Instacart Expands In-Store Advertising to All Brands on Caper Carts

Brands Can Now Reach Customers Online and In-Store with One Campaign Across the Instacart Ads Ecosystem

CPG Brands of All Sizes Including Diana's Bananas, Kettle & Fire, Talking Rain Beverage Company, and Mondelēz's OREO, RITZ, HALLS and Sour Patch Kids are Seeing Results from Syndicating Ads to Caper Carts

SAN FRANCISCO, March 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart (NASDAQ:CART), the leading grocery technology company in North America, today announced that its more than 7,000 brand partners now have access to in-store advertising on Caper Carts, its AI-powered smart carts. Advertisers can now reach and inspire customers online as well as directly in the aisles of grocery stores with a single campaign.

Beginning in April, new and existing shoppable display campaigns will seamlessly extend across the Instacart Marketplace and in-store on the Caper Cart digital screens with no additional work required from brand partners. Caper Cart ads are inventory- and aisle-aware, which means that ad campaigns will only extend to carts when consumers are in relevant aisles and where items are in stock. For example, Diana's Bananas can launch an Easter campaign through Instacart Ads Manager, showcasing its various flavors both online and in-store. Customers browsing the Instacart Marketplace can see the ad online, while in-store customers can see it on the digital screen of the Caper Cart. On the Caper Cart, customers can see the ad in the frozen aisle, add the item to their basket, and check out directly from the cart.

"We've built Instacart Ads to drive results for brands on our platform, and have proven that this also drives incremental in-store sales," said Instacart's VP of Ads Product Ali Miller. "Brands face the complexity of navigating hundreds of retail media networks, and we want to make that easier. Now, they can create one campaign with Instacart to drive engagement and reach at scale across the Instacart Ads ecosystem. We're proud to have built a one-stop advertising platform with best-in-class performance and measurement that brands trust, and this continues to shape our roadmap to reach consumers across all channels."

Today's consumers rarely utilize just one channel to discover and purchase products; they might browse online, visit retailers' sites, and then purchase in-store. The Instacart Ads ecosystem enables brands to connect with consumers through cohesive, omnichannel campaigns – reaching them at every touchpoint, from discovery to purchase. Instacart Ads eliminates the complexity of managing multiple ad campaigns across various channels, whether that's the Instacart marketplace, in-store, across 220+ e-commerce sites, or with strategic off-platform extensions with partnerships, such as Google, Instagram, The Trade Desk, NBCUniversal, and YouTube.

As part of the Instacart Ads ecosystem, ads on Caper Carts are an in-store retail media offering that is an extension of the Instacart performant, online advertising products and solutions. On average, customers spend more than 30 minutes shopping in-store with a Caper Cart. For advertisers, it is an opportunity to influence a consumer's purchasing decisions in real-time in the aisles of a grocery store. Caper Carts are available at grocery stores across more than 60 cities in the US, including ALDI, Kroger, Schnucks, and Wakefern, as well as many regional and local independent grocers.

Today's news follows a successful Caper Cart ads pilot earlier this year where more than 50 CPG partners, from category leaders like Mondelēz, to challenger brands including Diana's Bananas, Kettle & Fire, Talking Rain Beverage Company, tested this new capability.

"Instacart Ads is one of our highest-performing platforms and has helped us increase brand awareness, support retail growth, and acquire new customers," said Niccolo Gloazzo, Sr. Director of Media & Omnichannel at Kettle and Fire. "Because of their easy to use ad buying interface, we've been able to deploy impactful campaigns that meet our business objectives. Today's announcement that our Instacart Ads campaigns will now automatically syndicate to Caper Carts underscores their team's commitment to innovation and to helping brands of all sizes seamlessly advertise and reach consumers whether they're shopping online or in-store."

"Diana's has been crafting premium chocolate-covered frozen bananas since 1984 and today, we're proud to have nationwide retail distribution. Instacart has been an important partner in our marketing strategy, helping us grow sales on their platform by 40% last year," said Stan Keller, Chief Strategy & Finance Officer at Diana's Bananas. "Our recent pilot with Caper Carts allowed us to syndicate our digital campaigns directly into physical stores, reaching customers at the perfect moment – while they're making decisions in the frozen aisle. We're seeing promising engagement from this technology and look forward to expanding our presence across more Caper Carts to influence purchase decisions right at the point of sale."

"Instacart continues to simplify ad buying for challenger brands like ours," said Brock Hendricks, Director of Digital Commerce at Talking Rain Beverage Company. "As early adopters of this pilot program, we've been able to serve Sparkling Ice's flavorful variety directly to customers shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The ability to engage consumers across multiple channels with a single campaign has proven to be incredibly valuable."

"We value our collaborative partnership with Instacart where we're able to test and learn alongside each other as they roll out new technology," said Mindy Shaltry, Senior Director, Omnichannel Marketing & Activation, Mondelēz International. "We were excited to be part of the Caper Carts test to maximize the impact of our Instacart investments. This in-store ad enabled us to seamlessly connect with more consumers during key seasonal moments, featuring RITZ crackers and OREO cookies for the Big Game, Sour Patch Kids for Valentine's Day, and HALLS during cold and flu season."

Instacart brand partners can expect additional Instacart Ads formats to extend to Caper Carts in the coming months. 

About Instacart

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,800 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 100,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes.

For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.

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SOURCE Maplebear Inc. dba Instacart