Instacart announced that it’s introducing in-store navigation, live phone support and a safety toolkit for shoppers on its platform. The company says the suite of new features is part of its new commitment to begin a month-long rollout of new product features for shoppers.
The new in-app navigation feature gives shoppers an interactive map of the grocery store in which they’re shopping. Instacart says the map includes precise item locations to help shoppers navigate the store and find items more easily.
With in-store navigation, Instacart’s shoppers can use an interactive map of the grocery store to help them more easily locate products. The tool is already in use at more than 80 unspecified stores across North America as part of a pilot and will be added to more locations “over time,” the company said.
Instacart is also launching live phone support and an in-app safety toolkit with safety alerts, 911 calling and incident reporting. The new tools come at a time when companies are looking to make it easier and safer for workers to pick online orders at stores.
Instacart said the announcement kicks off a multi-month rollout of new features for its gig shoppers. Every month between now and June, members of its shopper community will get “a notable update about new product features that have been developed with their feedback and interests in mind,” per the announcement.
John Adams, vice president of shopper and fulfillment product at Instacart, said in a statement that additional tools will be introduced based on feedback from its workers.
Live phone support, which lets workers talk to a representative through Instacart’s Shopper app, is “one of the most-requested features based on shopper feedback and research,” the company said. The safety toolkit builds on Instacart’s recent expansion of its safety features, like adding notifications of nearby critical incidents and offering lessons on shopping, driving and delivering goods to peoples’ homes.
The live phone support, in-store navigation and safety toolkit, along with the pledge to launch more features, aim to boost worker loyalty as grocery eCommerce sales have slowed. The eCommerce platform, which counts more than 600,000 gig shoppers, has had a rocky relationship at times with workers. Meanwhile, competitors like DoorDash and GoPuff are scaling and recruiting their own gig workers and grocers are increasingly using their own workers to fulfill online orders.
With Inputs from sources
