Wells Fargo's latest grocery delivery pricing survey for the second quarter reports that the gap between third-party and first-party delivery costs held roughly steady after a narrowing trend in the first quarter. The bank's tracking highlights differing pricing strategies across delivery players and a persistent premium for third-party services versus first-party retail delivery.
Instacart's distinct move
Instacart (NASDAQ:CART) stands out as the only third-party provider to cut both product prices and consumer-facing fees since Wells Fargo began monitoring prices in September 2025. That combination produced the largest reduction in total basket cost among third-party platforms, with Instacart's basket declining by 6% in the latest quarter.
How other third-party providers behaved
DoorDash (NASDAQ:DASH) and Uber (NYSE:UBER) showed different patterns. DoorDash increased its consumer fees by 21% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter, while simultaneously reducing product prices by 4%. The survey notes this marks DoorDash's third straight quarter of fee increases and leaves it as the highest-fee third-party provider in the sample.
Uber's pricing profile diverged again: fees are down substantially - a 40% reduction since September 2025 - while product prices have risen modestly by 3%. Those changes balanced out so that Uber's overall basket costs remained relatively flat in the second quarter.
Third-party premium versus first-party retail
On aggregate, third-party grocery delivery total basket costs carried a 36% premium compared with the average of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) in the second quarter. That premium was effectively unchanged quarter-over-quarter after narrowing from about 42% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Within the first-party set, Amazon continued to register the lowest cost position, roughly 27% below the delivery average. Walmart's pricing moved higher over the past two quarters, placing it at a 14% premium in the second quarter of 2026 - a decline from 18% in the first quarter and 21% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Pricing mechanics at retailers
Wells Fargo highlighted that Amazon's and Walmart's pricing dynamics are driven primarily at the product level, with delivery and service fees playing a much smaller role in their overall pricing than is typical for third-party delivery platforms.
Implications and context
The survey's findings underscore a fragmented pricing landscape: third-party services are making distinct and sometimes opposite moves on fees and product prices, while first-party retailers continue to base competitiveness on product pricing with minimal delivery fees. The result is a persistent premium for third-party delivery baskets versus first-party alternatives.