Source: Tasty; Walmart
Walmart and BuzzFeed deliver shoppable recipes
Walmart has partnered with BuzzFeed’s Tasty video site for “shoppable” recipes. Users browsing Tasty’s 4,000 online recipes can add the necessary ingredients to their cart and check out with Walmart for in-store pickup or home delivery.
On the Tasty app, customers can swap items based on price, brand or quantity or opt for organic or other dietary preferences.
From the Tasty app, users are directed to the Walmart Grocery app or www.Walmart.com/Grocery, where they can view what’s in their cart, purchase the ingredients and schedule either curbside pickup at a nearby Walmart or at-home delivery.
With geo-specific capabilities, the feature ensures the recipe’s ingredients are available at the selected Walmart location.
“We’re excited to create a fun solution that feeds customers’ appetites to put time back in their busy schedules all while saving money with Walmart’s everyday low prices,” said Janey Whiteside, chief customer officer, Walmart, in a statement.
Walmart has also partnered with BuzzFeed on an exclusive Tasty kitchenware line and is planning to launch more Tasty-branded items this year.
In April, recipe and smart cooking app Innit added grocery ordering and delivery to its platform in a partnership with more than 30 U.S. retailers including Kroger, Safeway, HEB, Target and Walmart. Innit can create a customizable meal kit based on its recipes consisting of ingredients based on dietary preferences. Once the groceries arrive, Innit provides step-by-step video instructions for home cooks and can send automated cooking programs to brands like Electrolux, Bosch and GE.
Earlier this month, Grocery Shopii launched, joining other recipe-to-cart applications in the field, such as Chicory, Cooklist, eMeals and Myxx. The recipe platforms save consumers the burden of writing down a recipe list and searching store aisles for ingredients while promising to jumpstart online grocery’s slow growth.
Katie Hotze, founder and CEO of Grocery Shopii, told WRAL TechWire, “Digital shelves, dynamic pricing, and just-walk-out shopping experiences are incredibly appealing to Gen Y and Gen Z.”
- Walmart and BuzzFeed’s Tasty Stir Together Meal Planning, List Making and Grocery Shopping in One Easy Solution: Shoppable Recipes – Walmart/BuzzFeed/Business Wire
- Innit Unveils Personalized Shoppable Recipes – Innit/Business Wire
- Chicory and Wakefern Food Corp. Launch Shoppable Recipe Partnership – Wakefern/Chicory/Business Wire
- Grocery wars expand as stores compete to offer shoppable recipes online – WRAL TechWire
- Are shoppable recipes a bigger opportunity than meal kits? – RetailWire
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you see shoppable recipes becoming a major driver of online grocery selling? Are any factors besides availability holding back their appeal to home cooks? What execution issues may grocers face tapping the opportunity?
Poll
BrainTrust
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
Dave Nixon
Retail Solutions Executive, Teradata
Shoppable recipes are useful. However, they are absolutely not a key driver of online grocery shopping. Most online grocery shopping is about everyday products, not about buying specific things for recipes. It’s also the case that most people will have some of the ingredients required for recipes, so what is automatically added to the basket will often need to be tailored or amended by the customer.
Cool concept and good way to simplify some of the challenges of cooking. However, I don’t think the market is as big as the number of players that are jumping in. I see the major grocers either developing their own similar service or buying one of these niche players.
Shoppable recipes are nice, but they will never become a major driver of online grocery sales. For one thing most people tend to buy, and prepare, the same food products over and over again for a variety of reasons — because they are their favorites, because that’s all they can afford, because of special health or dietary considerations, or because they really don’t want to take the time to think about cooking. Foodies, on the other hand, already are tapped into a variety of recipe sources. Will another one hurt? Of course not. Will it drive some traffic? Without a doubt. But again, it won’t be a major factor.
Brilliant move by Walmart to engage consumers who crave convenience.
As e-grocery adoption heats up, this collaboration with BuzzFeed makes Walmart a convenient hub for grocery shoppers. Integrating enticing recipe content with links to the ingredients will save consumers time and money, which will fuel e-grocery engagement and sales.
