Every empty slot an Instacart shopper sees in your aisle now becomes a data point. Instacart just announced a portal that shows CPGs, store by store and day by day, when shoppers switch to a competitor. What Instacart hasn't said is whether you'll see what they see.
Here’s what Instacart shipped
On Sept. 21, Instacart announced in-store software that maps a store down to individual products on the shelf. Instacart says its network of about 600,000 shoppers visits each store more than 15 times a day on average, and that those visits produce over 10 million unique shelf-scan data points daily.1
The company blends those scans with more than 1.6 billion lifetime orders plus shelf imagery from shoppers and Caper Carts. The computer vision comes from Arpalus, a startup Instacart acquired in July. Instacart’s chief commercial officer said traditional inventory systems “weren’t built for today’s reality.”
Two products come out the other end. Grocers get Inventory Intelligence, a virtual store view with shelf visibility, merchandising suggestions, and out-of-stock forecasting.
CPGs get the Store Excellence Portal. It gives them a daily store-level shelf view, estimated lost sales by store and UPC, and a record of whether shoppers switched to a competitor when an item was missing. Both products are rolling out with select grocers and brands now, with more coming over the next few months.