This Week in Retail Media: Instacart Promotions, BJ's network launches

​Instacart Promotions adds coupons, Stock Up & Save

Instacart announced new ad capabilities that are designed to help brands offer more savings to consumers across its grocery marketplace.

Instacart Promotions will provide self-service access to all brands so that they can launch new deal structures, promotions, and incentives with their Instacart Ad campaigns. Currently available in open beta through Instacart Ads manager, this allows emerging and established brands alike to expand their offerings across the marketplace.

The result is that consumers will see more promotions, coupons and deals that are “tailored to them” across the marketplace, Instacart said. The new “savings experience” is set to appear directly on product item cards and before checkout.

Initially, Instacart Promotions will provide two structures for promotions:

• Coupons ("buy X units, save $Y")
• Stock Up & Save ("Spend $X, Save $Y")

Going forward, Instacart plans to add Free Gifts and Buy One, Get One structures, as well. These will help brands run "free sample" programs that help to attract new customers and serve personalized discounts to different customer segments, such as "new to brand" or "new to category."

“With the average cost of groceries going up, we're proud to unlock more ways for consumers to save money and connect with their favorite brands and retailers via Instacart," said Ali Miller, VP of ads product at Instacart, in a statement. "With the launch of our new Instacart Promotions, all of our brand partners now have the ability to set up coupons and promotions that can drive meaningful business results while also passing on more savings opportunities to consumers.”

Instacart said Athletic Brewing, General Mills, Sola Company, and Wells Enterprises (maker of Halo Top) are already pairing Instacart Promotions with ad formats such as Sponsored Product and Display.

"As we look ahead to Dry January, we're adding more coupons to our campaigns so consumers can discover our brews and save as they shop on the Instacart Marketplace," said Dermot Woods, omnichannel marketplace manager at Athletic Brewing.

This is the latest in a series of ad upgrades from Instacart this year, as the company builds out retail media capabilities that bolster its marketplace. CEO Fidji Simo said earlier this year that advertising is the fastest growing part of the business, and boasts high margins compared to grocery delivery.

In recent months, Instacart has:

• Upgraded Ads Manager and expanded shoppable video
• Rolled out new storytelling content formats, including curated Carts
• Introduced shoppable ad formats

​BJ’s launches retail media program

BJ’s Wholesale Club just became the latest grocery business to launch a retail media program. The club on Thursday announced the launch of BJ’s Media Edge, which was created with Microsoft PromoteIQ. BJ’s said it wants to provide brands and advertisers with increased capabilities to leverage first party data to reach its 6.5 million members.

“This new program builds upon our existing digital marketing offerings with a customizable solution for brand partners to influence our members at every stage of their purchase journey, all while driving measurable returns,” said Monica Schwartz, EVP and Chief Digital Officer at BJ’s Wholesale Club, in a statement.

The program offers an interface where brands can buy onsite and offsite media, reach members on BJ’s properties and target audience members to influence purchase behavior. Additional offerings include social media extensions and real-time analytics. Closed loop measurement reporting capabilities are also in development.