In general, building consumer trust is essential for e-grocery adoption. Shoppers seek assurance that retailers will select their foods with care and will properly manage food items requiring different temperature settings along the supply chain. Retailers who consistently deliver quality in e-grocery and boost consumer confidence will earn their loyalty.
I don’t know that anyone is making money off providing recipes for grocery shopping, whether it’s online or in-store (thinking Publix Apron recipes here in the south, for example). Might some people like them? Sure. Might you get some incremental sales of some stuff you might not normally sell? Absolutely. Is it a big money-maker? Nope.
I don’t see shoppable recipes being a key driver for online grocery selling. There may be some impulse shopping from online customers, but it will not be a driving force. Folks that love to cook at home also love the shopping experience of finding key ingredients in-store and online. Plus as a retailer, if your online shopping platform is as “easy to use” as the retailer markets it, then searching for ingredients should not be a time consuming burden. I feel that recipes in-store and online are one step removed from meal kits. Some folks will love them, but most consumers will maintain their shopping routines.
As busy as my life is I still like to cook. I’m not a fan of pre-packaged meal subscription services, but I would consider this Walmart program because I can tweak the ingredients – and add additional items I might need to the order as well.
The highlight of this program is that it gives the customer choices while saving them time. And it builds a connection to the retailer, which could ultimately become a relationship. How can that be bad?
Shoppable recipes will likely add to online grocery sales but will not be a major driver. There are some shoppers who having the recipes will help such as people who want to save time by not preparing foods to cook them. However it takes some planning for a consumer to go to the website, decide what they want to cook that evening and stop at the store to pick it up. Many things can get in the way of the planning for that dinner before it becomes time to pick it up. Grocers will need to have the complete inventory of products in the store available to put together to meet the online sale. If one item is missing, the grocer will likely lose the sale. If this happens too frequently, the shoppers will stop getting meals from the grocer.
I see this as more of a discovery zone for customers who are looking for new recipes and ideas. For that, this is the sweet spot. Will it build customers? Not as much as Walmart may expect. It is just another chip on the table.
From Julia Child to Rachael Ray and beyond, recipes have always been used to drive our engagement and, indirectly, our shopping behavior. Unfortunately, while many may watch and say, “that looks really good” I suspect most of us never actually are driven to cook that recipe. Shoppable recipes will be another rationale that will fall short to motivate purchases and drive cooking behavior. Someone, somewhere can check off the box that will fictitiously tell them they’ve done something to help enhance the shopping experience.
Any time you can remove friction from the shopping experience it is beneficial. Food is a category where inspiration plays a significant role; shoppable recipes drive a more direct connection between inspiration and conversion.
It will take energy and time for customers to incorporate shoppable recipes into a repetitive real-life experience. Who doesn’t love Tasty’s videos! Although I have never tasted a Tasty recipe, they sure looks good. Shopping for groceries off a phone or even an iPad is very time-consuming. Making a purchase solely for one recipe seems environmentally wasteful. Noted in this article are all the buzzwords of “digital shelves, dynamic pricing, just walk out.” Which means Walmart will “dynamically” increase the prices of Tasty recipe ingredients, in-app. Dynamic pricing is pure price gouging of the individual shopper. This is not a nice way to treat a customer or engage a customer’s loyalty.
There are a lot of ways this can turn out to be a nice win and immediate sales might be the least of them. This builds engagement and anticipation for the next recipe (which might be really interesting), and shows that Walmart is going out of its way to care about customers. Then there is the home run — make a recipe that turns out great and generates accolades.
Shoppable recipes eliminate one point of friction in the customer journey. It might not be a major traffic driver to the retailer initially, but it will be over time. If a shopper can store the recipe for reuse (and therefore also for reordering of the ingredients) when they make the meal, then the brand, products, and ease of ordering go right along with it, over and over again.
Second, if the recipes and the corresponding ingredient list can easily be dropped into an e-commerce basket with a single click, you have a much greater chance of increased basket size. Anytime a retailer can make the jump to the kitchen, they win long term in CLV.
I absolutely believe that this functionality will become a driver of online grocery sales. Why? Because it engages an online shopper in a key new way beyond simply filling out their shopping list into engagement on new meal solutions and engaging in new products they may not have considered previously.
This will be a win for the retailer, and the customer!