Uncle Giuseppe Marketplace, headquartered in Farmingdale, now offers catering through the Instacart app.
The grocer, which has 10 locations in New York and New Jersey, is the first to introduce online catering through the app, and follows Foodstorm’s recent acquisition of Instacart, whose order management system is now available on Instacart.
With this app, consumers can place online catering orders for delivery. The technology allows a streamlined process for store associates to manage orders. It also integrates with Instacart’s Carrot Order Ahead, a platform that allows buyers to schedule their orders. This combination enables shoppers to order grocery items and catering items at the same time.
“Catering represents one of the highest margin categories for grocers, driving meaningful incremental growth for their business as consumer demand rises. In the first half of 2022, we saw a nearly 20% increase in customers searching for ‘catering’ on Instacart compared to the same period last year,” Jeanette Barlow, vice president of product at Instacart, said in a statement.
“Historically, ordering ahead from the grocery store has been labor intensive — often using paper tickets or other manual systems — and inefficient for both retailers and customers,” Barlow said. “By linking Foodstorm OMS to the Instacart app, we are helping grocers meet catering demand by providing a comprehensive, all-encompassing experience for customers using Carat Order Ahead and increasing the reach of a highly profitable portion of their business. are capable.”
“Instacart platform technology has helped more customers find our catering selection, resulting in increased sales for this important part of our business,” said Russell McVeigh, catering director at Uncle Giuseppe Marketplace, in a statement.
“Both the Instacart app and Foodstorm OMS are critical to supporting our e-commerce business,” he said.
McVeigh said that “in the busy holiday season when catering and prepared foods are in peak demand, we can make up about 62% of our online sales with the right infrastructure to handle that volume without crippling our in-stores.” without having to scale up operations or our employees. Now, with Caret Order Ahead, we have a more connected and simplified experience that allows us to be more innovative and help our in-store associates and customers Allows to go above and beyond.”
Uncle Giuseppe’s New York stores include East Meadow, Smithtown, Port Washington, Port Jefferson Station, Massapequa, Melville, North Babylon and Yorktown Height. Its New Jersey stores include Ramsey and Morris Plains.