Dive Brief:
- Instacart announced Monday three new capabilities for its tech-integrated shopping carts: gamification, location-based coupons and “aisle-aware” advertising formats.
- The new features aim to help the company's Caper Carts provide a more streamlined shopping experience for customers while allowing CPGs to serve up more personalized in-store ads. Instacart said the new capabilities are currently rolling out to retailers in partnership with brands.
- The announcement comes at a time when Instacart is ramping up its suite of omnichannel technology solutions for retailers.
Dive Insight:
Instacart aims to make smart carts more than just a frictionless checkout option but also a major in-store retail media opportunity. The new capabilities aim to provide a benefit to brands and retailers while also driving repeated customer use of smart carts.
Instacart's Caper Carts use artificial intelligence, cameras, sensors and a built-in scale to recognize items. The digital screen allows customers to track what they have added so far, and shoppers can check out directly from the cart.
With the new features, customers can also embark on interactive “gamified quests” that Instacart says will “make grocery shopping feel like an adventure.” With the mini-games, smart cart users can discover products while earning rewards and credits, Instacart said.
The quests, which appear on the smart cart screens with lights and sounds, can be customized and designed in partnership with retailers and brands. They can also reward specific behavior such as product discovery, repeat visits, continued smart cart usage and coupon clipping.
Examples Instacart provided include:
- A “treasure hunt” inspired shop prompts a customer to follow a map of the store and look for flash deals aimed at product discovery.
- Customers earn credits, like $10 off their next trip, when they complete a “shopping streak,” such as three shops with a Caper Cart in one month.
- Letting customers earn credits, like $5 at the end of their shop, when they clip five personalized digital coupons on a Caper Cart.
Location-based coupons alert customers to nearby deals and discounts for relevant items. In the future, Instacart said it plans to tailor location-based coupons for customers such as offering a $1 off coupon for a box of muffins when a customer is in the bakery department.
More than 40% of customers who have used a Caper Cart clipped coupons, Instacart noted.
Meanwhile, “aisle-aware ads” on Caper Carts can help CPG brands serve relevant content to customers based on which part of the store they are in, Instacart said. For example, the smart cart could show an eye-catching sponsored image of a specific brand of cereal when a customer is in the breakfast aisle.
Instacart noted that this capability builds on in-store ads the company unveiled earlier this year with Good Food Holdings. The latest stage of testing will allow brands to use both customer location and the cart items to inform their sponsored content. Instacart said that more than a dozen brands are piloting location-based ad formats at Schnuck Markets.
Last week, Instacart announced it integrated NVIDIA AI software libraries running on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin edge AI platform into Caper Carts, noting the move creates new revenue streams for brands and retailers.
Instacart has deployed Caper Carts across a range of grocers including Bristol Farms, Fairway Market, The Fresh Grocer, Geissler’s Supermarket, Kroger, McKeever’s Market & Eatery, Price Chopper, Schnucks and ShopRite. Earlier this year, Caper Carts debuted overseas at Aldi in Austria.
Over the last six months, Instacart has tripled its Caper Cart footprint and plans to have thousands of carts in stores in the coming months, David McIntosh, vice president and general manager of Connected Stores at Instacart, said in the announcement.
