Remember when digital coupons, smartphones and grocery apps were first catching on, and we were promised that someday soon, instead of having to look for coupons, coupons would find us? Coupons in the News once reported on a company that said “its technology could be used to send product information or coupons directly to customers’ phones, based on where they are in the store.”
That was in 2014.
Here we are, ten years later, and it’s still up to you to find and clip your own coupons. But that may be about to change – for real, this time.
Three years after it acquired the smart shopping cart maker Caper, Instacart has announced the official launch of new features that will make its smart carts smarter – location-based coupons and promotions, and “gamified quests” it says will help transform “grocery shopping from a chore to a fun adventure.”
Together with retail partners including Schnucks and ShopRite, and brands including General Mills and PepsiCo, Instacart says stores equipped with its Caper carts will begin to offer location-based digital coupons on the carts’ attached screen. Using Caper’s ability to know where they are in the store as they shop, shoppers will be alerted to nearby coupon deals and discounts as they head down each aisle. “For example,” Instacart explains, “when a customer rolls into the bakery department, Caper Cart’s digital screen will surface a coupon for a dollar off a box of muffins and notify the customer with an alert.”
Shoppers can already access their store’s digital coupons on their Caper carts, and many do – Instacart says more than 40% of Caper cart users clip coupons as they shop. But until now, they’ve had to search for those coupons themselves. Now they’ll be alerted when there’s a coupon available for a product that’s nearby. And in the future, Instacart says, location-based coupons “will be tailored to each customer, based on previously purchased items or what is in their Caper Cart.”
Those location-based coupons will be accompanied by “aisle-aware ads,” which will allow brands to promote their products in the relevant aisle. “For example,” Instacart explains, “if a customer turns down the cereal aisle, they might see creative imagery featuring Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the screen.”
Finally, there are the “gamified quests,” which Instacart describes as “interactive mini-games” that will allow shoppers to earn rewards. There might be a grocery “treasure hunt” that will allow shoppers to discover flash deals while following a map of the store. Or shoppers could earn rewards the more times they use a Caper cart or clip coupons while shopping.
For all the talk lately about how low-tech seniors are missing out on increasingly high-tech coupons, Instacart says its new Caper Cart features will equalize savings by helping young shoppers take advantage of an old-fashioned savings technique. “A third of people haven’t used a coupon in the past year, and 11% of Gen Z have never used a coupon,” Instacart said, citing results from a survey it commissioned. “This technology bridges the gap, making savings more accessible to all shoppers.”
Sometimes it takes a while for a prediction to become reality. Despite what some futurists envisioned years ago, for example, we’re still waiting for our flying cars. So a decade between conceiving of location-based coupons delivered to a screen on your shopping cart, and turning it into reality, wasn’t really too long to wait. And once location-based digital coupons become commonplace – let’s get to work on those flying cars already.
Image source: Instacart
