Dive Brief:

• Instacart on March 16 introduced a product integration feature that lets consumers order ingredients for delivery when they see a recipe on TikTok or Hearst publications, including websites Delish, The Pioneer Woman, Good Housekeeping and Country Living, according to a press release emailed to Marketing Dive.
• Shoppable Recipes will allow food creators on TikTok to link Instacart grocery lists into their video content. The feature will gradually roll out to all food creators, though select creators can now start using the tool through an integration powered by Jump, TikTok's third-party integration tool. More tie-ins will be announced later this year, per the release.
• Instacart's new product integrations come a week after the delivery app debuted in-store navigation, live phone support and a safety toolkit for shoppers. Its suite of new features is part of Instacart's recent pledge for a month-long rollout of fresh product features.

Dive Insight:

The pandemic's early days powered a surge in online grocery ordering and delivery, pushing grocers and tech companies like Instacart to expand capabilities and services. Despite a recent slowdown in online grocery's growth, per a new Adobe report, companies like Instacart still have significant opportunities to reach consumers where they're already spending time and open up ways for brands to advertise along the customer journey.

Integrating on popular digital publications, recipe sites and TikTok, where a large and loyal community of home cooks convenes for inspiration, may prove to be a way to differentiate Instacart from its rivals. The added convenience of recipe buttons can save consumers time, easing the process of assembling a grocery list and visiting a store or manually ordering items for delivery. Shoppable Recipes leverages Instacart's grocery catalogue with real-time AI modeling to locate in-stock items and link customers to available shoppers for speedy delivery.

"We're expanding our touchpoints beyond the weekly grocery shop or late-night cravings, and meeting people when food inspiration strikes and they want to discover new meals and cooking experiences," said Asha Sharma, chief operating officer of Instacart, in an emailed statement.

For creators, the new tool allows for deeper follower engagement on TikTok, helping home cooks to make dishes more easily. Select food creators can already start using the new shoppable recipe functionality in their videos and earn payouts based on engagements and Instacart orders placed.

"With nearly 60 billion views of the hashtag #FoodTikTok, the food community on TikTok is massive and highly engaged, and we've seen creators build global audiences by sharing their favorite recipes with our users in unique and creative ways," Isaac Bess, TikTok's head of global distribution and product partnerships, said in emailed comments.

The launch marks Instacart's ambition to make every recipe on the internet "shoppable" and to unlock more ways for retail partners to deepen customer relationships, per the press release. Additional product and platform integrations will be announced later this year.

Consumers now spend an average of $6.7 billion on online groceries each month, more than double the $3.1 billion number prior to the pandemic, Adobe found. Instacart is looking to capitalize on this shopping behavior that's been cemented for some consumers during the pandemic.

"With the convergence of content and commerce, we are moving towards a world where inspiration and action go hand in hand," Kristen O'Hara, chief business officer at Hearst Magazines, wrote in emailed comments. "Partnering with Instacart on Shoppable Recipes will allow our audiences to make recipes inspired by our content with the ingredients arriving at their door in a few taps. This will create new opportunities for our advertisers along the consumer journey."

Instacart's shoppable recipe announcement arrives just after it debuted a new in-app navigation feature that gives shoppers an interactive map of the store they're in, as well as a live phone support feature that lets shoppers speak with a representative for help while completing a customer's order. A new safety toolkit in the mobile app provides shoppers with tools like in-app emergency calling, incident reporting and safety alerts.