Caper Carts Now Feature Personalized Ads
If connections are pivotal in the omnichannel shopping environment, Instacart has made another important one, linking its advertising solutions to its AI-powered smart carts. The grocery tech company announced that it is piloting personalized ads on Caper Carts starting with Good Food Holdings banner stores.
Teaming with CPG brand partners, Instacart aims to bridge the gap even more between the digital space and supermarket aisle. “The inspiration of our Connected Stores technologies was to bring the personalized and seamless experience of online to the store,” David McIntosh, VP of Connected Stores for Instacart, told Progressive Grocer. “The Instacart of the past decade was bringing retailers online, with online solutions and fulfillment solutions. We were hearing from our users, ‘I love the personalization, but I love going to the store, too. How can you combine them?’ We also hear from retailers things like, ‘I am experiencing lines in the store, retail shortages in the store’.’”
According to Ali Miller, VP of ads product at Instacart, the targeted ads on the company’s smart carts create an omnichannel engagement ecosystem that benefits grocers and customers as well as advertisers who seek to meet shoppers wherever they are at. “Ads are a core part of the Instacart business. Our focus has been to enable brands of all sizes to be successful on our platform to deliver great results, close loops with measurements and reach consumers to inspire and drive purchases,” she said during a recent interview with Progressive Grocer, noting that the on-screen ads create selling opportunities for both established brands and young brands seeking to break through on shelf.
“What I’m excited about is that we see this incredible level of engagement on the screen,” she added.
The pilot program is rolling out in the coming weeks at Good Food Holdings’ Bristol Farms stores in Southern California. Advertising launch partners include Del Monte Foods, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and General Mills.
Shoppers at participating stores can view deals, seasonal promotions and new products and brands on the vibrant Caper Cart screen. The AI-powered carts enable personal product recommendations based on their real-time shopping behaviors or content of their carts.
While the latest Caper Carts are designed to improve shoppers’ in-store trips and help advertisers better connect with customers, they also allow retailers to grow revenue through a revenue share model, according to Instacart. Neil Stern, CEO of Good Food Holdings, said that the retailer is excited to leverage the ad-enabled carts after first adding Caper Carts to its stores last year. "With the introduction of ads on Caper Carts, we'll soon be able to unlock a new, incremental revenue stream while offering customers valuable suggestions and promotions from our brand partners," he remarked.
Following the rollout at Bristol stores, Instacart plans to expand the pilot program to more Good Food Holdings banners and additional retailers in the coming months, with a goal of thousands of enhanced Caper Carts deployed by the end of the year. Other retail partners include Fairway Market, Geissler’s, ShopRite and Sobeys.
As a company that has continually expanded capabilities through innovation and acquisitions, Instacart is well positioned to launch this in-store experience. The now-public company added smart carts to its Connected Stores suite of technologies with the acquisition of Caper AI in 2021. Other acquisitions, including the Rosie and FoodStorm platforms, also enhance the Caper Cart experience for deli ordering and for shopping at independent retailers. The latest feature also builds on Instacart’s Carrot Ads technology that helps retailers establish and grow retail media networks on their owned and operated websites and apps, powered by Instacart Ads technology.
“It feels like a perfect moment to bring these worlds together, to marry the business opportunity with the magic of innovation and bring new technology to the forefront in a way that resonates in real world environment,” said Miller.
Added McIntosh: “It’s exciting to see all of the pieces come together. It wasn’t even 15 months ago that we launched Connected Stores. Our customers tell us they think that Caper Carts will be a default way that people will shop.”
San Francisco, Calif.-based Instacart partners with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 80,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace.
