New Research From IDC Illustrates the Importance of Technology Powered, Seamless, Personalized Grocery Shopping Experiences

Last month, we announced Connected Stores - a bundle of new and existing Instacart Platform technologies designed to help grocers build a unified, seamless, personalized experience across online and in-store. We’ve introduced these solutions alongside a number of retailers, based on their feedback about what they want from a technology partner. 

There are a number of reasons it’s important for grocers to prioritize building connected experiences today. Jordan Speer, Retail Insights Research Director at International Data Corporation (IDC), explains why in her latest IDC Analyst Brief, sponsored by Instacart, “Bridging the In-store-Online Gap: How Technology Enables Grocery Retailers to Provide a Better Customer Experience.” 

Some highlights from the paper include: 

• Consumers are back in stores, but they’ve become used to the speed, personalization, and rich product detail they find when shopping online.  While consumers value assistance from employees in-store, they also want contactless payments, personalized promotions and simplified checkout. In short, they expect to move seamlessly between digital and physical shopping experiences.
• Technology has a critical role to play in delighting consumers and meeting their ever-growing expectations. In order to keep up with emerging trends and preferences, grocers must offer and support a wide range of technologies that exist today. However, they also need the ability to test new innovations without making extensive new investments. 
• It all adds up to a modular, flexible technology platform as a critical ingredient for today’s modern grocer.
• The need to be flexible goes beyond just technology - it means rethinking the footprint of the traditional store. This could take the shape of micro-fulfillment centers to make room for in-store customer traffic, for instance. Ultimately, the in-store shopping experience will increasingly mimic the successful elements of the online shopping experience. 
• Now more than ever, consumers want to be delighted and inspired. Much progress has been made, and there is ongoing opportunity to elevate the shopping experience and make it fun. Happily, technology and shared innovation between grocery retailers and technology companies is enabling new experiences to evolve.

Through Connected Stores, we're excited to partner with retailers to help bridge the gap between online and in-store shopping and create a more seamless experience for consumers.

For more detail, check out the full IDC Analyst Brief.