Instacart Debuts Shopping Cart Ads, DoorDash Plots Worldwide Takeover
Taco Bell cooks up new meal kits, LMD scams scare holiday shoppers
Ahh, are the holidays officially over? Must be, if we’re back to pumping out hot takes on the daily. We’re kicking off 2024 with big updates from Instacart, DoorDash, Taco Bell and a bunch of scammers. Oh yeah, who’s headed to CES?
We’re starting the year off right with a new sponsor for the week; many thanks to delivery / rideshare fleet monitoring provider DisplayRide.
Today:
lnstacart Adds Ads on Caper Carts
Taco Bell Heats Up Meal Kit Category
Chart Time | Delivery Scams Surge Near Holidays
DoorDash Plots International Growth, Grocery Expansion
ADS | Instacart Unveils On-Cart Advertising Solutions
Instacart is rolling out a big new update to its advertiser solutions: the ability to run ads directly on in-store shopping carts. Building off its Caper Cart smart-cart platform, in use at grocers like Bristol Farms, Fairway Market, Geissler’s, ShopRite, and Sobeys, CPG brands can now target shoppers as they wander the aisles for sessions that average 30 minutes plus. Adding to the value, the ads are AI-powered, displayed to the right shoppers based on what other items the cart has already detected they’ve selected. Can’t do that with those old print ads that used to hug the cart’s handlebar!
The Big Picture: We spent 2023 discussing ad nauseam how the 3PDs were morphing into ad networks, where the complicated act of delivering the right food to the right place at the right time more or less had to run at break even so the companies could really make money serving banner ads. Instacart arguably has the most mature product in the category, it delivered a whopping $222M of high margin revenue in Q3. Now it’s offering something that DoorDash and Uber can’t — the ability for an advertiser to match digital spend with physical presence.
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MEAL KITS | Taco Bell Targets Walmart Shoppers
Yum Brands’ creative subsidiary Taco Bell is conquering another category: meal kits. Offered exclusively at Walmart, the Mexican-ish food-ish brand is selling at-home versions of its popular Crunchwrap Supreme and Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla items (although the latter looks to be temporarily missing on Walmart.com.) The items retail for sub-seven dollars, and feed four per box, making this a heck of a deal even when you factor in the cost of providing your own meat and veggies.
The Big Picture: While traditional meal kit providers like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh have struggled, brands tied to grocery shelves like Kroger’s Home Chef has soldiered on. That makes it a no brainer for Taco Bell to also try taking a grab of that super market shelf space; it’s also got a leg up in that it partnered with Kraft Heinz on the product, the latter co having long sold T-Bell branded sauces, beans and taco shells. This launch also taps into the popular #TacoBellCopyCat meme on TikTok, something we’re seeing other savvy brands like Starbucks do as well.
CHART TIME | Delivery Scams Surge for Santa
The Internet’s a dark place, especially around that most joyous of times: the holidays. New data from Group-IB shows that the Xmas season saw a surge in phishing scams, where malevolent actors impersonated last mile delivery services by sending out fake “failed delivery” notifications, followed up by a link asking for a credit card to supposedly solve the problem. With folks antsy about ensuring presents arrive on time, it’s no wonder these scams spike in December. Additional data shows that this crime is particularly prevalent in Germany. Nein, nein, nein!
3PD | DoorDash Plans Heightened Push into Grocery, Int’l Markets
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, DoorDash CEO declared “The two largest areas of investment are expansion and penetration outside of the US, as well as the same outside of restaurants.” The grocery expansion comes as no big surprise, given that 2023 saw the company add supermarkets like Save Mart Companies, CUB, Eataly, El Super, Lowe’s Market, Pruett’s Foods, State Bros and Strack & Van Til. “If you already have a large consumer base, and a large driver base that is interacting with you many times a week, you just have more shots on goal to be able to launch into these adjacent categories,” added Xu.
The Big Picture: The international push is a bit more interesting, as DD has been rather coy about its worldwide ambitions. The company closed its notable €7 billion acquisition of Finland’s Wolt in June ‘22, adding presence in 27 countries that include Poland, Austria, Iceland and Japan. The company looks to keep competing in slightly smaller, less saturated markets, as evidenced by new job postings suggesting an expansion into Luxembourg, a country with a population of only about 640,000.
A Few Good Links
Notable facts about Amazon’s delivery bots. Just Eat Takeaway.com launches Veganuary. French grocer Carrefour drops Pepsi in pushback on price creep. Chowly buys Targetable. Belgian court rules Deliveroo couriers are employees. Aurora taps Continental for AV trucking safety system. UPS cuts shifts as demand ebbs. Fedex awaits 50% demand cut from USPS air contract. Nathan’s Famous predicts second generation of ghost kitchens. iPhone shipments plunge in China. Mobileye deals with excess AV equipment inventory. Uber tests commuter bidding in India. Great Greek Mediterranean tests digital kitchens. Sweetgreen adds BBQ Salmon plate. Chipotle partners with Strava. Nuro partners with Foretellix. Vanpowers premieres new smart ebikes at CES. Walmart expands in-store poke concept, yum? Pret A Manger enters Indian delivery market with Swiggy. Every EV delivery van, compared.
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