Since its IPO last September, Instacart has stayed busy, and not just with getting consumers their groceries.

This year, the e-commerce company has been diversifying its offerings to consumers as well as retailers and CPG brands, unveiling a flurry of new partnerships from Uber Eats to YouTube in recent months as it pushes into new retail categories and grows its off-platform retail media presence.

Retail Brew caught up with Instacart CMO Laura Jones and chief business officer Chris Rogers to break down these recent initiatives and how they fit in with the platform’s evolving business strategy.

Keep reading here.—EC

Balance transfer cards can help you pay off high-interest debt faster. The FinanceBuzz editors reviewed dozens of cards with 0% intro APR offers for balance transfers and found the perfect cards. Take a look at this article to find out how you can pay no interest on balance transfers until nearly 2026.

In an effort to bolster its grocery business, Walmart this week announced it’s opening five automated distribution centers for fresh food.

The first of its high-tech distribution centers, in Shafter, California, has been open since 2021. Locations in Lancaster, Texas; Wellford, South Carolina; Belvidere, Illinois; and Pilesgrove, New Jersey, will follow. The facilities are about 700,000 square feet, per CNBC.

• Walmart also said it will add 500,000+ square feet of automation per site to four other facilities to boost capacity for perishable food, and upgrade its Winter Haven, Florida center.

The facilities will collectively create 2,000 new jobs, and shift some jobs from manual labor to automation equipment operators.

Keep reading here.—EC

What do Cîroc, Buffalo Wild Wings, and FanDuel have in common? They’re all apparently great TV advertisers.

The three brands ran some of the most effective TV ads of the first half of the year, according to the measurement company EDO, which ranked national TV spots across 15 categories. EDO gauges effectiveness based on how likely the creative is to motivate consumers to engage with a brand online after seeing the ad, whether that’s searching for it, visiting its website, or downloading its app.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—AM