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2024_11_0 Release Notes

Release date: November 19, 2024

The release notes describe changes to Storefront for this release, including new features and enhancements. In addition to these changes, Instacart continually updates the platform to improve accessibility, performance, and stability and to ensure the best user experience for your customers.

New features​

The following new features are available in this release.

Family accounts (Storefront Pro 5)​

Customers now have the option to create family accounts. They can invite up to three additional members to link their accounts and collaboratively contribute to a shared family cart. Also, if one member of the family account has Instacart+, all members can enjoy the Instacart+ benefits when shopping with the family cart.

note

This feature is only available for Storefront Pro 5 retailers that have enabled Instacart+.

Members of a family account can choose to shop using either the family cart or their personal cart. They can easily switch between carts from the cart panel. Customers who are shopping using the family cart will see a family icon beside their cart.

The following image shows the family icon beside the cart icon:

Shows a shopping cart icon with the number 1, indicating one item, next to a person group icon on a green background.

Coupons, discounts and loyalty programs work in the same manner as personal accounts, but the family member who places the order will receive any loyalty points as if they were shopping with a personal account.

The following image displays the cart panel, showing items in the family cart. Below the family cart, you can see the personal cart, which the customer can switch to if they want to add items to their personal cart instead.

Shows a family cart screen with one item and a personal cart with one item. A green button for checkout is visible.

For more information, see Family accounts.

Native app tab bar configuration (Storefront Pro 5)​

You can now configure the tab bar of your native app using the new and enhanced Navigation tool in Instacart Platform Portal. Previously, you could configure the tab bar using Featured links in the existing Navigation tool. Instacart is in the process of migrating storefronts to use the new Navigation tool and more capabilities will be added in following releases.

The tab bar is the primary way for customers to navigate your storefront native app. The Home and More tabs are required, and you can add up to three configurable tabs.

The following image shows an example of a native app tab bar with two configurable tabs for Recipes and Buy it again:

Shows an example of the native app tab bar with icons for Home, Recipes, Buy it again, and More.

For more information see Manage native app navigation.

Creative reusability in drive awareness campaigns (Storefront Pro 5)​

You can now reuse creatives from the Creatives manager tool when creating or editing drive awareness campaigns in Instacart Platform Portal. You can design creatives using the Creatives manager and then assign them to different slots or placements.

Creatives from the Creatives manager can be added to dynamic slots on the homepage, search results pages, or browse department pages. Previously, you could only add creatives from the Creatives manager to static slots on content pages or custom homepages.

The following image shows an example of a list of reusable creatives that appears when adding a creative to a dynamic slot on the homepage:

Shows a modal titled "Add a creative to Example Banner" with options for Creative, Destination type, and Date modified. Includes a search bar and buttons for "Create new" and "Add selected".

For more information, see Design creatives and Manage drive awareness campaigns.

Target collections (Storefront Pro 5)​

In Instacart Platform Portal, when you promote drive awareness campaigns on browse pages, you now have the option to target collections. For example, you might want a campaign to appear on the browse page for the Cinco de Mayo collection. Previously, you could target departments only.

The following image shows the Target departments or collections section with cinco-de-mayo-product-collection selected:

Shows a interface for a Secondary Carousel Banner with creative name Cinco de Mayo and title Mexican-inspired party snacks. Target departments include "cinco-de-mayo-product-collection."

For more information, see Create a drive awareness campaign and Collections.

Keyword redirects on mobile native apps (Storefront Pro 5)​

On mobile native apps, you can now use keyword redirects to add suggestions in the search bar that direct customers to any content of your choice. Use keyword redirects to help customers find information outside of the catalog, highlight sales, or direct customers to specific collections. You can schedule redirects to be active for a set period and you can add custom thumbnails to display with the suggestion.

Previously, keyword redirects were only available for desktop and mobile web.

The following image shows keyword redirects for the search term p. The search bar detects partial matches and suggests some content and products. The keyword redirects appear before the product results.

