Instacart launches Data Hub to boost retail media performance

SAN FRANCISCO and LAS VEGAS — Instacart has launched Data Hub, a new clean room solution designed to provide consumer packaged goods brands and their agency partners with privacy-safe access to Instacart’s first-party grocery data. Unveiled at CES 2026, the platform allows marketers to combine their own data with Instacart purchase signals to gain deeper insights, create custom audiences for off-platform activation, and measure omnichannel media performance.

Data Hub offers insights into key customer behaviors such as lifetime value, new-to-brand status, and repurchase frequency, all powered by real consumer activity across the Instacart Marketplace. By securely combining datasets, advertisers can identify behavioral patterns and product affinities, reach incremental high-value shoppers, and use flexible attribution to measure campaign impact across channels.

“Retail media data is increasingly essential to enhance targeting, optimization, and measurement for omnichannel media activations,” said Ali Miller, general manager of advertising at Instacart. “Data Hub gives partners easier access to trusted, scaled purchase data and a practical way to apply those insights to marketing strategies.”

The platform allows advertisers to:

• Join first-party data with Instacart grocery signals in a secure, privacy-safe environment
• Build custom audience segments for activation across channels
• Analyze shopping behaviors and product affinities marketplace-wide
• Measure performance using flexible attribution approaches

Data Hub has been piloted with select agencies and CPGs and will expand to additional partners throughout 2026.

Industry partners welcomed the launch. Lauren Lavin, executive director of North America commerce at WPP Media, said the new capabilities reflect increasing demand for privacy-safe data environments and more advanced planning and optimization tools. Melissa Burdick, president and co-founder of Pacvue, added that Data Hub provides necessary clarity to retail media by linking shopping behavior insights across platforms and formats.

Data Hub builds upon Instacart’s expanding data toolkit. In 2025, the company launched its Consumer Insights Portal, providing brands with real-time insights into shopping trends. Collectively, these tools emphasize Instacart’s growing role as both a retail media network and a data partner, helping brands understand performance, optimize spending, and drive results across the entire marketing funnel.