Brief:

• Thermomix added a shoppable recipe feature to the appliance brand's Cookidoo meal-planning platform. The feature lets Cookidoo users create digital shopping lists for more than 50,000 guided recipes and order groceries for delivery from nearby stores, per an announcement.
• Amazon Fresh, Instacart and Albertsons are among the grocers whose online ordering platforms are integrated with Cookidoo. The service pairs recipes with pre-matched ingredients on third-party grocery apps, eliminating the need to search for ingredients and making online checkouts more seamless.
• Cookidoo users also can order non-grocery items and customize their shopping lists by brands and food choices that include vegan or dairy-free selections. Thermomix is integrating online grocery ordering with its TM6 smart appliance that can be hooked up to the internet using a Wi-Fi connection.

Insight:

Thermomix aims to make grocery shopping easier with its Cookidoo recipe service that's integrated with its smart appliances, underscoring the need for mobile marketers to get their brands noticed on digital shopping channels like Amazon Fresh and Instacart.

The coronavirus pandemic has hastened the adoption of online grocery ordering and delivery by homebound consumers. Online orders are forecast to make up 6.4% of total grocery sales by the end of next year, up from 3.1% at the end of 2019, per a Rabobank estimate cited by Baking Business. Without pandemic-driven demand, online ordering would have made up only 4.6% of sales by the end of 2021, the bank estimated.

It's not clear how many consumers use smart appliances in their kitchens, but the market likely will grow as more people adopt smart home technologies. The smart appliance market is forecast to grow about 14% a year to 1.39 billion units worldwide by 2023, though video entertainment, home security and smart speakers are expected to be the most popular product categories, according to estimates by the International Data Corp.

Consumer spending on smart home tech has drawn interest from technology companies and appliance makers in the past few years. Amazon, which is the market leader in smart speakers that use its Alexa virtual assistant, has gradually expanded its lineup of smart home appliances including Ring video doorbells, while integrating Alexa with appliances made by other manufacturers. Last year, Amazon introduced more smart home appliances, including an oven that works as a microwave and air fryer, and can be integrated with Alexa.