NEW YORK, Reuters As Instacart touts its hefty advertising revenue in its hotly anticipated IPO offering, purchases on the online grocery platform have flattened in the first half of 2023, a possible obstacle to future ad growth.

San Franciscobased Instacart39;s 5.1 million subscribers typically pay 99 a year or 9.99 a month for free deliveries on orders of 35 or more from any of the service39;s 1,400 retailers. Instacart also sells ad space on its site, including to Pepsi and Kellogg39;s, which want to promote products online.

In April, it formed a partnership with video streaming company Roku that aims to better track spending habits of those who use the services.

Instacart, valued at 9.3 billion, said its grocery orders remained flat for the first six months of 2023 at 132.9 million compared to the yearago period, Securities and Exchange Commission filings showed.

Gross transaction value rose 4 to 14.94 billion over the same period, while ad revenue grew 24 to 406 million from 327 million.

When Chief Executive Fidji Simo joined the company in 2021, she aimed to sign up diverse retailers including beauty supply stores and convenience stores to attract more shoppers and advertisers.

Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, sees potential ad growth in video streaming, but wants Instacart to expand deliveries more quickly to enhance its appeal to major advertisers.

If you have an increase in orders, there39;s also more ads to deliver on that…