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Don’t waste another dime on bloated channel reporting and vanity metrics.
Don’t waste another dime on bloated channel reporting and vanity metrics.
Shoppable Carts are among a host of new features designed to inspire – on Instacart and beyond.
On Instacart, you can now order Lizzo’s favorite groceries for delivery.
That's among the capabilities being introduced Thursday as Instacart rolls out a series of new discovery-focused shopping content and experiences on its app. With an eye on inspiring shoppers, Instacart is adding more content and curation. It placing these features front and center for users, while extending the experiences beyond the app itself.
With the launch, Instacart is debuting “The World is Your Cart,” a new creative platform that features Lizzo, the Grammy-award winning musician and entrepreneur. The rollout is coupled with the launch of a new campaign with a film featuring Lizzo and her song “The Sign,” the first track off of her new album “Special.”
As Instacart describes it, “The film starts in an everyday setting with Lizzo at the center, using the Instacart app, and progresses into hyper-real and fantastical scenes in which her world comes to life as she adds items to her digital cart.” A new 30-second feature will debut at the MTV Video Music Awards, as well.
Within the app itself, Instacart is launching a new shopping experience called Carts. Here, pop culture personalities, retailers and creators will be able to curate collections of shoppable content that feature products they love. The idea is to help consumers discover new items.
With the launch, Lizzo is featuring a shoppable cart filled with her favorite vegan treats and products featured in "The World is Your Cart.” Items include Coca-Cola, Oreos, Skittles and Swiffer Dusters. This demonstrates how Instacart can connect in-app experiences with broader campaigns.
“A shoot where I get to sit in a bubble bath and shop all day? Sign me up Instacart! This spot is so dynamic, and people will see me shopping and imagining what each item could lead to, from a desertscape of Takis – which are always in my cart – to a rain shower of cherries," Lizzo said in a statement. "I’m also excited to share my shoppable Cart which includes so many of my favorite things. I hope that my Cart inspires people to get all the stuff they love or maybe even try something different."
Other Carts will be built around themes, including “Self Care Sunday,” “Late Night Noms” and "Date Night."
Instacart is giving this new feature prominent placement. The Carts are surfaced in the Home feed on Instacart’s app, featured in the center of the display. The idea is that customers can be inspired by the items in these Carts, then select them for delivery from nearby locations.
“‘The World is Your Cart’ is a rallying cry that reminds us of the abundant possibilities of each product we add to our Carts and satiates our curiosity by enabling others’ Carts to spark our own creativity,” said Laura Jones, Chief Marketing Officer at Instacart, in a statement. “In addition to capturing these possibilities across our new creative platform, we’re making them a reality by injecting discovery-driven cart-building experiences across the Instacart app – so you can browse, be inspired, and turn that inspiration into reality by getting your items delivered to your door in as fast as an hour.”
Along with Carts, Instacart detailed additional shoppable experiences across the app that are designed to inspire.
More than 5,500 CPG brand partners are sharing storytelling content through Brand Pages, Shoppable Display, and Shoppable Video ad formats.
Building on the release of Shoppable Recipes earlier this year, Instacart is debuting a new feature called Recipe Maker. This allows publishers and bloggers to add shoppable content to their websites. Hearst is using it on food properties including Delish. A developer API and widget will also be made available.
With an eye toward monetization for those who product content included that is featured on Instacart, the company is also rolling out a new affiliate program, called Instacart Tastemakers, that will enable creators, publishers and developers to monetize purchases made through these experiences. Instacart said it plans to roll out more ways for partners to monetize content by leveraging a fuller Shoppable Recipes ecosystem that it is creating for brands and retailers.
Shopping experiences are increasingly blending content, commerce and curation. Instacart’s new experiences show how this fits into grocery shopping. At the same time, it opens up a new way for creators to plug directly into an ecommerce marketplace, and connect it to campaigns happening around the media sphere.
The job market continues to hum.
The labor market continued to show strength to start 2023, as the monthly jobs report posted big numbers.
Key data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report:
The Current’s view: The labor market continues to be an economic outlier. While there are signs of consumer pullback and belt-tightening among tech companies and retailers after months of high inflation, the job picture remains bright. While tech companies and some retailers are cutting back markedly, there are few signs of the widespread “pain” that economists predicted in this indicator of the economy.
What brands and retailers are thinking: Jobs are a major indicator of demand, and the labor market continues to hum along. That means the consumer pullback is tied to choices about discretionary spending and holding off on certain purchases in the face of high prices, moreso than being unable to afford items altogether.
What the Fed is thinking: Here’s more evidence that a soft landing might be possible. The Fed has been raising interest rates to bring down inflation. There is risk that this will slow down the economy, including employment. There was some slowing in job growth in December, but this report indicates labor market softening still hasn’t happened for a sustained period, even as inflation is cooling. After the central bank scaled back its latest interest rate hike to 0.25% on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he sees a “path” to bringing down inflation without a significant rise in unemployment. Here’s one more piece of data to bolster that belief.
Keep in mind: The labor market is still out of balance between supply and demand. This report shows a big rise in jobs and the labor force participation rate remaining the same. Job openings actually increased in December, the Labor Department found. So there a still the case. Eventually, it will likely have to come into balance. But given the unpredictability of this economic era, it’s tough to know when, or even how.