Shipt, the third-party delivery platform whose retail partners include Target and Sprouts Farmers Market, recently introduced a suite of tools to make the ordering process more personalized and convenient.
Alia Kemet is Shipt’s chief marketing officer.
The retail-focused 3PD platform launched Ask Shipt in September, an AI-powered shopping assistant that turns customers’ prompts, recipes and photos into personalized shopping carts. At the start of the summer, the Alabama-based company announced Shipt Kits, a feature that suggests pre-filled carts designed to save customers time when shopping for specific events like watch parties and holiday parties.
“Our primary focus is not necessarily changing the customer behavior, but it’s about making the shopping for everyday essentials feel easier [and] feel more intuitive,” Alia Kemet, Shipt’s chief marketing officer, told Food On Demand. “If there’s one thing that we’d like customers to experience, it’s to lessen that fatigue, so we will continue to develop and to enhance both of these, and build upon them.
The new offerings add features similar to those of restaurant-oriented 3PD giants, reflecting a broader trend among delivery platforms.
In June, DoorDash introduced Ask DoorDash, a conversational AI shopping and ordering assistant. In November 2024, the platform announced that guests could select recipes from a catalog, instantly filling their carts with the required ingredients.
Uber Eats, meanwhile, introduced Cart Assistant earlier this year, an AI-powered grocery basket builder that accepts text and image inputs and uses past orders to personalize recommendations.
Unpacking Shipt Kits
With customer-ready, pre-built collections ranging from fall comfort meal kits to watch-party lists, Kemet said Shipt Kits ultimately aims to leverage AI, consumer behavior and guests’ shopping patterns to take the guesswork out of online grocery and retail ordering.
Shipt Kits launched ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup; the feature rolled out in early June, a week before the global soccer tournament formally kicked off. Initially, Kemet said, the bundle-focused feature relied more on general convenience than on personalization, but now Shipt is leaning into more personalized kit suggestions.
“We were leading up to this big soccer event, and we saw that increase in average basket sizes, and so we wanted to hurry up and get that done,” Kemet said, referring to Shipt Kits’ launch June 4. “But what we didn’t do is pull all the personalization that we wanted to pull into it. So, currently, we’re working on making them even more personalized than they are by using your past shopping behavior.”
A key focus of that personalization is offering substitute suggestions tailored to the needs of kit buyers. The goal, Kemet said, is to increase order volumes, drive sales growth and gain deeper insights into consumer preferences.
“We talk to our members regularly; every single week, we’re getting insights back,” Kemet said. “If their lives aren’t becoming easier because they’re using Shipt, then we’re not meeting our goal by leveraging things like Ask Shipt or Shipt Kits.”
Kemet said she expects more seasonal Shipt Kits slates as the feature matures. Future kits could include “Love Island” watch-party bundles in the summer, when the next season of the reality TV series is set to premiere, as well as those tied to popular movie releases.
“There are new occasions coming up every day, and we’re seeing new things from our customers every week,” Kemet said. “We need to optimize as the customer changes. We need to keep at the speed of our customer, and that’s what we intend to do.”
Meet Shipt’s new AI assistant
Shipt launched Ask Shipt September 9, describing the agentic assistant as designed to improve customers’ shopping and list-creation experiences.
Ask Shipt builds carts in response to customer prompts, with recommendations that can take into account store inventory and members’ past purchases from that store, according to an emailed statement from Shipt.
Ask Shipt launched September 9, an agentic assistant aimed at improve customers’ shopping and list-creation experiences.
Such prompts could include “What’s an easy dinner idea for a family of five for under $35? One person is a picky eater” or “Fill my cart with my pantry staples and make sure to add in some extra snacks for Friday’s family movie night.”
“I do a lot of easy meals for my family, and the whole idea of Shipt Kits, and even the Ask Shipt [is] about making life easier and removing that mental load,” Kemet said.
The tool develops recommendations based on prompts from Shipt users, such as pasting a recipe link, requesting meal inspiration, or seeking dinner options with budget constraints or dietary restrictions.
