Instacart shoppers play games to earn rewards

  • October 15, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson

California-based grocery technology company Instacart is adding gamified capabilities to its smart carts to engage shoppers.

The capabilities are rolling out in partnership with retailers such as Schnucks and Wakefern Food, and brands including General Mills and Pepsi.

The product line spans gamification, personalised offers and advertising to create a more seamless shopping experience.

The three added features on its Caper Carts are gamified quests, location-based coupons and aisle-aware advertising formats. These offerings build on the AI-powered smart carts’ capabilities to make grocery shopping more personalised via its digital screen, allowing brands and retailers to engage with customers as they shop in-store.

Gamified quests try to make grocery shopping feel like an adventure. Quests are interactive mini-games that shoppers can complete using a Caper Cart, creating a more enjoyable and rewarding shopping experience. This feature encourages shoppers to earn rewards and credits while enhancing savings and product discovery as they shop. Quests are customisable and designed with retailers and brands, giving them the flexibility to reimagine shopping experiences that meet the needs of their customers. Quests will appear on the Caper Cart digital screen with lights and sounds to alert shoppers when they are available.

Quests could include experiences such as:

  • Flash deals: Shoppers could participate in a treasure hunt inspired shop, where they follow a map of the store and keep an eye out for flash deals as they shop. Flash deals will help them discover new products alongside old favourites.
  • Rewards for repeat visits: Shoppers could earn credits, such as $10 off their next visit, when they complete a shopping streak, such as three shops with a Caper Cart in one month.
  • Credits for coupon clipping: By clipping a specific number of personalised digital coupons on a Caper Cart, shoppers could receive credits, which could be equivalent to $5 at the end of their shop.

With location-based coupons, shoppers will be alerted to nearby deals and discounts for relevant items as they shop each aisle of the store. Caper Carts offer indoor location capabilities that let retailers and brands know where customers are in the store as they shop. In the future, location-based coupons will be tailored to each shopper, based on previously purchased items or what is in their trolley.

For example, when a shopper rolls into the bakery department, Caper Cart’s digital screen could surface a coupon for a dollar off a box of muffins and notify the customer with an alert. This builds on Instacart’s current coupon offering, where more than 40 per cent of Caper Cart users clip coupons. Instacart helped shoppers save more than $2bn on Instacart orders with deals, discounts and membership benefits between April 2022 and 2023.

Aisle-aware ads can help brands create a strong first impression when customers are shopping relevant aisles. For example, if a shopper turns down the cereal aisle, they might see creative imagery featuring Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the screen, sponsored by General Mills. This pilot builds on in-store advertising capabilities that Instacart announced (www.instacart.com/company/pressreleases/instacart-ads-on-ai-powered-smart-carts) earlier this year with Good Food Holdings.

In the next stages of testing for rich formats on Caper Carts, brands will be able to show their creativity based on shopper location and the addition of complementary items to their cart. Over a dozen brands are piloting location-based ad formats at Schnucks, spotlighting products on the digital screen based on where shoppers are in the store.

“Caper Carts are ushering in a new era at the grocery store – making shopping more delightful while delivering a seamless experience for customers, retailers and brands,” said David McIntosh, chief connected stores officer at Instacart. “Over the last six months, we’ve nearly quadrupled our Caper Cart footprint and plan to reach thousands of carts live in stores in the coming months. For more than a decade, we’ve worked with grocers of all sizes to provide them with the technologies they need to serve their customers. With Caper Cart’s digital screen, we’re now delivering an unmatched omnichannel experience for retailers and brands in-store.”

Caper Carts (www.caper.ai) are part of Instacart’s Connected Stores (www.instacart.com/company/retailer-platform/connected-stores) suite of technologies, built to help grocers bridge the online and in-store shopping experience. They are powered by Nvidia Jetson (www.instacart.com/company/updates/transforming-in-store-shopping-caper-carts-ai-magic-powered-by-nvidia-jetson) and equipped with AI, cameras, sensors and a built-in scale, which work together to recognise items automatically.

Instacart has released a survey (www.instacart.com/company/updates/instacart-insights-caper-carts-rolling-into-an-aisle-near-you) on consumer adoption of smart carts and the importance of product discovery and savings. It found that 83 per cent of consumers are receptive to using smart carts for savings and budgeting. Additionally, half of consumers are interested in using AI to find the best deals, while more than a quarter are eager for AI-powered personalised offers and recommendations. The survey also revealed that 30 per cent of consumers want assistance while browsing, and 76 per cent expressed willingness to use AI technology while they shopped for groceries.