Instacart Acquires Arpalus Shelf-Scanning Technology

Instacart has acquired Arpalus, a computer vision company that has developed shelf intelligence technology built for grocery retail. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Instacart said undetected out-of-stocks and catalog gaps are among the most persistent sources of customer dissatisfaction in online grocery, driving substitutions, cancellations and eroded trust. The company said the acquisition gives it a more complete picture of on-shelf inventory and product availability to increase fulfillment accuracy. Arpalus' technology turns a video scan of a store shelf into a real-time picture of on-shelf inventory. The company said its computer vision models are built for grocery store conditions, including low or unreliable Wi-Fi, inconsistent lighting and thousands of visually similar products packed together, and can identify individual items on shelves with more than 95 percent accuracy on average. The technology runs on any smartphone or camera-equipped device, meaning Instacart's network of 600,000 shoppers can generate shelf intelligence using the app they already use on orders. Arpalus models also can guide shoppers in the moment, prompting them to adjust camera angle or distance.