kind of the investments that you're making. Could you just sort of talk to us a little bit about the 2025 budgeting process and how you think about constraints to faster top line growth? Are there areas where you could lean in more at lower incremental margins to drive more growth or the areas you're pulling back? Just so we can kind of understand the growth versus profitability framework for 2025. And then the second one, just on the pressure from the restaurant AOVs. Can you just help us how large is restaurant as a percentage of GTV in the fourth quarter? Just we can kind of get an understanding for the core versus the restaurant impact? Thanks.

Question: Miles Jakubiak - KeyBanc Capital Markets - Analyst : This is Miles Jakubiak on for Justin. First, just one on Caper Carts. It seems like early learnings there have been really positive. So curious how quickly you guys think that you can ramp the implementation of Caper Carts to a meaningful amount? And what are the main sticking points to getting that meaningfully ramped? And then just one on the 1Q guide. It seems like guidance implies some pretty strong order volume growth, especially comping the leap year extra day within there. So wondering if you could just provide some more context on what's driving that? and if there's anything with the fee changes or restaurant business that we should keep in mind there? Thank you.

Question: Shweta Khajuria - Wolfe Research LLC - Analyst : Thanks a lot for taking my questions. I guess my question is on advertising development through the year. So if you were to point to perhaps two to three key investments that you are excited about and focused on to drive that ad revenue growth? What would you point to? Is it the technology, the ad tech stack partnerships with brands keeping macro aside? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 25, 2025 / 10:00PM, CART.OQ - Q4 2024 Maplebear Inc Earnings Call

Question: Justin Post - Bank of America - Analyst : I was wondering if you can give us an update on your subscriber growth or percentage of GTV from subscribers? And then any update on the Walmart relationship testing in the US?

Question: Justin Post - Bank of America - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Steven Fox - Fox Advisors LLC - Analyst : I just had one big picture question. And apologize if this underappreciates the complexity of your business. But you've highlighted a ton of different initiatives that seem to generally be having success. And I know they're in different stages, but it seems like as you move on that there's an opportunity to accelerate the business further from -- as some of these mature. I guess I was wondering how you would sort of maybe come that idea or maybe support that idea if we were thinking out maybe over the next 12 to 24 months for some even better top line growth?

Question: Steven Fox - Fox Advisors LLC - Analyst : Great. That's very helpful. Thank you.