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Instacart announced a pilot to deliver personalized ads to its in-store smart carts. Beyond past purchases, the recommendations and coupons showing up on smart cart screens promise to be based on the shoppers’ aisle location and cart contents.
Instacart stated, “For example, if a customer adds ice cream cones, they might see a complementary item recommendation, like Dreyer’s ice cream.”
The program is launching at Good Food Holdings’ Bristol Farms stores in Southern California. Del Monte Foods, Dreyer’s, and General Mills are initial CPG brand partners.
The ads will appear on Instacart’s Caper Carts, which use scales, sensors, touchscreens, and computer vision to enable customers to place items in the cart and checkout without manually scanning items. Loyalty accounts can also be linked to the carts to secure personalized promotions.
With personalized ads arriving on smart cart screen, customers will be able to discover new products and receive timely suggestions and promotions to drive engagement and increase basket sizes for retailers. Through a revenue share model, retailers also add a new in-store retail media revenue stream to complement online advertising pushes.
For CPG brands, the customized ads promise to engage in-store shoppers with more relevance while aligning online and in-store approaches.
Jen Reiner, VP of omnichannel marketing for Del Monte Foods, said, “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.”
Veeve, a Seattle-based smart cart startup, last year added extra cameras to scan store interiors and connect messages to shoppers to capitalize on retail media’s growth. CEO Shariq Siddiqui told Grocery Dive that the ROI of using smart carts solely as checkout devices was challenging for grocers, particularly as numerous self-checkout options have arrived.
Nonetheless, an Insider Intelligence article from late 2022 concluded that in-store retail media should focus on branding, as personalized ads would likely be “deemed creepy or overly intrusive" by shoppers and grocer margins would decline due to the individualized discounts.
Privacy concerns around smart carts delivering personalized ads have been heard as far back as 2002 when Safeway tested the technology. Don Gilbert, then NRF’s SVP of information technology, told CNET at the time, "Consumers don't want to be targeted as individuals. You don't want the stores to know that you buy a case of beer every night."