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.
