Online Grocer Farmstead Introduces Smart Shopping List, Accurately Predicting What Customers Need

Farmstead leverages predictive machine-learning models to help customers discover new and old favorites, to quickly compile their complete weekly grocery list

San Francisco, CA (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Farmstead, the first online grocer to offer fresh, high-quality groceries, delivered for free, at better prices than local supermarkets, announced today a new feature called Smart Shopping List that goes beyond recommendations to actually predict what customers need based on multiple data-driven factors including weekly shopping history, buying signals and what’s already in their cart.

“One of the biggest challenges to buying groceries online is to build your shopping cart rapidly,” said Farmstead co-founder and CEO Pradeep Elankumaran. “Since there are no physical aisles to walk through like a traditional supermarket, and only so much scrolling one can take, it’s a true challenge to help customers find the right products at the right time while also suggesting new ones they’ll love in the few minutes they spend each week tapping buttons online.”

Farmstead’s Smart Shopping List gives customers a better option – instead of just aisle-by-aisle shopping, it dynamically generates an endless list of heavily personalized products that they can scroll through. These products are ranked by machine-learning algorithms based on customers’ shopping behavior and wellness preferences, along with the collective behavior of other customers who buy similar products. Farmstead customers can now put their orders together much faster, because Farmstead’s models are assisting them.

While other online grocers can make recommendations based on purchase history or brand sponsorships, they are unable to algorithmically consider more complex factors such as day of the week and seasonality (for example: recommend heavy cream during Thanksgiving), compatible products (show the cream cheese you normally buy when you buy bagels) and also programmatically surface seasonal products (fresh local strawberries in the summer).

Farmstead’s Smart Shopping List gets smarter and more personalized every time a customer uses it. In early testing, Farmstead found that more than 40 percent of customers choose to shop via Smart Shopping List when presented with the option, and when they did they were 3.5x more likely to add suggested items to their list - demonstrating that Farmstead’s suggestions were accurate and timely.

Smart Shopping List is available now to existing Farmstead customers. New customers will be presented with the Smart Shopping List option after they have placed their first order with Farmstead, giving the software the chance to learn their unique preferences.

Farmstead recently announced a program called Refill & Save that lets customers set up weekly subscriptions for their staples, while also making grocery delivery cheaper than going to the supermarket. In addition to those weekly subscriptions, Smart Shopping List helps make assembling an online grocery list faster and easier.

“It’s features like Refill & Save and Smart Shopping List that will make online grocery buying less overwhelming and more appealing to the average family,” said Elankumaran. “Right now, online grocery represents only about 8 percent of overall grocery buying. We think that number will double by the end of 2019. The more convenient and less expensive we can make it, the better for the vast majority of mid-market shoppers who are tentatively exploring online options.”

About Farmstead
Farmstead is the first online grocer to offer fresh, high-quality groceries, delivered for free, at better prices than local supermarkets. Using AI technology, Farmstead has reinvented the grocery buying experience and rewired how food moves across the country, to significantly reduce food waste and fulfill its mission of making high quality, locally sourced food accessible to everyone. Visit https://www.farmsteadapp.com or follow @farmsteadapp.

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