Fast Five Shorts | Carrot Tags, Caper Carts, Oh My!
In the latest edition of Omni Talk’s Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Avalara, Mirakl, Ownit AI, and Ocampo Capital Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: Carrot Tags, Caper Carts, Oh My!
For the full episode head here:https://youtu.be/HfqxboxZ35Q
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Transcript
We saw this week a flood of announcements from Instacart retailers.
Speaker A:Kohl's in Australia to small regional grocers like Bowman's Market and Queen's Price Chopper are reportedly rolling out its caper cart.
Speaker A:But the announcement I particularly want to key in on today has to do with its carrot tags.
Speaker A:According to an Instagram press release, Aldi Gelson's and Hornbachers are now leveraging Instacart's carrot tags.
Speaker A:And for those keeping score at home, or for those who may be listening to Omnitalk for the first time, Carrot tags is the name of Instacart software solution that seamlessly integrates into a retailer's electronic shelf labels or ESL hardware to enable incremental functionality, including pick to light capabilities.
Speaker A:Chris, I have to know, what do you make of this bevy of announcements from Instacart this week?
Speaker B:Yes, and I think I would call it a deluge.
Speaker B:It's a deluge of announcements overall.
Speaker A:Donegals and deluge.
Speaker A:The theme of deluge.
Speaker B:Yes, great alliteration too.
Speaker B:And well, whenever I see a deluge of announcements like this, I'm always a little skeptical.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And because you have to ask yourself, like, why so many, like why is Instacart trying to position itself in this manner?
Speaker B:That's the question that came to my head first and foremost.
Speaker B:And to that question, I honestly have no idea.
Speaker B:But something is likely driving it and I think it's a good question to ask.
Speaker B:Now to the two announcements in question, smart carts and carrot tags.
Speaker B:I think first of all, there's no surprise coming out of Grocery Shop one month ago to see the interest in the smart cart, right?
Speaker B:And these implementations still seem very small scale because I couldn't find anything, but I couldn't find any references to the store counts that are, you know, piloting these smart cards, which is typical of the caper card announcements if you look back in history.
Speaker B:But now the carrot tags and this one I think is really interesting.
Speaker B:On the one hand, I love that you're seeing more grocers find value in electronic shelf labels, but I do take some umbrage with what Instacart is calling their API call to that tag as a carrot tag because it's not a tag.
Speaker B:So in a way, you know, it's not.
Speaker B:It's just a software that works with the tag.
Speaker B:So in a way it feels like Instacart is trying to take credit for ESL expansions across the industry.
Speaker A:Oh my God.
Speaker B:In reality, it's just providing the software for those that want to use their software to coordinate picking with their esl.
Speaker B:So maybe a small nitpick and maybe, but I think calling something a tag when it really isn't a tag is a little bit misleading.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker B:You think the same thing?
Speaker B:Like, I think, and I think when you read the headline of the press release, new grocers adopting Instacarts carrot tags, that if you're not really, you know, skilled or fluent in how this stuff works, that's what you're going to think.
Speaker B:So that's why I don't like it.
Speaker B:I think I gotta call it out.
Speaker A:Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker A:When I read this headline, I was like, these ESLs, in the majority of cases, one of the main reasons that grocers are adopting them is because they come equipped with pick to light functionality.
Speaker A:Like that's the selling point and you don't want to be limited for that pick to light just for Instacart shoppers or just for, you know, your consumers in store, like, it's, it's gotta be available to everybody.
Speaker A:So yes, Instacart you are tying into that.
Speaker A:And if I'm an Instacart shopper using a Capricart walking through, or I'm a consumer using a Capricorn walking through, like, yes, they're talking to each other, that's great.
Speaker A:However, that's not the only way to shop this.
Speaker A:And I totally agree.
Speaker A:I was like, this is a lot of, a lot of news coming out of Instacart taking credit for a lot of things that I'm not quite sure that they should, I don't know that they should be owning.
Speaker A:But it does show that more in, more grocers are getting on board with Instacart.
Speaker A:And that's the thing.
Speaker A:Regardless of what the arrangement looks like.
Speaker A:Yes, that's the key thing to point out here.
Speaker A:That became very apparent to me for sure during grocery shop.
Speaker A:And I think you too is like, how, how much groceries are relying on Instacart and the potential that Instacart has to further penetrate.
Speaker A:Penetrate grocery in ways that I didn't, I, you know, I have to admit I didn't, I didn't think grocers would be all in.
Speaker A:Onto this level.
Speaker A:But, but yes, the carrot tags, let's go easy, easy there.
Speaker B:I mean, I think it just needs a rebrand, honestly, like if you're going to keep doing this, you got to rebrand.
Speaker B:You can't call it a tag.
Speaker B:Like, you know, even, even, even, even the release says, like, Schnooks has our carrot tags.
Speaker B:They don't have your tags.
Speaker B:They have the user API call.
Speaker B:Like, that's just a different thing.
Speaker B:So I don't know, maybe they'll rebrand it.
Speaker B:Maybe they listen to our show and they'll be like, yeah, Chris and Anne, they know what they're talking about.
Speaker B:We should change their names.
Speaker B:Don't you?
Speaker B:Don't question.
Speaker A:Don't you question, though.
Speaker A:Like, I wonder, as an instacart, like, sales person, like, are you even going in there and can you go into a grocer and are you leading with, like, carrot tags?
Speaker A:I want our carrot tags.
Speaker B:Or do you want our pick to light functionality?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:I know, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I just have a hard time believing that.
