Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) has expanded its partnership with California-based grocery technology company Instacart to offer independently owned supermarkets ecommerce and same-day delivery options, including AI-powered smart carts.

With more than 800 AWG member retailer locations using Instacart, this extended collaboration simplifies access for an additional 2300 retailer locations to join Instacart’s technology suite.

Instacart and AWG are working together to help retailers set up an online shopping and delivery service to meet their customers’ needs. Once the grocer is live on the Instacart app, customers can visit the Instacart web site or download the mobile app, enter their city, select their store, and start adding items to their Instacart grocery cart. An Instacart shopper will pick and deliver the order within the customer’s chosen time frame, whether on the same day or scheduled up to two weeks in advance.

In addition to offering same-day delivery, Instacart also equips retailers with in-store technology such as Caper Carts, which use computer vision and AI to identify items automatically as they are placed in the cart. AWG members will deploy these smart troilleys to transform the traditional checkout experience, allowing customers to bag items as they shop and make payments from anywhere in the store. Customers will also be able to link their loyalty account to the carts, gaining access to personalised promotions and savings as they shop.

“Our joint effort with AWG is more than a partnership, it’s a dedicated effort to empower independently owned grocers to navigate the digital landscape,” said Nick Nickitas, general manager at Instacart. “Through this collaboration, AWG’s retailers now have access to convenient, cost-effective options that allow them to easily bring their stores to their customers’ doors. We’re excited about what we can achieve together.”

Shelly Moore, chief information officer of AWG, added: “We’ve witnessed the tremendous value Instacart brings to many of our local independent grocers, making innovation, growth and deeper customer engagement possible. That’s why we’re partnering to streamline access to the technology and service our retail partners need to grow via a proven ecommerce offering. By partnering with Instacart, we’re making it even easier for our member retailers to bring the convenience of ecommerce to life and ultimately drive business growth.”

And Tim Cosens from McKeever’s Price Chopper said: “As an AWG member retailer, we’ve been incredibly proud to expand our online business through the Instacart platform. We understand first-hand the impact that ecommerce and same-day delivery powered by Instacart can drive for our business. As we look ahead to the next chapter, we view Instacart as an integral technology partner and look forward to implementing even more of their omnichannel options, like their AI-driven smart shopping carts.”

Instacart (www.instacart.com) partners with more than 1500 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace.

Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWGinc.com) is a cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets, serving 1100 member companies and more than 3500 locations throughout 32 states from nine wholesale divisions. Consolidated sales for AWG in 2022 were $12.3bn.

• Instacart has launched the IDP developer platform, a publicly available API programme that uses its online grocery platform to supercharge third-party digital experiences across food, health, wellness and other spaces. The IDP will enable third parties to integrate the functionality of Instacart inside their web sites and apps.