Instacart customers who know they need sustenance but don’t know what to buy will soon be able to browse suggestions from celebrities. Beginning today, the company is rolling out product collections curated by public figures, influencers, and retailers for customers to shop from.
The new feature, called Carts, will display lists of grocery items themed around events (“Game Day” or “Self Care Sunday”) or picked by celebrities that customers can add to their own carts. Musician Lizzo is one of the first celebrities to be featured.
In the blog announcing the new feature, Instacart says the curated carts will help inspire customer purchases — helpful, perhaps, if you often find yourself browsing aimlessly while ordering groceries or if you don’t mind being influenced at the grocery store.
In addition to the celebrity carts, the company is also introducing an affiliate program called Instacart Tastemakers, allowing content creators to make money when their audience members place orders on Instacart.
“Over the next few months, we’ll share more ways for our partners to monetize their content leveraging the full Shoppable Recipes ecosystem that we are creating for brands and retailers,” Instacart says in the announcement.
Instacart is looking to capitalize on “entertainment-based shopping,” and it has said it wants to make every recipe and food item on the internet shoppable. Besides offering grocery deliveries, the company has leaned into working with influencers and food creators in recent months to take advantage of viral recipes or TikTok videos. In March, Instacart launched shoppable recipes and a TikTok integration, allowing viewers to click through to add grocery items used in the video to their shopping cart. The company says it will now make shopping integrations available to more creators and bloggers — so don’t be surprised if your favorite recipe website suddenly prompts you to shop on Instacart instead of going to the grocery store.