Del Monte Foods, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, and General Mills
Among First Partners to Leverage Ads on Caper Carts, Making
Customers' In-Store Experience More Personalized Than Ever
Before
Ads on Caper Carts Give CPG Brands a New Way to Advertise
In-Store, Will Also Create a New Revenue Opportunity for Retailers
like Good Food Holdings
SAN
FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart
(Nasdaq: CART), the leading grocery technology company in
North America, today announced it
is expanding its advertising solutions to Caper Carts, the
company's AI-powered smart carts. Instacart will begin piloting ads
on Caper Carts at Good Food Holdings banner stores, bringing
personalized and dynamic recommendations into the physical aisles
of the grocery store. Ads on Caper Carts will soon give customers
more customized recommendations and introduce experiences to help
them discover new brands and products. This first-of-its-kind
advertising opportunity connects brands and retailers with
customers directly in the aisles – who, on average, spend more than
30 minutes shopping in-store with a Caper Cart.
For the first time, ads on Caper Carts will bring an entirely
new personalized ads experience from Instacart's CPG brand partners
to the smart cart screens, with launch partners including Del Monte
Foods, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, and General Mills. Customers using
Caper Carts at participating retailers will soon experience two new
features:
- New products and brands, deals, and seasonal promotions to
surprise and delight customers at the start of the shopping journey
on the Caper Cart home screen. For example, a customer might see a
creative banner highlighting limited-edition Chocolate Strawberry
Cheerios from General Mills for Valentine's Day.
- Personalized product recommendations based on their real-time
shopping behaviors or cart contents. For example, if a customer
adds ice cream cones, they might see a complementary item
recommendation, like Dreyer's ice cream.
The new ads on Caper Carts offering is launching soon at Good
Food Holdings' Bristol Farms stores in Southern California, with additional retail
partners rolling out in the months ahead. Instacart expects to have
thousands of Caper Carts deployed by the end of 2024.
"Our acquisition of Caper has been a core part of our strategic
evolution to support retailers and brands not just online but also
in-store. It was one of the first major decisions I made as CEO of
the company as we launched our Connected Stores technologies, and
today we're excited to introduce the next phase of this work with a
new advertising solution that will further enable thousands of CPG
brands to connect with high-intent customers with measurable
results — in all the ways people choose to shop," said Fidji Simo,
CEO and Chair of Instacart. "Today's announcement expands on the
success of our advertising solutions and smart carts to
power a more inspirational, connected in-store shopping experience
for customers. We're proud to bring these solutions in-store for
the first time for our CPG brand partners, while simultaneously
offering new revenue opportunities for our retail partners."
"Since deploying Caper Carts last year, we've been incredibly
excited to provide our customers with a greater personalized
experience while driving value as they shop," said Neil Stern, Chief Executive Officer of Good Food
Holdings. "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."
Ads on Caper Carts are a new in-store retail media offering
building on Instacart's performant, online advertising solution.
The new ad capabilities enable CPG brands to engage with customers
in-store in a more personalized way based on past purchase behavior
or real-time shopping behavior. Instacart's deep online grocery
expertise and insights allow the company to help customers discover
their favorite products with its advertising solutions as they shop
online, and now, in-store.
Retailers that offer ads on Caper Carts will have the ability to
grow their revenue through a revenue share model, in addition to
driving increased consumer engagement in-store. Today's
announcement builds on Instacart's Carrot Ads technology, which
enables retailers like Schnucks, Sprouts, Price Chopper NY, and
Tops Markets to establish and grow retail media networks on their
owned and operated websites and apps – powered by Instacart Ads
technology. With Carrot Ads, retail partners are leveraging the
best of Instacart Ads, including the company's industry-leading
technology, products, engineering, sales talent, and data
insights.
Today's in-store advertising announcement also marks Instacart's
continued, off-platform ad capabilities expansion. Over the last
year, Instacart has extended its off-platform advertising
capabilities to Roku and The Trade Desk, which are all rooted in
enhancing CPG brands' advertising with Instacart's retail media
data. With more than 5,500 brand partners - from category leaders
to emerging brands - Instacart continues to help brands drive
growth, prove ROI, and move products off shelves.
Caper Carts are part of Instacart's Connected Stores suite of
technologies, built to help grocers bridge the online and in-store
shopping experience. By using computer vision and AI, the cart can
automatically identify items as they are placed in the basket,
allowing customers to bag as they shop and checkout directly from
the cart. Customer reception to Caper Carts has been strong with
users offering a net promoter score of more than 70. In addition to
the new ad capabilities, customers appreciate the ability to link
their loyalty accounts to the carts, giving them access to
personalized promotions and savings while shopping in-store. Caper
Carts appeal to grocers of all sizes – retailers currently using or
soon deploying carts include Bristol Farms, Fairway Market,
Geissler's, ShopRite, and Sobeys.
Supporting Quotes
"Today's omnichannel shopper expects frictionless experiences
whether they're shopping online or in-store. In addition to
customized Instacart ad experiences on app, we can now utilize
another touchpoint on the shopper journey through in-store Caper
Carts ads. The Caper Carts provide an opportunity for us to provide
meal inspiration, introduce new products or simply remind the
shopper to stock-up on pantry staples, while continuing to deliver
a personalized, relevant experience based on past shopping
behaviors," said Jen Reiner, Vice
President, Omnichannel Marketing, Del Monte Foods, Inc.
"Instacart and Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream have formed a
partnership built on the foundation of being consumer and shopper
progressive. Our collaborative efforts strive to deepen our
understanding of the ever-changing consumer shopping experience,
specifically emphasizing the digitally-forward customer. The Caper
Cart initiative is a great example of an initiative that seeks to
fuse the digital and physical shopping experience into one seamless
journey. Having the unique opportunity to feature our ads on the
Caper Carts will allow us to engage and inspire customers on the
interactive home screen during their shopping trips. The future of
our consumer connections will continue to be reshaped by innovative
partnerships such as this," said Andy
Hill, Head of Sales at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream.
"We're proud to continue our partnership with Instacart by being
one of the first brands to showcase our products on Instacart's
AI-powered smart carts," said Raquel Navarrksi, Customer Vice
President, General Mills. "We're committed to showing up where our
consumers are, no matter how they choose to shop. We're excited to
innovate alongside Instacart to help consumers discover and
rediscover all their favorite General Mills products as they browse
the grocery aisles and shop in-store."
"Late last year, we unveiled our plans to update most of our
traditional shopping carts with Instacart's smart carts, aiming to
make shopping easier, more personalized, and efficient for
customers," said Bob Rybick,
President and CEO of Geissler's Supermarkets. "Now, with the
introduction of ads on Caper Carts, we'll be able to take that goal
a step further – not only enhancing the in-store experience by
helping customers discover new products, brands and promotions, but
also unlocking a new revenue stream and opportunities to strengthen
customer loyalty."
About Instacart
Instacart, the leading grocery
technology company in North
America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how
people shop. The company 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. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to
get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for
approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking,
packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The
Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade
technology products and services to power their e-commerce
experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores,
provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart
Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging
brands – partner with the company to connect directly with
consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart
Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition
security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the
role that food can play in improving health outcomes.
For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to
start shopping, visit www.instacart.com.
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SOURCE Instacart