Dive Brief:

ShopRite stores in Connecticut have launched a pilot with CookIt, a service from Locai Solutions that provides personalized recipes, ingredient recommendations and meal costs to customers based on the items in their carts, according to a press release. It also takes dietary restrictions and seasonal ingredients into consideration.

The service can be accessed through a unique portal on ShopRite's e-commerce page called "The Recipe Shop." Nearly 500 recipe recommendations are available to consumers from zucchini manicotti rollups to slow cooker ground turkey stuffed peppers.

CookIt will also be available at The Fresh Grocer later this year.

Dive Insight:

Grocers have long offered recipe suggestions on their websites and in stores. But e-commerce offers new ways to pair shopping with culinary discovery.

CookIt’s service takes the shoppable recipe trend popular among many grocers like Walmart, Target and Safeway and provides it right on the grocer's own site, eliminating the extra step that comes with cross-linking on recipe providers like Epicurious. This promises to make ShopRite's e-commerce portal a destination for shoppers while also leading to the discovery of new products.

Inside The Recipe Shop, customers can find dishes like ground turkey stuffed peppers and orange-glazed sweet potatoes. Each recipe tab shows the total cost of ingredients along with the number of ingredients and how many of those ingredients are currently in a shoppers' basket. Customers can also preview the recipe's steps to see if it's something they wish to make.

Creating larger basket sizes online is crucial for grocers as delivery and last-mile costs can reduce margins. In addition to discovery tools, retailers and service providers frequently provide incentives like free delivery to boost order size. According to Brick Meets Click, customers spend on average just over $100 on delivery and click-and-collect orders.

ShopRite has put an emphasis on meals in the past. In April, the retailer partnered with Chicory, a shoppable recipe platform. Customers exploring recipes on one of Chicory's 1,000 sites had the option to add products to their carts, which automatically loaded the items to ShopRite's virtual cart. In September, the retailer launched a “family meals” campaign which included food demonstrations in stores by registered dietitians, cooking classes and other events aimed at preparing meals together. ShopRite also offered a free recipe book to shoppers.