Instacart announces AI solutions to its Instacart Storefront

Instacart announced several major updates to Instacart Storefront.

Instacart Storefront is an end-to-end omnichannel digital commerce platform and used by retailers such as Costco in the U.S. and Canada. It is built on the same core infrastructure as the Instacart App, and brings AI-powered conversational search functionality so customers can ask open-ended questions such as “What do I need to make fish tacos?” or “What’s a nutritious lunch for my kids?” directly in the search bar on retailers’ storefronts using OpenAI’s ChatGPT models alongside Instacart’s own product data and AI models.

“We’ve long believed the future of grocery – and commerce in general – isn’t online or in-store, it’s both. And now, more than ever, it’s being supercharged with AI,” says Asha Sharma, chief operating officer in a press release. “We know that omnichannel customers in particular are more valuable to retailers, which is why Instacart is developing more solutions that help retailers serve their customers no matter how they shop. And, good data is the foundation for good AI solutions for retailers. Our operational advantage is built around our dynamic grocery catalog – which is one of the largest in the industry and includes 1.4 billion items and more than 6,000 item updates per second – paired with more than a decade of knowledge about how people shop for groceries online.”

The new Instacart Storefront is built on the same core infrastructure as the Instacart App, and gives retailers access to even more new innovations, faster – including those powered by Instacart’s 150 proprietary AI models. Instacart tests new features on its app and brings the most successful ones to retailers’ storefronts.

Additionally, the new Instacart Storefront includes new merchandising and marketing capabilities such as shoppable digital flyers, more self-serve capabilities that allow anyone to become an e-commerce administrator, and better tooling and analytics.