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Instacart’s New ‘Immersive Feed’: Another Step Towards Video-Driven (and Scrollable) Online Retail?

Written by Nicholas Morine

On June 22, Instacart announced the launch of its new “Immersive Feed,” a short-form vertical video feed playing host to a slew of delicious meals and easy-to-execute recipes designed to drum up interest (and spend) from app users — while also benefiting advertising and brand partners.

“For more than a decade, people have come to Instacart for unmatched convenience, selection, and quality from their favorite grocers, and we’ve seen firsthand how much they love discovering new meal ideas and recipes along the way,” Ali Miller, General Manager of Advertising at Instacart, said.

“Snackable vertical video has transformed how people get inspired with new recipes or the latest food trends to bring into their kitchen. Our Immersive Feed brings that familiar experience directly into our shopping journey. Now, our brand partners can meet consumers at the moment of inspiration through our latest ad experiences that make it effortless to move from discovery to purchase,” she added.

And brand partners will be relied upon heavily to serve as the base for the Immersive Feed content stew — with big players such as Hellmann’s, Kettle & Fire, Nutrish, Rachael Ray, and Siete Foods being named in Instacart’s press release. The discovery and conversion stats called to the front by the company were equally impressive, with Instacart Recipe Ads driving an average of 78% out-of-aisle impressions alongside 43% new-to-brand sales. On the Instacart Occasion Ads side the numbers were just as strong, seeing an average of 90% out-of-aisle impressions paired with 36% new-to-brand sales.

Instacart Bets on Emerging Consumer Expectations While Creating an AI-Driven Data/Preference Flywheel

According to Sharon Henderson, editor for BriefGlance, this is another move to satisfy a notable shift in consumer preferences. The proliferation and embrace of TikTok and Instagram Reels have conditioned today’s shoppers to discover and learn via what Henderson termed “snackable” vertical video content — and Instacart believes that its own platform can do the very same.

“This move brilliantly addresses a long-standing friction point in the consumer journey. A user might see a compelling recipe on a social app, but the path to purchase is fragmented—they must manually list ingredients, search for them on a grocery site, and add them to a cart. Instacart’s feed collapses this entire process into a single, seamless action,” Henderson wrote.

“See a 15-second video for a summer salad? Tap a button, and all the Hellmann’s mayonnaise, fresh greens, and other components are in your cart. It’s a powerful mechanism for driving impulse buys and increasing average order value. Eric Le, VP of Growth Marketing at Siete Foods, one of the pilot partners, aptly dubbed the experience a shift from ‘doomscrolling’ to ‘yumscrolling,'” she added.

Henderson added that this play was also “genius” in another fashion — placing Instacart’s existing RMN capabilities, pitted against Walmart Connect and Amazon Ads, in a much more competitive position. Innovation, differentiation, and challenging social media platforms for the top-of-funnel “inspiration phase,” the BriefGlance editor suggested that the message Instacart was delivering to brands considering placing bets on other platforms: “Why inspire them over there, when you can inspire and sell to them right here?”

“Underpinning this is Instacart’s sophisticated use of its over 150 proprietary AI models. These algorithms can personalize the feed, ensuring that a user interested in healthy, nourishing meals sees content from Kettle & Fire, while a family planner sees kid-friendly recipes. This level of targeting maximizes relevance for the consumer and return on ad spend for the brand, creating a powerful flywheel effect: better user engagement leads to more data, which leads to better targeting, which attracts more ad spend,” she concluded.

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