Instacart forecasts strong quarter on demand for cheaper grocery deliveries

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Instacart CART.O forecast third-quarter gross transaction value above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, betting on resilient demand amid efforts to offer cheaper groceries through its platform.

The company, also known as Maplebear, has doubled down on its push to match on its platform prices in stores to woo value-seeking consumers looking to stretch their budgets.

"On our platform, retailers that price items at in-store parity consistently grow faster on average than those with markups," outgoing CEO Fidji Simo said in a letter to shareholders.

Its partnership with UberEats UBER.N has also helped add restaurants on its platform.

The company forecast current-quarter gross transaction value, or the total money spent by consumers on Instacart orders, to be between $9 billion and $9.15 billion, above estimates of $8.99 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Instacart, like its peers in the food and groceries delivery space, has leaned on promotions on its membership program to keep consumers shopping online, such as lowering minimum order value to $10 to get the delivery fee waived.

Rival DoorDash DASH.O and Uber UBER.N also forecast strong third-quarter results as convenience and affordability driven by investments in membership programs kept consumers ordering food and groceries online.

For the quarter ended June 30, Instacart's GTV grew 11% to $9.08 billion, with orders growing 17% year-over-year.

Advertising revenue rose 12% in the reported quarter, while total revenue of $914 million topped estimates of $896 million.