Kroger Partners with Whisk for Online Recipe Ordering

Need to Know

• Consumers can now turn any recipe from Whisk’s network of brands into an online shopping list, and purchase items from the list for pickup or delivery from Kroger stores.
• Whisk’s Food Genome, an AI tool, ensures items are available for purchase at nearby stores.
• Whisk’s other partners include Walmart, Amazon Fresh, and Instacart.

Analysis

Whisk, the Samsung food tech platform, has partnered with U.S. supermarket chain Kroger to offer shoppable recipes to customers.

How it works is simple: any recipe published on the Whisk network can be downloaded and saved as a shopping list, which can then be purchased for pickup or delivery from Kroger stores. The new capability leverages Whisk’s Food Genome, which is an artificial intelligence tool that ensures that a recipe’s ingredients are matched with ingredients that are currently available at Kroger stores.

The Whisk-Kroger partnership addresses two COVID-19 concerns: consumers are continuing to rely on online grocery retail and may be unwilling or unable to dine out at restaurants due to safety concerns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic (but unsure of how to build or plan recipes on their own).

“As more retailers strengthen their e-commerce strategy to adapt to changing consumer preferences and expectations, we’re excited to grow the Whisk ecosystem and bring Kroger, the largest grocer in the U.S., to all the users on our existing recipe and hardware integrations,” Nick Holzherr, head of Whisk, said of the partnership. “Users in 35 states can now access fresh and affordable Kroger groceries conveniently from the buttons we power on published recipes from any app or website.”

Kroger is not the first retailer to sign on with Whisk to offer shoppable recipes: Walmart, Amazon Fresh, and Instacart are also U.S. partners, while Ahold Delhaize offers shoppable recipes in the Netherlands. The grocery retailer also owns Chefbot, an AI-powered Twitter recipe tool; is partnered with partners with Innit Personalized Shoppable Recipes, which allows users to create a personal meal kit; and Cooklist, a shoppable recipe app.

“Kroger is always innovating to help make our customers’ lives easier and influence the path to purchase,” Jody Kalmbach, Kroger’s group vice president of product experience, said in a statement. “The Whisk partnership is a new part of our seamless experience to help meet our customers’ evolving needs, especially as more households are cooking at home and searching online for recipe inspiration. Whisk supports a frictionless customer experience through premium integration and precise product matching, which is key as we continue to expand our digital ecosystem and adapt to our customers’ changing shopping styles.”

Kroger has had success this year with its digital advancements, having opened two digital innovation labs, at the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University, in January. The company posted a 22% spike in online sales in March, and in August, announced plans to expand its third-party marketplace with Ship, aiming to add 50,000 new items by Fall 2020.