Instacart wants to turn grocery shopping into 'Pokémon GO' to get you to buy more using smart carts

• Instacart is trying to gamify grocery shopping with its Caper smart carts, an executive said.
• The carts, which contain touchscreens, can display games that encourage customers to buy more, Retail Dive reported.

Instacart is trying to get you to buy more at the grocery store when you use one of its screen-equipped shopping carts — by turning shopping into a game.

The company's Caper carts can show shoppers ads or discounts for products based on their buying habits, Instacart has said. But some of those offers could include a gamified element, such as spinning a wheel on the cart's screen to earn a coupon or using it to direct shoppers toward specific products around the store, according to industry publication Grocery Dive.

"If you know that that shopper generally shops $70, and you want to get them to $80, you now have a mechanism to try to push them over the top," David McIntosh, Instacart's vice president and general manager of the Connected Stores division, told Grocery Dive.

"Ultimately, where we want to take it is Pokémon GO," McIntosh added, referencing the smartphone game released in 2016 that prompts users to find Pokémon by wandering around sidewalks, parks, and other spaces in augmented reality.

Starbucks is one source of inspiration for Instacart, McIntosh said. The coffee chain lets customers who are part of its loyalty program win prizes, including a lifetime supply of Starbucks drinks.

Instacart has spent years expanding beyond its delivery service, which relies on independent contractors to get groceries and other purchases from retailers to consumers.

Just over a quarter of its revenue, or $406 million, came from advertising during the first half of 2023, for instance, according to financials Instacart disclosed ahead of its IPO in September. It sold many of those ads to companies that make food and other consumer goods, who see advertising through the service as a new way to get in front of customers.

Instacart is also trying to sell more in-store and online technology to retailers, such as electronic price tags.

The Caper carts combine both efforts. McIntosh told Grocery Dive that customers spend around 30 minutes in front of the cart's screen during a visit. That is "an amazing opportunity" to show them ads, discounts, or other offers as they shop, he said.

Instacart plans to roll out "thousands" of the carts to stores by the end of 2024, it confirmed earlier this month. "We really believe that it's going to be the future of grocery shopping," CEO Fidji Simo told Bloomberg at the time.

Have you used a Caper cart to shop or worked at a store where they're used? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com