Personalizing Instacart for dietary needs

Personal Project

·

2024

Introduction

Instacart is a grocery delivery app that provides same-day, contactless delivery. For this project, I challenged myself to design a feature for Instacart users with dietary restrictions to reduce friction in the shopping experience, improve customer satisfaction/retention, and reduce the number of refunded products.

This is a personal design exercise not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Instacart.

problem statement

Instacart lacks features to support customers with allergies. When shoppers replace out of stock items, they may unintentionally select items customers are allergic to. This results in a frustrating experience, wasted products, and diminished trust in the platform.

discovery

I discovered this problem through the Instacart subreddit where users with dietary restrictions or allergies expressed the challenges they face using Instacart. These posts described similar experiences, with numerous customers requesting that Instacart add a feature to solve this problem.

breakdown of the problem

#1 Specific replacements break if that item is also out of stock

Instacart allows customers to select a specific item as a replacement if their requested item is out of stock. However, if the chosen replacement is also out of stock, customers need to be readily available to chat with their shopper and manually approve or reject each item.

#2 Shoppers aren't given guidance on what is a "best match"

Shoppers struggle to choose a "best match" replacement because recommendations provided by Instacart don't consider the customer's dietary restrictions. Unless a customer messages the shopper, shoppers don't know about a customer's allergy restrictions.

#3 "Add a note" feature is cumbersome and instructions are not always read by shoppers

Customers can add a note for their shopper, but notes need to be added per item, making it time-consuming and inconvenient to use. Additionally, these notes are not always read by shoppers who may be managing multiple orders simultaneously.

process

Ideating concepts based on user stories

I began by writing down the main user stories I was solving for. Then, I sketched rough ideas for different solutions across the shopping journey.

actor
situation
motivation
outcome

As a customer,

when I place an order,

I want to tell my shopper about my dietary restrictions

so that I can avoid receiving products I'm allergic to.

As a customer,

when I'm shopping,

I want to avoid seeing products I'm allergic to,

so that I can shop confidently and safely.

process

Evaluating concepts and usability testing

From the ideation, I selected 2 concepts that felt more promising to develop further. At this stage, I would gather feedback from designers, product managers, and other stakeholders to evaluate each concept for usability and feasibility. Then, I would run a usability study to evaluate its usability with Instacart customers.

Proposed solution: Dietary restrictions profile

My solution proposes adding a dedicated section in the user profile for specifying dietary restrictions and allergies. This information integrates with product search filters, replacement recommendations, and shopper chat. Key features of the solution include:

1. Personalized dietary restrictions profile:

Users can select specific allergies and dietary restrictions, which are saved and applied across the platform.

2. Search results filter and smart replacements:

Users can filter search results by their allergens while shopping to stop seeing unsafe products. When an item is out of stock, the system automatically excludes replacements containing allergens and does not recommend these replacements to shoppers when selected items are out of stock.

3. Automated shopper guidance:

Shoppers receive the user's dietary preferences directly, reducing the risk of unsafe substitutions and removing the need for manual communication.

Impact

The dietary restrictions feature should help Instacart by improving user retention and satisfaction. In addition to business metrics, I would measure the success of this feature by looking at:

1. Engagement (% of users who fill out their dietary restrictions profile): High adoption indicates the feature resonates with users and addresses a real need.

2. Filter usage (frequency of users applying “No Allergens” filter during searches): High usage indicates the feature is useful for daily shopping.

3. Reduction in number of refunded items: Drop in refunds indicates the feature is helping shoppers find suitable replacements for users.