Aldi, Gelson’s and Hornbacher’s ease picking for Instacart shoppers
Three supermarket retailers are launching pick-to-light functionality in electronic shelf labels with a solution provided by Instacart.
Discount grocer Aldi, specialty Southern California supermarket chain Gelson’s and Hornbacher’s, a banner of Minnesota-based Midwest grocery retailer Coborn’s, are all implementing the Instacart Carrot Tags pick-to-light solution.
The solution lets order pickers tap an item using the Instacart shopper app on their mobile phone to have the corresponding electronic shelf label (ESL) flash to make it easier to find items on the shelf in its stores. Carrot Tags is part of the Instacart Connected Stores platform, a suite of solutions intended to help grocers build a unified, seamless and personalized omnichannel experience.
Carrot Tags have already launched in more than 100 Aldi stores in Illinois and Ohio and are now rolling out nationwide.
"We see the value Carrot Tags offer as they help Instacart shoppers to be more independent when fulfilling online orders, allowing our associates to focus on store operations and providing excellent customer service," said Scott Patton, VP at Aldi. "Our business model is based on efficiency and Instacart's enterprise technologies are just another way for us to enhance the customer experience while reducing costs and passing along savings to customers."
[READ MORE: Aldi expands Instacart partnership with smart carts, seamless shopping]
Looking ahead, Instacart plans to extend pick to light functionality to consumers for the first time on their shopping list via in-store mode, which helps customers see what’s in-stock, get product details, sort items by aisle, and redeem in-store promotions and discounts through the Instacart app; and its Storefront Pro digital commerce tool.
"Since our launch of Carrot Tags last year, we've noticed how it's given our customers who order their groceries online a reliable experience by providing a more accurate order fulfillment process by e-commerce shoppers," said Samantha Simmons, director of operations at Hornbacher's, a Coborn's, Inc. banner. "Additionally, it was fairly easy for us to integrate the software into our existing electronic shelf label hardware, making it a smooth rollout across our stores."
Instacart is also planning to extend pick to light to its Caper Carts smart carts, which will enable customers to flash items from their shopping list or an ad or coupon directly from their cart.
"It's incredible to witness the momentum we're seeing among retailers adopting Carrot Tags and how it's transforming the experience for e-commerce shoppers fulfilling orders in-store," said David McIntosh, chief connected stores officer at Instacart.
San Francisco-based Instacart partners with more than 1,500 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace.
