Instacart Rolls Out Customizable Storefronts

Instacart has added new e-commerce capabilities designed to make it easier for retailers to customize their storefronts and launch shoppable campaigns for holidays or special occasions. Retailers can now modify their homepages, create custom landing pages and build shoppable campaigns from a dashboard in Instacart Storefront and Storefront Pro, according to a press release.

Regional grocery chain Stew Leonard's is already using these capabilities to enhance its e-commerce experience and engage customers in the Northeast, and California-based grocer Gelson's Markets will debut updated online storefronts using the solutions soon, per the release.

"In today's competitive landscape, our retail partners want to provide an authentic and differentiated online shopping experience," Chris Rogers, chief business officer at Instacart, said in the release. "Our Storefront and Storefront Pro solutions give retailers the power to take control over their online presence, so it reflects their brand identity and showcases their unique value.”

According to Instacart, the new Storefront and Storefront Pro features will enable retailers to:

• Add dynamic content to homepages: Retailers can modify their homepages, such as adding banners or other “visually enticing elements,” to showcase weekly or daily promotions and merchandise products (including private-label brands) and reflect the retailers' brand, using preferred colors, logos, fonts, etc.
• Create custom landing pages: Retailers can customize landing pages with images, text and shoppable elements that allow for compelling storytelling and merchandising. For example, a retailer could design a page that showcases a private-label brand, explaining the brand ethos and highlighting best-selling items that can be added to a cart with one click. Retailers can also build static pages (e.g., an "About Us" or "FAQ" page) directly within Storefront and Storefront Pro.
• Build shoppable campaigns: Retailers can build shoppable campaigns that appear across their storefronts, using Instacart's pre-built templates or their own custom layouts. Retailers can set specific goals for their campaigns — such as increasing conversion, rewarding loyalty members or driving customer retention — and the self-serve tooling will make recommendations to drive impact based on Instacart's knowledge of consumer behavior.

"Our shoppers' online experience is now just as important as our in-store experience, something my grandfather never would have fathomed when he opened Stew Leonard's as a small dairy store in 1969," Jake Tavello, chief operating officer at Stew Leonard's, said in the release. "The campaign builder feature helps us reach our goals – whether it's driving purchases of specialty items like our freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or pointing customers to popular holiday items like filet mignon or lobster – by guiding us through the process and making recommendations in an intuitive, easy-to-use interface."