Custom widgets

You can leverage the Instacart Developer Platform Partner API to create custom widgets that address various use cases for your users.

For example, you can add a custom widget to your retailer site that indicates if a selected item is low in stock. Then, if a customer adds items to their cart on your retailer site and navigates to your storefront site, your storefront accurately shows the item that is low in stock.

The following list describes some use cases for custom widgets:

• Get the basic information of the current user.
• Find nearby stores that offer a specified fulfillment option.
• Get Instacart and retailer collections.
• Get product details, including price and availability, for specific stores.
• Create and manage a shopping cart.
• Add general e-commerce functionality to your retailer site.

Example custom widget

The following image shows an example of a custom widget:

The workflow for the custom widget above is as follows:

1. The customer clicks the PREVIEW button. This displays all the recipes in the online cookbook.
2. The customer selects a recipe and clicks the ORDER THIS RECIPE! button. The customer is navigated to your storefront site.
3. Your storefront site displays search results that include all the ingredients on the recipe.
4. Items added to the customer's cart on your storefront site will be reflected on the custom widget's cart.

Workflow overview

The following workflow describes the steps to create and use a custom widget:

1. Work with your Instacart representative to set up your storefront site configurations and external authentication.
2. Establish a user session.
3. Implement an endpoint on the Instacart Developer Platform API that caters to your custom widget’s use case.

For more information, see Get started with custom widgets.