The Uncle Giuseppe Italian food chain is the first to launch online catering in the Instacart app for its customers across New York and New Jersey.

Instacart, a California-based grocery technology company, is letting grocers use FoodStorm’s order management system (OMS) with the Instacart app, making it easier to offer online ordering and delivery of catering items.

Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace is the first retailer to connect its FoodStorm OMS directly with its Instacart app storefront, allowing customers across New York and New Jersey to place catering orders online, while streamlining the process for store associates to manage orders.

FoodStorm can now be integrated with the Instacart app further extending Carrot Order Ahead, an Instacart platform. Carrot Order Ahead enables a variety of fulfilment options, including next-day or scheduled in advance delivery and pickup, so grocers can offer their customers a more convenient way to order catering and prepared foods on their Instacart app storefront or white-label ecommerce storefront.

The integration between FoodStorm and the Instacart app now means customers can order grocery items – such as beverages, paperware or side dishes – directly alongside their catering order for delivery all at once.

“Catering represents one of the highest margin categories for grocers, driving meaningful incremental growth for their business as consumer demand increases,” said Jeanette Barlow, vice president at Instacart. “In the first half of 2022, we’ve seen nearly a 20% increase in customers searching for ‘catering’ on Instacart compared to the same period last year. Historically, ordering ahead from the grocery store is labour intensive – often using paper tickets or other manual systems – and inefficient for both retailers and customers. By connecting FoodStorm OMS with the Instacart app, we’re able to help grocers meet catering demand by offering a comprehensive, omnichannel experience for customers using Carrot Order Ahead and scale the reach of a highly profitable part of their business.”

Russell McVeigh, catering director at Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace, added: “Instacart platform technology has helped more customers discover our catering selection, resulting in incremental sales for this important part of our business. The Instacart app and FoodStorm OMS have both been important to supporting our ecommerce business. During the busy holiday season when catering and prepared foods are in peak demand, we’ve been able to grow our online sales by nearly 62% by having the right infrastructure in place to handle that volume without crippling our in-store operations or without having to scale our staff. Now, with Carrot Order Ahead, we have a more connected and simplified experience that allows us to be more innovative and go above and beyond for our in-store associates and customers.”

Instacart partners with more than 800 national, regional and local retail brands to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5500 cities in North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need and for more than 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders for customers on their own flexible schedule.

Founded in 1998, Uncle Giuseppe’s has established itself as a Long Island Italian food retail destination, with stores that emphasise a selection of fresh products, prepared foods, and hard-to-find specialty and gourmet offerings, along with a full assortment of conventional groceries. Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace is headquartered in Farmingdale, New York, with ten stores; eight in New York and two in New Jersey.