Ibotta Launches VR Adventure to Bring the Magic of In-Store Grocery Shopping to Homes Across the Country

DENVER, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ibotta, the leading rewards platform in the United States, today announced the launch of the "Ibotta VR Grocery Shopping Experience," a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform that brings the magic and wonder of grocery shopping into living rooms across the country.

In 2020, foot traffic declined significantly in grocery stores nationwide – as much as 40 percent during some stretches. Shoppers flocked to on-demand delivery and curbside pickup for their grocery needs. While Ibotta applauds and celebrates all those who shopped safely and responsibly over the past year, we understand that there's nothing like the sheer joy of aimlessly walking through a grocery store on a Saturday afternoon and filling up a cart. The "Ibotta VR Grocery Shopping Experience" allows shoppers to feel the socially distanced rush of rewarded shopping simply by putting on a VR headset, selecting from one of Ibotta's 1500+ retail partners, and entering a virtual world full of grocery shopping nirvana.

"Ibotta's VR Grocery Shopping Experience brings the entire grocery experience right into your home – tantrums in the candy aisle, navigating a wobbly cart around spills, shoppers with 40 items at self-checkout, and realizing what you need is on the other end of the store. It's the entire grocery shopping experience all in one virtual place," said Ibotta founder and CEO Bryan Leach. "Over the last year, Ibotta gave shoppers more than $100M cash back and gave away millions of free dinners to help families during lockdown. But the one thing we haven't been able to give shoppers is the euphoria they feel when wandering up and down crowded grocery aisles, stumbling upon new brands and flavors, and flipping through gossip magazines at checkout….until now."

"Ibotta's VR Grocery Shopping Experience" comes preloaded with all the pleasures a shopper might want in a rewarded shopping experience, including:

• Parking Space Hunt - Try to find a parking spot as close to the store as possible. Be careful: some spots look open but when you get close, there's a motorcycle.
• Aisle of Temptation - Complete the level by only purchasing healthy items. Watch out for the Aisle of Temptation, where every box of cookies is buy one, get one free.
• Search for the Toddler - Try to shop for everything on your list without losing track of your toddler. For advanced shoppers, try the Expert setting and keep track of twins.
• 4D Experience - A hose attachment that spritzes you with water anytime you try to grab anything from the produce section. It's important to hydrate.
• Wobbly Wheel - Avoid customer stares, tight turns, and crashing into shelves with one locked-up shopping cart wheel.
• Family Fun - Ibotta's VR Grocery Shopping Experience is fun for the whole family, allowing up to four players to shop at once. Get ready for extra items appearing in your cart while you're not looking and full-blown fights over which brand of chips to buy.
• Checkout Counter of Chaos - Complete your shopping trip while your child cries into the checkout candy display and breaks a screaming record.
• The Shopping List: Teen Edition - Shop for every item on the list without knowing which brand your teenager actually wants. One wrong move and family dinner is ruined.

"My entire life I had to find time in my busy schedule to pack up the kids, fight through traffic, find a parking spot and fend off other shoppers to experience the thrill of grocery shopping," said Julianna Vorhaus, an Ibotta Saver and early adaptor. "Now, I can go shopping anytime, anywhere. Sometimes I'll wait until everyone else goes to bed and sneak down into the basement, put on my VR headset and spend hours looking for deals in Ibotta's VR Grocery Shopping Experience. It's the greatest thing to happen to shopping since free samples."

While Ibotta's VR Grocery Shopping Experience is only an April Fool's Day program, Ibotta wasn't fooling around with helping reward shoppers over the last year.  In 2020, Ibotta launched Grocery Pickup and Delivery to provide Savers cash back no matter how they shop for groceries. And to prove saving money with Ibotta is no joke, the company launched a free desktop browser extension that highlights every cash back offer available for shoppers using Walmart Pickup & Delivery.

For more information about Ibotta, visit www.ibotta.com.

About Ibotta, Inc.
Headquartered in Denver, CO, Ibotta ("I bought a...") is a free-to-use cash back rewards platform that has delivered nearly $900 million in cumulative cash rewards to its users for making purchases in-store, on mobile apps or via websites. Launched in 2012, Ibotta has more than 40 million downloads, is one of the most frequently used shopping and payments platforms in the United States, and offers cash back on purchases at more than 1,500 leading brands and retail partners. Ibotta was named to the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for the third year in a row after debuting on the list in 2018, and the company has also been named as a Top Workplace by The Denver Post three consecutive times.

SOURCE Ibotta