Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Markets Adds Locai’s Meal-Planning Solution
Independent grocer Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Markets has rolled out Locai Solutions’ intelligent meal-planning tool CookIt to its ecommerce website, ShopCaputos.com. Dubbed The Recipe Rack, the tool enables Caputo’s online customers to shop recipes, combining the tasks of menu planning and grocery shopping.
The Recipe Rack is the latest addition to Caputo’s digital grocery strategy, in partnership with Locai. CookIt, a personalized shopping experience, is tailored to a customer’s cart items, past purchases, dietary preferences and more. The learning algorithm suggests recipes and products to shoppers, taking into account sale items and favorite brands, and even scales ingredients based on portion size.
“The CookIt technology behind The Recipe Rack will allow customers to easily shop meals instead of aisles, while adding everything to their cart with absolute simplicity,” said Matthew Idstein, who oversees ecommerce for Carol Stream, Ill.-based Caputo’s, which operates seven stores in the Chicagoland area. “By showing different recipe ideas based on purchase history, dietary restrictions and food allergies, each customer gets a highly personalized shopping experience. It truly is a time saver!”
Family-owned and -operated Caputo’s is the latest grocer to adopt the technology, which launched at the end of last year at Wakefern Food Corp.’s ShopRite banner. The largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern is No. 8 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
“The convenience and value that CookIt brings to Caputo’s is really a major step forward in personalization,” said Scott DeGraeve, COO of Denver-based Locai, which was founded in 2018 by e-grocery veterans of FreshDirect and Peapod. “Beyond increasing basket size, customer engagement and loyalty, The Recipe Rack allows Caputo’s to serve their customers at home, where their products are being consumed and enjoyed. It really speaks to the importance of family that lies at the heart of the Caputo's brand.”
