Retail Channels
18 May
Uber Eats is making delivery more social
The app added group grocery ordering and video gift messaging.
Uber Eats items. (Courtesy image)
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Uber Eats is making enhancements that add social elements to the delivery app experience.
At Uber’s GO–GET 2023 event on May 17, the company rolled out a pair of new features that allow users to order with a group, and leave a video message with a gift.
Let’s take a quick look at what got released, and the impact:
Group grocery orders
A new feature allows users to create a group grocery order.
“Building the perfect grocery cart for delivery with your roommates, family members or vacation buddies just got even easier,” wrote Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Users can invite participants to add items to a shared cart, set deadlines for when to add priority items and automatically split the bill (the latter can happen at “most” stores, Uber says).
This feature also allows for repeat ordering. Users can place a recurring grocery order, and remind people to add their items each week.
What’s the impact? The feature appears designed to create stickiness on Uber Eats. Group ordering encourages users to form their own mutually-reinforcing circle that will encourage each other to make sales. It also enables them to schedule orders ahead so they don’t miss them.
Video gift messaging
Users can already gift a delivery on Uber Eats. Now, they can include a one-of-a-kind video message to accompany it.
This capability will initially be available for gift cards. Soon, it will be available for any item “from a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates to your favorite tikka masala,” Khosrowshahi said.
What’s the impact? This encourages users not only to buy for themselves, but also others. It adds a personal touch to the experience on Uber Eats. When buying a gift, people want to send an item that feels like it is from them, not just sent through a computer. A personal video will go a long way toward meeting that impulse.
The takeaway
In the end, Uber is aiming to create a more communal experience on its delivery app. This could help to create a network effect where users are encouraging others to join through the actions they take to include others in their shopping experience. The new features could give users more reason to join Uber Eats, and keep ordering.
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Marketing
01 June
Instacart rolls out generative AI, virtual store
Ask Instacart answers prompts with personalized recommendations.
Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash
A pair of recent launches from Instacart highlight how the grocery ecommerce company is integrating two of the key emerging areas of technology into its offerings: Generative AI and marketplaces.
Let’s take a look:
AI-powered search
Instacart is seeking to harness generative AI to create a more personalized shopping experience.
A new tool called Ask Instacart that is launching this week is designed to allow customers to type in questions about specific recipes or general recommendations for an occasion. Embedded in the search bar, Ask Instacart also provides personalized questions to be asked by customers. In addition to specific items, it provides information about food preparation, product attributes and dietary considerations.
For those eying how generative AI will play a role in the shopping experience, Ask Instacart shows how search can be transformed into a place for discovery. Instacart is aiming to provide answers to the more open-ended questions that people would naturally ask, not just simply provide info in response to a question that has one answer. It shared the following sample prompts:
- “What fish is similar to salmon?”
- “What can I use in a stir-fry?”
- “What are dairy-free snacks for kids?”
The tool is also showing the way for generative AI to integrate with retail media. Ask Instacart is designed to integrate with a brand's sponsored products campaign, so that the answers to questions that match consumer needs can also provide a way for brands to stand out.
To create the tool, Instacart combined the language understanding of ChatGPT with its own AI models. It added in catalog data from 80,000 retail partner locations around the country, which together have more than one billion shoppable items.
Beyond mission: Ecommerce marketplaces have honed a shopping experience where it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. But if shoppers want to happen upon something they didn’t know they needed, social media or the store is still the best place to visit. Instacart is showing how generative AI can make discovery a marketplace function. It also signals that advertising will come to generative AI by way of retail media. Going forward, the growth of discovery could make retail media more valuable as a tool for advertising that raises brand awareness, not just lower-funnel conversions.
A virtual store
Instacart will power a new virtual convenience store for the grocery chain Aldi.
Aldi Express will feature 2,000 of the most-shopped Aldi items, ranging from prepared food and snacks to grocery staples.
Drawing on 2,100 Aldi locations around the country, items will be delivered as fast as 30 minutes, the companies said.
“Through ALDI Express, we’re making shopping more convenient so you can satisfy a craving or get a missing ingredient in minutes,” said Scott Patton, VP of National Buying at ALDI, in a statement. “Together with Instacart, we’ll continue to find ways to innovate and make the online grocery experience even more effortless and accessible.”
Aldi began offering delivery via Instacart in 2017, and has since expanded services to include pickup as well as alcohol delivery.
Aldi’s marketplace moment? While Aldi previously offered delivery, making the assortment available through a virtual store offers the opportunity to create a marketplace for its goods. With the virtual store, it will more closely resemble DoorDash and Uber Eats, which have been expanding their grocery assortment. With a marketplace, additional revenue opportunities could open up for the grocer, such as advertising through retail media.
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