Shows a search interface with the search term "p", displaying options like Holiday Ordering, View Weekly Ad, Shop Plant-Based products, Shop Paleo products, and product images such as potatoes and parmesan cheese.

For more information, see Search bar: Keyword redirects.

In Instacart Platform Portal, you can now add quick link pills or image tiles to dynamic slots on the custom homepage using drive awareness campaigns. You can schedule and target the quick link pills or image tiles to specific customers. Previously, you could only add quick link pills or image tiles to the homepage in static slots.

The following image shows an example of a What’s new image tile carousel:

Shows an image tile carousel with the heading "What's new". The tiles contain images and are labeled as "Chocolate treats", "Meal inspiration", "BBQ essentials", and "Pizza".

For more information, see Image tile carousel, Quick link carousel, and Manage drive awareness campaigns.

Enhancements​

The following enhancements are available in this release.

Enhanced the search, sort, and filter capabilities for the Campaign & offers tool​

Implemented the following enhancements to the Campaign & offers tool in Instacart Platform Portal:

  • Added a search bar, allowing you to search for campaigns by their name.
  • Added the Template column to the table, enabling you to sort by template type, such as Awareness and Offer templates.
  • Added the Campaign templates filter, enabling you to filter campaigns by template type, such as Awareness and Offer templates.

Previously, you could only sort by the table columns and filter based on the campaign status.

The following image shows the search bar, Campaigns templates filter, and Template column header in the Campaigns & Offers tool:

Shows a campaign management interface that displays a list of campaigns with details like name, status, template, start and end dates, creation date, and campaign objective. The highlighted areas include the "Search for a campaign" field, "Campaign templates" menu, and "Template" column header.

For more information, see Campaigns and offers.

Slot names shown in content list when editing content pages or custom homepages (Storefront Pro 5)​

Slot and creative names are now shown in the left pane content list in Instacart Platform Portal when editing content pages or custom homepages. Previously, the content list only displayed creative types. This enhancement makes it easier to distinguish slots and creative placements when editing pages.

The following image shows an example of the content list of slots and creatives:

Shows a list of slot names with expandable menus. "Second Split Banner" is expanded, revealing the "Pizza Mania" and "Juicy Burger" creatives.

For more information, see Manage content pages or Manage your custom homepage.

Custom titles for recipe categories carousels (Beta)​

In Instacart Platform Portal, you can now configure custom titles for recipe categories carousels. For example, for a carousel displaying the Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner categories, you might set the title to All Day Recipes. Previously, the predefined title for these carousels was Categories.

The following image shows an example of a carousel with the title All Day Recipes:

Shows three recipe categories labeled Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner with corresponding images of salad, grilled chicken, and creamy lemon sauce chicken.

For more information, see Recipes and Recipe categories carousel.

Beta

This feature is currently restricted to retailers who partnered with us in its development. For more information, contact your Instacart representative.

ERV metric for custom reports​

When creating custom reports, you can now include the Estimated Retail Value (ERV), which represents the expected selling price of a product. This value can be used as an alternative to the actual selling price when assessing the worth of inventory.

The ERV metric is available for the following datasets:

  • Completed Orders
  • Basket
  • Collections
  • Creatives
  • Campaigns with offers
  • Campaigns with offers (basket impact)

Store group filter for Campaigns with offers dashboard​

When viewing the Campaigns with offers dashboard, you can now filter data by selected groupings of store locations. Use the filtered data to more precisely assess campaign impact across specific stores.

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Using this filter requires that you have store groups configured.

Platform filter for analytics dashboards​

When viewing analytics dashboards, you can now filter data based on the operating environment the customer used to place the order. For example, you can choose to view data for orders placed using a desktop or mobile web browser, or iOS or Android app. Use the filtered data to understand trends in customer interactions by device preference.

The Platform filter is available for the following dashboards:

  • Basket
  • Collections
  • Completed orders
  • Creatives
  • Out of stock
  • Search
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