Innovator Profile: Jupiter Bridges the Gap Between Social Commerce and Grocery Delivery

Introduction 

The Coresight Research team will attend and participate in this year’s Groceryshop conference, which will be held on September 19–22, 2022, in Las Vegas, US. Groceryshop 2022 will explore the changing grocery landscape and help businesses navigate the rapid rise in e-commerce, the latest business models and technologies, and the shifting consumer behaviors that are impacting the industry.

On September 19, 2022, Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research, will emcee and feature on the judging panel of Groceryshop 2022’s “Shark Reef” startup pitch competition, which will see 12 early-stage innovators compete to win the Judges’ Choice and Audience Choice awards. In the lead-up to the event, we are profiling the participating innovators. 

This report forms part of our Innovator Profile series, which focuses on emerging technologies that are disrupting traditional retail and fueling innovation across the retail value chain. We present Jupiter, a social commerce food company that helps social media food creators sell and deliver their grocery powered recipes and meal plans directly to their followers. Coresight Research collaborated with Jupiter to offer insights into its capabilities and offerings.

Areas of Innovation

Coresight Research categorizes the 12 participating innovators into three areas of innovation in retail: fulfillment and sustainability; product marketing and merchandising; and AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning) and automation. Jupiter falls under “product marketing and merchandising.”

Brands and retailers are increasingly finding innovative ways to expand their marketing reach and brand awareness. Advances in retail technology and accessibility to shopper data are supporting omnichannel marketing and merchandising strategies to achieve growth. 

Jupiter: In Detail

Headquarters 

San Francisco, California, US 

Funding Stage 

Seed stage 

Total funding raised: $8 million+ 

Company Description

Founded in 2019, Jupiter is a social commerce platform that enables food-based content creators from Instagram and TikTok to launch their own shops where they can sell recipes and meal plans directly to their followers. Consumers can shop for recipes, meal plans and ingredients from a variety of creators that focus on different categories and styles of food—such as ethnic, vegan and health-conscious food—and customize their final list of ingredients before they order. Shoppers can then have their groceries delivered to their door or even directly restocked into their fridge via delivery services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Jupiter’s platform aims to help users save time when grocery shopping while tailoring their shopping list to their individual preferences, based on recipes from their favorite content creators. The platform is built to eventually “put grocery delivery on autopilot” by factoring in shopper purchase history, self-entered preferences and more to create a personalized, automated grocery shopping and delivery experience for users. 

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Meal planning can come with numerous challenges, including finding the right assortment of ingredients to meet a nutritional objective, integrating fresh new ingredients periodically, and finding the time to organize the plan. In addition, a trip to the grocery store to find and match all the required ingredients for the planned meal prep can be time consuming and can yield incomplete shopping trips due to lack of inventory. By using Jupiter, shoppers can select from pre-made recipes or meal plans based on their preferences, order directly from the company’s website based on updated inventory and get the items delivered to their doorstep or even directly restocked into their fridge. 

While the popularity of social commerce continues to grow alongside an increasing number of food creators on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, many of these creators are not able to directly capitalize on the popularity of their content. Jupiter enables them to create and launch their own shops—gaining access to the social commerce market while giving shoppers access to the creators’ recipes.  

Market Opportunity 

More shoppers are using grocery delivery services in the US, a trend recently ignited by pandemic-induced lockdowns and bolstered by advances in retail and supply chain technology. Coresight Research’s US Online Grocery Survey 2022 found that 54% of US consumers bought groceries online in the 12 months prior to March 2022, up from 37% in pre-pandemic 2019. Grocery and convenience stores should expand their fulfillment options to include delivery options to compete in the growing grocery delivery market. 

The growth of social commerce is giving rise to opportunity for food-based creators and influencers to monetize their popularity by selling directly to their followers. In our US Social Commerce Survey 2022, we found that nine in 10 respondents use social media and 65% use social media as a part of the shopping process. Furthermore, around 84% of social media shoppers that follow influencers reported that they are affected by influencers at least sometimes when shopping.

What We Think

Consumer demand for convenience is increasing, with shoppers looking for easy methods to buy ingredients to prepare their favorite meals. Retailers and creators are therefore launching new ways to better streamline the grocery shopping journey around shopper preferences to minimize the time and effort required from shoppers. 

As social commerce continues to grow in popularity, we are likely to see more opportunities emerge for content creators to monetize their following on social media.