SAN FRANCISCO — Instacart pioneered online grocery shopping with its consumer marketplace, and already powers the e-commerce and fulfillment experience for hundreds of retailers across North America. Today, with the launch of the new Instacart PlatformTM, Instacart is further enabling grocers’ digital transformation with a new suite of enterprise-grade technologies to power the future of grocery.
With Instacart Platform, the company is giving retailers access to the technologies behind Instacart’s consumer marketplace to power their own digital properties and retail operations. Instacart Platform brings together the technologies retailers need to improve the consumer experience online or in-store and digitize the end-to-end grocery operation. Some retailers will choose to use some of these technologies a-la-carte, while others might benefit from having all of these solutions on one connected platform that works seamlessly across channels. Instacart Platform is comprised of:
- E-commerce: E-commerce storefronts custom-built for grocers and a-la-carte recommendation and merchandising capabilities.
- Fulfillment: Solutions for grocers to do online delivery and pickup from stores or warehouses, from 15-minute ultrafast to next-day delivery.
- In-store: Digital integrations and connected hardware to enhance the brick-and-mortar store experience, from scanless carts to technology that helps manage operations.
- Ads: Advertising solutions to help brands connect and engage with consumers in the digital aisles.
- Insights: Data tools to help retailers optimize operations, provide more connected experiences, and make informed business decisions
“The grocery industry is undergoing a digital transformation where customers expect a seamless experience across many channels, but behind the scenes it’s taking an incredible amount of work and investment for retailers to deliver these new services,” said Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart. “We’re looking to change that with Instacart Platform. We started as the e-commerce and fulfillment partner of choice for grocers, and we’ve been building on that foundation to broaden and deepen our capabilities, in order to help retailers innovate faster than ever on their own properties.”
Instacart Platform launches new omnichannel capabilities with major retail partners
Today, the company is launching three new important capabilities as part of Instacart Platform to help retailers better serve their customers no matter when, where, or how they want to shop:
- Carrot AdsTM opens up new digital revenue streams for retailers by bringing the best of Instacart advertising – including the company’s industry leading technology, products, engineering and sales talent, and data insights – to retailers’ owned and operated e-commerce sites. Carrot Ads unlocks new monetization capabilities, including revenue share models, to create an additional source of profit for retailers. Instacart is currently piloting its new ad service with Schnuck Markets Inc., Good Food Holdings, Plum Market, and other select retailers, with plans to roll it out more broadly later this year.
- Carrot WarehousesTM helps retailers create more flexible, local fulfillment models to unlock capabilities such as 15-minute ultrafast delivery. As a full stack solution within Instacart Platform, Instacart works with retailers to enable end-to-end fast delivery solutions customized to their needs, including building new nano-fulfillment centers (NFCs), devising floor plans, establishing automation services, and running ongoing operations. In an industry first, Carrot Warehouses will power 15-minute ultrafast delivery for Publix customers in Atlanta and Miami over the coming months.
- Carrot InsightsTM gives retailers near real-time visibility into their operations to help them make informed, proactive business decisions. Carrot Insights dashboards track key performance and operational metrics such as order volumes and out of stocks across Instacart Platform and retailers’ own Instacart App storefronts. Instacart’s new data analytics software helps retailers better understand geographic sales, out of stocks, and customer buying trends. Carrot Insights is helping retailers like Key Food manage and optimize their omnichannel operations, and is live today for all Instacart Platform customers.
You can read more about Instacart Platform by visiting www.instacart.com/company.
Retailer Quotes in Support of Instacart Platform
“Across our five iconic food retailing brands, we’re operating in a dynamic industry where we need to meet consumer expectations, both online and offline,” said Neil Stern, CEO, Good Food Holdings. “Our focus is to leverage the industry’s best technology and partnerships to future-proof our omnichannel retail business. We’re proud to be first-movers with Instacart Platform’s new Carrot Ads feature. We’ll now be able to take advantage of Instacart’s robust ad-tech and talent to help us unlock additional digital revenue streams for our e-commerce sites.”
“Our goal is to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience. Partnering with Instacart and leveraging Instacart Platform technologies has enabled us to build, maintain, and grow a robust e-commerce business,” said Bob Hardester, Chief Information and Supply Chain Officer at Schnuck Markets Inc. “We’re excited to expand our long-standing partnership by launching Carrot Ads to power advertising across our digital offering amongst other capabilities, and give customers even more ways to discover new products and old favorites from Schnucks.”
“We’re proud to continue to innovate and expand with Instacart to meet the growing and changing needs of our communities. We are committed to offering the best selection to our guests in a seamless online experience,” said Matt Jonna, CEO & Co Founder, Plum Market. “The advertising capability within Instacart Platform enables a better experience for our guests to discover new products and ingredients on our app. Our partnership with Instacart delivers the scale, talent, and tech needed to further elevate our offerings with new revenue streams in app and online.”
“Instacart Platform continues to fuel our omnichannel strategy, powering delivery and curbside pickup across our markets. Our partnership also enables Publix to serve customers in new ways, solving for additional customer use cases by enabling meals delivery and virtual convenience,” said Maria Brous, Director of Communications at Publix. “Our new NFCs, built with Instacart Platform, unlock ultrafast delivery in our major metro areas, allowing customers to get what they need in as fast as 15 minutes. We are eager to continue to test and iterate on these new concepts as consumer needs continue to evolve.”
“As a co-operative with a variety of banners making up the Key Food family of supermarkets, it’s incredibly important for us to not only understand how each of our banners are operating, but also how our ecommerce business is performing as a whole,” said George Knobloch, Chief Operating Officer at Key Food Stores Co-Operative, Inc. “We’re excited about the new Carrot Insights and look forward to continuing to utilize it to help us access actionable insights as we continue to grow our ecommerce efforts and make our stores more accessible and convenient for customers.”
“Technology is revolutionizing grocery, and partnering with Instacart allows us to offer a fully digitized Food Bazaar experience,” said Ed Suh, CEO at Food Bazaar Supermarkets. “Whether it’s offering simple online and mobile shopping tools with timely on demand delivery, or expanding our EBT/SNAP payment integration to better support our underserved communities, Instacart Platform enables us to expand and deepen online grocery services throughout the tri-state area. This is not only great for the future of our business but deepens our capacity to serve our communities – which is at the core of what we strive to do.”
About Instacart
Instacart is a leading retail enablement platform that works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. Today Instacart partners with more than 750 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online grocery shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Millions of busy people and families turn to Instacart to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and more than 600,000 Instacart shoppers pick, pack and deliver orders for customers on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power commerce, fulfillment, in-store, and ads offerings for retailers across the U.S. and Canada. Hundreds of retailers partner with Instacart to power their commerce experiences, across the Instacart Marketplace and their own white-label sites and solutions. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands also partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com. For anyone interested in becoming an Instacart shopper, visit https://shoppers.instacart.com/.
