From receipt to recipe – Northfork levels up the meal planning experience

Northfork has released a new API that turns grocery shopping into a personalised experience built around shoppers’ preferences. The API takes shoppers from receipt to recipe. It serves recipe suggestions based on what shoppers have put in their baskets and on items they’ve previously bought.

Personalisation in practice

“We’re excited about the potential of this new API,” comments Northfork Co-founder Erik Wallin. “This is taking meal planning to the next level. It personalises recipe suggestions by taking account of not just the current shop but store-cupboard items the shopper has bought recently.”

We’re already delivering an enhanced experience to our partner’s customers using the Northfork Personalisation API. It analyses their past 30 days’ worth of shopping, along with their current basket, and suggests recipes accordingly. It also factors in consumers’ favourite products, based on their purchase history.

As an example, a customer who bought soy sauce and sesame oil one week, then tofu and garlic the next, could be served a sesame tofu noodles recipe suggestion. They can then add, in a single click or tap, the missing ingredients. The API can calculate those missing ingredients either using just the items in the basket or including recently purchased goods. Recipe suggestions change dynamically as the shopper adds to their basket.

Supporting the omnichannel experience

The personalisation API doesn’t need access to the shopper’s sensitive or personal data. It simply uses purchased product data to enable the shopper to discover relevant recipes. The list of recipes includes scoring based on each recipe’s match to the search criteria.

Northfork has built-in plenty of flexibility so that retailers can deliver an omnichannel grocery shopping solution. They can use the API to serve recipes based on in-store shopping trips as well as those online.

“Grocery retail leaders are those who have embraced the omnichannel mindset,” states Northfork’s Erik Wallin. “We are supporting that with this new API, which can enhance the shopping and meal planning experience dynamically, no matter how consumers choose to shop. It’s very future-focused.”