Instacart, a grocery technology company in North America, is announcing four new Instacart Platform technologies designed to help grocers offer more seamless, connected experiences to customers. The new offerings include online and in-store solutions that help retailers capture new ad revenue, bring more of their store online, better support store associates and seamlessly offer end-to-end fulfillment. These new capabilities are now available to grocers across North America and are already being used by wholesalers like Associated Food Stores and retailers including New Seasons Market, Niemann Foods, The Fresh Market and Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace.

"Grocers are central to their communities – they help us put food on the table, create local jobs and connect us with our neighbors. At Instacart, we want to enable grocers of all sizes to grow, thrive and serve their customers, no matter how they choose to shop," said Chris Rogers, chief business officer of Instacart. "We're proud to continue to expand the Instacart Platform to offer grocers new tools and technologies that help them evolve their online offering, create connected in-store experiences and develop an omnichannel strategy that supports the unique needs of their business and their customers."

• Carrot Ads expands with display ads, opening up new revenue streams for grocers — Carrot Ads helps small and large grocers alike establish and grow their retail media networks to capture new revenue streams on their owned and operated websites and apps. Grocers can now offer display ads, in addition to Instacart's sponsored product solution, to connect CPG brands with consumers on their e-commerce properties, creating new opportunities for growth. Display ads enable national CPG brands to promote engaging, targeted, creative banners to raise awareness and consideration of products, helping to drive bigger baskets for grocers. Carrot Ads also gives grocers and CPG brands access to closed-loop measurement and insights — helping them both understand the strategies that drive the most value for their businesses.
• FoodStorm support for items sold by weight enables digital ordering for more items — FoodStorm, Instacart's order management system, now supports items sold by weight, including all fresh food and prepared items typically found at deli and meat counters like deli meats, premade dishes and salads and specialty items like Thanksgiving turkeys and holiday hams. With this expansion, grocers can now support order management and offer digital ordering, pickup and delivery of their deli and meat departments through a single connected platform. This creates incremental sales opportunities and reduces preparation pressure for retailers and delivers a more seamless experience for customers.
• Caper Cart remote management offers powerful and easy auditing tools for store associates — Caper Carts, smart carts by Instacart, can now be managed remotely in real-time via tablet, giving retailers a remote bird's-eye view of their stores, making it easy to flag issues for audit and see how many carts are being used and what types of items are being shopped.
• Integrated fulfillment for Rosie-powered websites makes it easy for independent grocers to get online — Rosie, Instacart's white-label e-commerce solution for local and independent grocers, now allows retailers to use Instacart fulfillment services to pick, pack and deliver orders. With integrated fulfillment, independent grocers can now get everything they need for e-commerce in one place, affordably — from easily customizable online storefronts with robust web page creation capabilities to fulfillment and customer support.

In addition to these new features, grocers have access to a full suite of technology and tools through the Instacart Platform, including white-label e-commerce solutions, end-to-end fulfillment through Instacart's community of shoppers, in-store technologies including Caper Carts, Scan & Pay and Carrot Tags, and advertising solutions to deploy a retail media network directly on their e-commerce sites and unlock advertising opportunities with over 5,500 CPG brand partners.

"We care deeply about empowering grocers of all sizes to serve their customers and communities," said Nick Nickitas, general manager of Local Independent Grocers at Instacart. "Instacart is building technology to invest in the future of our retail partners, and we believe that local and independent grocers in particular can benefit from easy, affordable solutions that are built just for them. We put your store in the palms of your customers' hands so you can meet them where and how they want to shop."

"We're encouraged to see Instacart continue to invest in technologies that enable local and independent grocers to compete," said Laura Strange, senior vice president of Communications and External Affairs at NGA. "Independent grocers are vibrant parts of their communities, and aim to help customers access quality, variety and value. We applaud Instacart's efforts in furthering their commitment to independent community grocers."

Instacart is showcasing these technologies and more at the NGA Show — the National Grocers Association's annual gathering — at booth #1349. On Sunday, Feb. 27, Instacart's chief business officer Chris Rogers and vice president and general manager of connected stores David McIntosh participated in a fireside chat on the future of grocery during the Technology Summit.

From the independent retailers and wholesalers using Instacart Platform technologies

"Our goal is to expand and innovate our business to ensure we're meeting our customers' growing and evolving needs," said Kevin Miller, CMO at The Fresh Market. "Through our partnership with Instacart, we're able to leverage Platform technologies that have helped us seamlessly grow our e-commerce business. We've been impressed by Carrot Ads' performance to date and we're excited to explore new formats, like display ads, so we can better help CPG brands inspire consumers as they shop our e-commerce site. This will further unlock new digital revenue streams for our business – impacting our bottom line."

"As customers are increasingly turning to our stores for easy meals and prepared foods, it's important that we have the right technology and infrastructure in place to manage this complex, fresh food ordering process," said Erica Racette, e-commerce director at New Seasons Market. "With the addition of the weighted item functionality, we are able to move our holiday meal ordering to FoodStorm's OMS and deliver an elevated customer experience."

"Instacart Platform technology has helped more customers discover our catering selection, resulting in incremental sales for this important part of our business," said Russell McVeigh, catering director at Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace. "The Instacart App and FoodStorm OMS have both been important to supporting our e-commerce business. During the busy holiday season when catering and prepared foods are in peak demand, we've been able to grow our online sales nearly 62% by having the right infrastructure in place to handle that volume without crippling our in-store operations or ... having to scale our staff. We now have a more connected and simplified experience that allows us to be more innovative and go above and beyond for our in-store associates and customers."

"The strategy of being on both the Instacart App and having our own branded online shopping experience using Rosie technology just makes sense. We want to open all doors, both physically and digitally[,] to people in our community," said Ron Cook, vice president, director of marketing at Niemann Foods Inc. "Using Rosie's white-label e-commerce solution and Instacart App to serve customers, we have the opportunity to reach more people with our brand, our products, and our [community-focused] service."

"We've been using Rosie's white-label e-commerce technology for a long time, and we are very excited about the ability to tap into Instacart's robust shopper community to pick, pack and deliver orders from each of our retailers' [owned-and-operated] e-commerce sites," said Thomas Horne, senior ecommerce manager at Associated Food Stores. "We believe this integration will help us expand our service to more people in our communities. Rosie and Instacart offer the only e-commerce solution that enables retailers like us to offer end-to-end experiences to our customers."

Source: Instacart