Family Meals Made Easy Recipe Platform Engages Shoppers

Meal planning is a well-known tool for consumers to save time while also feeling more confident about their grocery shopping decisions. From helping to create a thorough shopping list to taking the guesswork out of the age-old question, "What's for dinner tonight?", meal planning can spare shoppers more than just one headache. But what's the benefit to a grocery retailer? 

When grocery retailers actively help their shoppers save time, shop more efficiently, and get meals on the table more easily, those shoppers become more loyal and therefore less likely to shop elsewhere for fill-in trips or deal-hunting.  

And now, the Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) is helping member stores better connect with shoppers through the Family Meals Made Easy recipe platform on IGA.com, a time-saving solution that includes seasonal recipe content featuring the nation’s top brands and recipe influencers, nutritional and serving size information, and shopping list functions for in-store shopping. Implemented in December 2023, the new platform has already driven 127% more traffic to IGA.com in the first quarter of 2024 — that's a lot of hungry shoppers with new recipes to try!

Shoppers can find freshly curated recipes designed to make meal planning more accessible and convenient, while independent grocery retailers can easily share the shoppable content on their owned media platforms (check for the share button next to each recipe and then select your preferred social media channel), thanks to Grocery Shopii, the advanced shoppable recipe technology behind the platform.

“As some of the highest performing content a retailer or brand can share online, recipes are playing an increasingly important role in the at-home chef's meal-planning and grocery-shopping routine,” IGA VP Brand Development Michael La Kier said.

The platform is truly meal planning made easy, with recipe categories, mouthwatering photos, time to cook, and number of ingredients prominently displayed up front. Upon a quick scan of the site, a shopper can plan tonight's meal in seconds: street tacos as a main, honey butter skillet corn for a side, and Duke's streusel coffee cake for dessert. Even better? With a click of a button, shoppers can add the ingredients for each recipe to their shopping list, which is organized by section and aisle.

Watch how easy it is to add recipes to your meal plan and shopping list.

Content Across Media Channels

This recipe content is used across IGA’s media channels, including IGA.com, the Recipe Club newsletter, IGA’s National Digital Ad, and social media. The platform also enables IGA’s 2,000+ U.S. member locations to share recipe content on their social media and other owned media channels.

“Family Meals Made Easy is solving a shopper dilemma," Katie Hotze, CEO of Grocery Shopii, said. "In turn, we know those shoppers will return to the grocer’s homepage 500% more often and they will purchase up to 40% more products. Everyone wins.”

Solve shoppers' meal planning problems, gain shopper loyalty. It's a winning concept that is part of an even broader plan to help IGA members. And better still, this content doesn't have to stay just on IGA's media channels. The custom platform is available to any IGA-affiliated retailer to place on their own web platform. For more information, contact IGA's Sarah Rivers at srivers@igainc.com.

Partnering with CPG Brands to Boost Store Traffic Through Engaging Content

The icing on the cake? The platform transforms recipe content into advertising moments for IGA's CPG partners, which fuels better, more engaging content that translates into increased shopper satisfaction and sales for CPGs and independent retailers alike.

“The end goal is to empower our independent grocery retailers with a new retail media channel that generates engaging content for shoppers and advertising dollars that allow us to reinvest in targeted media buys on behalf of our members,” La Kier said. “This is one of many ways we’re looking to work with CPG partners to ensure independent retailers don’t miss out on their share of the media dollars currently going to large national chains.”