Instacart provides new savings tools; expands ad tracking with Roku
Instacart is trying to help customers beat inflation while providing CPG advertisers streaming TV audience data.
The grocery technology company is responding to what it says are rising grocery prices with several new features and programs designed to help customers save money when shopping via its online marketplace. These include a new “Stores to Help You Save” section on the homepage that highlights value-driven stores, such retailers that offer low in-store pricing or loyalty savings.
In addition, customers can add retailer loyalty cards to their Instagram account. A new “Your Items on Sale” feature leverages artificial intelligence (AI) recommendation systems to provide access to personalized deals based on past customer orders. Savings will now be highlighted in yellow to make them more easily recognizable.
Other new features include “Stock Up and Save” promotions which offer a discount on frequently purchased products and brands when shoppers meet a certain dollar or item threshold. Customers are able to watch savings from discounts, deals and promotions as they add items to their cart.
Instacart partners with Roku
As part of its continuing efforts to expand its capabilities as an advertising platform, Instacart is now letting its CPG brand partners measure whether consumers are purchasing products on Instacart after seeing an ad on the Roku streaming TV platform. This new capability represents Instacart’s first TV streaming measurement partnership.
“With Instacart Ads, we're committed to providing CPG brands with the ad products, automation, insights, and measurement they need to help them meet their objectives and prove the impact of their investment,” said Ali Miller, VP of Ads Product at Instacart. “We’re proud to partner with America’s #1 TV streaming platform, Roku, to give CPG brands even more insights to help them enhance and optimize their campaigns across streaming TV. As we look ahead, we’ll continue investing in integrations and insights across every touchpoint of the consumer journey to help CPGs drive and measure results.”
For the past 18 months, Instacart has been beefing up its capabilities as an advertising platform. In October 2021, Instacart collaborated with e-commerce marketing platform CommerceIQ on an offering called CIQ Advertising for Instacart. The service enables CPG brands to obtain real-time visibility across all their campaigns on the Instacart Ads self-serve ad platform, as well as leverage CommerceIQ artificial intelligence (AI) functionality.
In January 2022, the company released a collection of advertiser solutions, including brand pages and a suite of display applications designed to maximize brand reach and consumer awareness for CPG brands. And in May 2022, the company released shoppable video ads and enhanced shoppable display ads.
More recently, Instacart acquired Eversight, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based pricing and promotions platform for CPG brands and retailers, and streamlined the ad buying experience in its self-service Ads Manager portal. It also partnered with e-commerce optimization firm Ascential to offer Ascential clients early access to new advertising products and pilots, co-marketing, and educational and developmental initiatives.
Instacart partners with more than 1,100 retailers to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America.