See It, Shop It: Canada's Inabuggy Debuts 3D Virtual Grocery Shopping

Have you ever shopped for groceries online and found yourself mentally walking the store aisles before you check out just to make sure you didn't forget anything?

A Canadian grocery delivery service wants to help shoppers out with their aisle-wandering visualizations. Toronto-based Inabuggy has created a "3D virtual grocery shopping portal" whereby shoppers placing an order via the Inabuggy website or app can browse actual store aisles to add items to their cart. The first store featuring the new visualization feature is McEwan Fine Foods Don Mills, an upscale Toronto market. Fresh produce, fish, meats, prepared meals and specialty grocery items can be shopped using the feature. A news release from Inabuggy touts that customers using the visualization tool will find items in the same place every time they shop.

Shoppers can still opt to order online by searching for individual items. But for shoppers curious about what they might be missing or forgetting by just tracking down their go-tos, the virtual store option can allow for new-product discovery, Inabuggy and McEwan said. 

"We have a wide variety of unique products and quality produce, and this feature will allow our guests to discover our offerings from the comfort of their homes," McEwan Group chef and owner Mark McEwan said. Inabuggy founder and CEO Julian Gleizer called the virtual-store feature "a glimpse into the online grocery shopping experience of the future."

Inabuggy, which launched in 2015, counts Safeway, Costco, Walmart, IGA and several Canadian specialty foods retailers among its partners.