Grocery Technology Company Invites Third Parties
to Join The New York Times, WeightWatchers and GE Appliances in New
API Program
SAN
FRANCISCO, March 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart
(Nasdaq: CART), the leading grocery technology company in
North America, today announced the
launch of the Instacart Developer Platform (IDP), a new publicly
available API program which uses Instacart's industry-leading
online grocery platform to supercharge third-party digital
experiences across food, health, wellness, and many other spaces.
IDP will enable third parties to integrate the functionality of
Instacart inside their websites and apps, and over time, will
unlock:
- Same-day fulfillment of over a billion unique products in as
fast as 30 minutes from 85,000 stores across more than 1,500
national, regional, and local retail banners
- Access to Instacart's rich item catalog, which includes
attributes like ingredient and nutrition information, size, and
more – the building blocks needed to create customizable meal
plans, recipes, shopping lists, and other full-service lifestyle
experiences
- Real-time understanding of what's on store shelves from each
customer's favorite local retailer
Powering the Next Generation of Full-Service Food,
Wellness and Lifestyle Experiences
Right now, there is an explosion of innovative developers and
companies building compelling app and web-based experiences in food
and other spaces – from meal planning and cooking inspiration to
navigating dietary and health needs to interactive beauty apps.
While many of these new companies are able to leverage emerging
tech like generative AI to create compelling products, most don't
have a way to build functionality that gets people the food,
household items, and other essentials they need to turn the
guidance and inspiration they're getting into action.
For example, a customer of a meal planning app may open the app
and come up with a plan for what they want to cook, or patients
using a healthcare app may browse digital nutrition plans specific
to a dietary need or disease. But before these users can make
anything, they need to write down the ingredients, drive to the
grocery store, pick them out, and bring them home – creating an
imperfect customer experience ripe for improvement. With
integration via IDP, those same customers can now click a button to
pick their favorite local retailer, add those ingredients to a
digital cart, and enjoy a robust delivery experience including
things like real-time delivery updates and replacement alerts.
"With the launch of the Instacart Developer Platform, we're
taking over a decade of technology we've built to power the
Instacart marketplace and top retailer storefronts, and offering it
to a broader range of businesses, turning discovery-centric apps
into full service experiences that can also deliver tangible
goods," said Daniel Danker, Chief
Product Officer and Head of Online Grocery at Instacart. "This
enables mainstream services as well as new products born out of
emerging AI capabilities to offer truly complete experiences for
their customers."
Benefits for Developers, Retailers, Brands, and
Consumers
By joining IDP, over time developers will have access to a rich
set of catalog, search, cart-building, fulfillment, and
self-service tools. With those tools, they'll be able to build
connected experiences that span meal planning, personalized
nutrition, cooking, content creation, health, entertainment,
beauty, travel, and more. IDP provides a way to allow customers to
order from Instacart using inspiration from third-party apps —
creating a better experience and opening up new monetization
avenues like affiliate commissions.
For retailers and brands, IDP is a zero-cost way to attract new
customers, drive incremental order volume, unlock new surfaces for
targeted ad placements, and connect with new customers at the
moment they're looking to make purchases.
Finally, for Instacart, IDP is a way to help new customers
discover the convenience of ordering groceries online, and allow
the company's existing customers to connect Instacart cart-building
to their favorite apps.
Coming Soon: Connected Shopping Features from Instacart
Platform Launch Partners
Instacart has partnered with
more than a dozen launch partners, who will launch IDP integrations
over the coming months, including:
- New York Times Cooking makes everyday cooking simple with
recipes created by, tested and perfected by experienced and trusted
editors and recipe creators, and rated highly by a community of
engaged home cooks. Beloved by its audience, more than 100 million
people visited the site and app in 2023. This integration will
allow New York Times Cooking users to shop recipe ingredients via
Instacart, making it faster and easier to get a delicious dinner on
the table.
- "At New York Times Cooking, we are focused on providing home
cooks with delicious and achievable recipes they can count on every
day," said Alex Hardiman, Chief
Product Officer at The New York Times.
"Our dynamic integration with Instacart lets our audience
seamlessly shop and receive ingredients, making it even easier to
cook any of our recipes that are beloved by millions."
- WeightWatchers, the trusted authority in evidence-based,
comprehensive, weight health programs and solutions, has empowered
millions to adopt healthy habits for real life. Through a seamless
integration with Instacart and the "What to Eat" feature in the
WeightWatchers app, members can easily add ingredients needed for
WeightWatchers recipes to their Instacart cart, and have them
delivered right to their door.
"Our collaboration with Instacart builds on
our commitment to holistic care by making healthy living more
accessible for our members," said Debra
Benovitz, Chief Insights Officer, WeightWatchers. "We hear
from members that they want convenient options and this partnership
allows them to turn their aspirations with meals and recipes into
immediate action, ensuring that nutritious choices are just a click
away."
- GE Appliances is the fastest-growing appliance
manufacturer in the U.S., with products in 50% of American
households. Instacart ordering and same-day delivery will be
available for the shoppable, seasonally inspired recipes on the LCD
touchscreen of select GE Profile™, CAFÉ™ and Monogram™ wall ovens
and slide-in ranges. With the additional integration of Instacart
into GE Appliances SmartHQ app, consumers' custom recipe creations
from Flavorly™ AI can now extend beyond the ingredients they
have available in their kitchens. Flavorly lets users generate
custom recipes with photos and instructions based on the
ingredients, type of cuisine and dietary preferences. Consumers
will begin to see new features in the fall of 2024.
"By investing in new technologies and forging
innovative collaborations, we are bringing untapped value to our
consumers," said Shawn Stover, Vice
President of SmartHome and Energy Solutions at GE Appliances. "Our
goal is to help expand cooking confidence, reduce food waste and
create a seamless cooking journey for our consumers. Joining the
Instacart Developer Platform unlocks exciting new possibilities,
both on our products and inside of our SmartHQ consumer
app."
IDP will also unlock new features for developers of all sizes.
We're also excited to work with additional recipe/meal
planning and health & wellness apps like Biocoach, DinnerTime,
Eatlove, eMeals, Foodsmart, Innit, Intent, Jow, Jupiter, Maple,
North Fork, Relish and Smart
Commerce.
The first version of the Instacart Development Platform is live
today and accepting partner applications at
http://instacart.com/company/business/developers. And this is just
the beginning. In the months ahead, Instacart will work with its
partners to power even more experiences and help them integrate
with the Instacart platform in new ways-- including rich real-time
product search, product availability, and retailer location
finder.
About Instacart
Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in
North America, works with grocers
and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners
with more than 1,500 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. Instacart makes it
possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from
the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart
shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their
own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a
suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power
their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize
brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean
insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from
category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to
connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of
purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to
increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for
consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving
health outcomes.
For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to
start shopping, visit www.instacart.com.
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SOURCE Instacart