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Buy it again

The Buy it again experience highlights a customer's previously purchased items, which makes reordering easy, improves customer retention, and increases cart sizes. These items are highlighted throughout your storefront in the following areas:

note

Customers should expect a variable delay between ordering a new item and that item appearing in the Buy it again experience.

The header includes a Buy it again link that goes to the Buy it again collection. This collection is a dedicated page that shows a customer's previously purchased items in a product grid. By default, the items are ranked based on a combination of how frequently and how recently the items were purchased.

You can group items by the following categories:

  • All items. Displays all of the customer’s previously purchased items.
  • Your aisles. Groups the customer’s previously purchased items into dynamic aisle groups. Items are thematically and meaningfully grouped, offering insights into the aisles they shop in most frequently.
  • Past orders. Groups the customer’s previously purchased items by order history. This includes items bought in the last 20 orders within the last 12 months.
  • Saved. Displays the customer’s saved items.

The following image shows the Buy it again collection on desktop browsers:

Shows the Buy it again collection page after a customer clicks the "Buy it again" link in the header.

Customers with little or no order history

For customers who have never placed an order, the Buy it again collection is empty.

For customers with 0 to 5 orders, the Items customers buy regularly section appears below the Buy it again collection. This experience helps customers with little or no order history build their cart by suggesting items other customers frequently repurchased.

The following image shows an example of an empty Buy it again collection followed by the Items customers buy regularly section on a mobile app:

Shows the Buy it again collection without any items. The Items customers buy regularly experience appears below the Buy it again collection and displays items other customers frequently repurchase.

Homepage

For customers who have purchased six or more products, a Buy it again carousel appears on the homepage. The Buy it again carousel contains the same items as the Buy it again collection, but displayed in a different format. Carousels can exist along with other creatives on a page. Customers can browse the carousel to add items to their cart and they can click View all to go to the Buy it again collection.

The following image shows the Buy it again carousel on the homepage:

Shows the "Buy it again" carousel on the homepage.

Search and browse

When a customer searches for products or browses your departments, items that they've previously purchased appear with a Buy it again badge. The badge color is determined by the Primary brand color. For more information, see Brand and style.

The following image shows the badge on a Michelina's Fettuccine Alfredo item tile:

Shows the search results for "fettuccine pasta". In the results, a Michelina's product with the label "Buy it again" appears to indicate that it was previously purchased.

Product details page

The product details page enables customers to remove items from their Buy it again experience.

The following image shows the product details page with the Remove from “Buy it again” option:

Shows an item tile for a chip product, including the product name, pricing details, and stock levels. The "Remove from "Buy it again"" option is annotated.

Configuration

For retailers on Instacart Storefront:

  • You do not have any configuration options for the header and homepage. The mentioned experiences are enabled by default.
  • To change the color of the Buy it again badge, use Instacart Platform Portal. For more information, see Configure brand colors.

For retailers on Instacart Storefront Pro 5:

  • In addition to the default experiences, use the product carousel placement to add a Buy it again carousel to other areas of your storefront.

  • To include in-store purchases, work with your Instacart representative to complete the following requirements:

    • Set up loyalty integration. You need an active loyalty integration to link a customer’s offline purchases with their online account.
    • Send in-store transaction logs. Transaction logs include data from in-store purchases. For more information, see In-store transactions.