Instacart Expanding AI-Driven Shopping Cart Ad Solutions

Instacart is expanding its advertising solutions to Caper Carts, the company’s AI-powered smart carts. The company will begin piloting ads on carts Good Food Holdings banner stores. 

According to Instacart, the ads will give customers more customized recommendations and introduce experiences to help them discover new brands and products. This first-of-its-kind advertising opportunity connects brands and retailers with customers directly in the aisles – who, on average, spend more than 30 minutes shopping in-store with a Caper Carts.

While the new advertising platform will be launching at Good Food Holdings' Bristol Farms stores in Southern California, additional retail partners will be rolling out in the months ahead. Instacart expects to have thousands of Caper Carts deployed by the end of 2024. 

“Our acquisition of Caper has been a core part of our strategic evolution to support retailers and brands not just online but also in-store,” said Fidji Simo, CEO and chair of Instacart. “Today’s announcement expands on the success of our advertising solutions and smart carts to power a more inspirational, connected in-store shopping experience for customers. We're proud to bring these solutions in-store for the first time for our CPG brand partners, while simultaneously offering new revenue opportunities for our retail partners." 

Ads on Caper Carts are a new in-store retail media offering building on Instacart’s performant, online advertising solution, Instacart said. The new ad capabilities enable CPG brands to engage with customers in-store in a more personalized way based on past purchase behavior or real-time shopping behavior. 

Retailers that offer ads on Caper Carts will have the ability to grow their revenue through a revenue share model, in addition to driving increased consumer engagement in-store. Today’s announcement builds on Instacart’s Carrot Ads technology, which enables retailers such as Schnucks, Sprouts, Price Chopper NY, and Tops Markets to establish and grow retail media networks on their owned and operated websites and apps – powered by Instacart Ads technology. With Carrot Ads, retail partners are leveraging the best of Instacart Ads, including the company’s industry-leading technology, products, engineering, sales talent, and data insights. 

Caper Carts are part of Instacart’s Connected Stores suite of technologies, built to help grocers bridge the online and in-store shopping experience. By using computer vision and AI, the cart can automatically identify items as they are placed in the basket, allowing customers to bag as they shop and checkout directly from the cart.