How Carrot Tags Increase Found Rates and Order Accuracy for E-commerce Shoppers

Connecting Instacart Technology to Store Shelves

As the leading grocery technology company in North America, Instacart is pioneering ways to streamline the shopping process for consumers, store operators, and e-commerce shoppers alike. 

With the Connected Stores product suite, Instacart is bringing together modular in-store technology offerings and connecting retailers with Instacart Platform’s e-commerce solutions to help them deliver a unified commerce experience. Included in those offerings is Carrot Tags, a powerful software that seamlessly integrates with electronic shelf labels (ESLs). Carrot Tags offer a Pick-to-Light functionality that enables shoppers picking e-commerce orders  to activate an item from their picking list in the Instacart Shopper App and see the corresponding ESL flash in-store. Pick-to-light helps Instacart shoppers and store associates find items in a consumer’s order and pick those items faster and more accurately — ensuring consumers get what they ordered.

Piloting Pick-to-Light: A Retail Partner Collaboration

To demonstrate Pick-to-Light’s value for e-commerce shoppers and retailers, we launched a pilot with our longstanding retail partner Schnucks, who was recently applauded as a leading innovator in grocery. The Pick-to-Light pilot ran for six months across more than 70 Schnucks locations. Half of e-commerce shoppers had the opportunity to use Pick-to-Light, and half did not.

Our pilot looked to better understand and quantify the value of Pick-to-Light for our retail partners and e-commerce shoppers. Specifically, we wanted to understand if Pick-to-Light:

• Improved found rates  
• Increased efficiency
• Garnered e-commerce picker engagement

Results: Carrot Tags Is Valuable for Retailers and E-commerce Shoppers

The Pick-to-Light pilot achieved success across all three areas. We observed improved found rates, increased efficiency, and strong e-commerce shopper engagement.

Improved Found Rates

In just six months, e-commerce shoppers with Pick-to-Light access achieved a 1% statistically significant increase in found rates compared to e-commerce shoppers without Pick-to-Light access. Found rates also increased the longer that e-commerce shoppers had used Pick-to-Light. By increasing found rates, Pick-to-Light can make the picking process easier for e-commerce shoppers by helping them move through stores more quickly.

We saw the largest found rate gains in frozen food, pantry, and baked goods departments. This demonstrates that Pick-to-Light is especially useful in center-store aisles and departments with similar product labels or facings.

“We’re always striving to give our customers the most reliable online experience, and Carrot Tags has helped us ensure our customers receive exactly what they ordered. As we continue to digitize our stores we believe that Carrot Tags is an integral part of our omnichannel approach – especially once they connect to customer-facing technology like Caper Carts. From electronic shelf labels to smart carts to an e-commerce platform, Instacart’s technologies help us meet our customers, no matter how they choose to shop.”

—Bob Hardester, Chief Information Officer, Schnucks

Increased efficiency

We also observed a statistically significant improvement in order picking times of about one minute. E-commerce shoppers with Pick-to-Light access were able to accurately fulfill orders faster as they spent less time issuing refunds, asking store associates for directions or assistance, or finding replacements. These efficiency gains can help alleviate in-store congestion.

Strong e-commerce picker engagement

Throughout the pilot, we interviewed e-commerce shoppers about their experience using Pick-to-Light. E-commerce shoppers told us they enjoy using Pick-to-Light. They explained that the feature helps them shop quicker in stores where they are not familiar with layout, and Pick-to-Light helps them find items with large product breadth and similar product labels or facings.

Looking Ahead: Carrot Tags Nationwide

Following this successful pilot at Schnucks, we’re pleased to roll out  Pick-to-Light across all Schnucks stores and e-commerce shoppers. We look forward to introducing Pick-to-Light at more retailers to deliver similar  value to the Schnucks pilot — and improve the shopper  experience.

Learn more about Carrot Tags today!

Instacart

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.