We’re continuously building to give convenience retailers the most powerful digital commerce tools on the market. Last month, we released major enhancements across our 1st-party ordering platform, Lula Direct, to help drive higher conversion and make the shopper journey faster and more seamless than ever.
From elevated search and discovery to expanded payment options and airtight compliance controls, these upgrades give merchants even more ways to scale their digital sales.
Here's a recap of what's new:
🔍 Search and Discovery, Revamped
The faster shoppers find what they want, the more they buy. We’ve made product discovery sharper and more intuitive.
- Search that understands intent: Natural-language parsing and semantic matching surface the right products even when exact keywords aren't typed, ensuring vague or misspelled searches still land on the right items.
- Shelves that match the moment: The Discover home now features curated shelves that dynamically adapt to the time of day, instantly highlighting morning coffee or late-night snacks based on when shoppers browse.
- Personalized recommendations: The storefront learns from shopper behavior over time to deliver a tailored, higher-converting browsing experience.
- Your real shelf, every time: All discovery is scoped directly to the customer's selected store location, displaying live inventory and exact local pricing to ensure seamless checkouts and minimize cancellations.
🚀 A Path Built to Convert
We’ve enhanced every step from the product page to the final tap to help merchants increase average order value and streamline the last mile.
- Upsell on the product page: Product pages now suggest intelligent pairings and popular complements based on real purchase trends, helping shoppers discover additional items to add to their cart.
- Now in Spanish: Lula Direct now features full Spanish language support, enabling retailers to serve a broader segment of their local shopper base.
- Expanded last-mile choices: We’ve integrated First Delivery as a last-mile carrier option, giving stores another rapid delivery option with automated dispatch, live tracking, and streamlined reconciliation.
💳 Checkout You Can Trust
We’ve added more granular controls to checkout to ensure absolute accuracy and transparency for both merchants and customers.
- Enhanced charge accuracy: Improved payment processing displays the exact card brand and last four digits, calculates tips with precision, and prevents empty guest checkouts.
- Per-store fee customization: Individual store locations can now configure custom delivery and service fees at the cart level, supported by an automated minimum-fee floor.
- Real-time SMS order updates: Automated text notifications are now live, providing shoppers with instant tracking links alongside clear order confirmation and cancellation emails carrying canonical store details.
📜 Age-Restricted Ordering, Built to Comply
We’ve expanded online sales opportunities for age-restricted items while reinforcing the automated compliance safeguards convenience retailers rely on.
- Expanded tobacco capabilities: Tobacco ordering is now live where permitted by law, featuring automated delivery blocks for restricted zones and state-compliant rules for flavored and menthol pickup orders.
- Server-side age verification: Verification now executes securely on our servers at the moment an order is completed—covering both guest checkouts and signed-in accounts.
- SNAP/EBT split-tender: Shoppers can now split orders across SNAP, EBT cash, and standard debit/credit cards with FNS-compliant receipts, activated store-by-store as certifications complete.
🌐 The Bigger Picture
This release delivers a series of impactful upgrades focused directly on elevating the shopper experience. Lula Direct continues to provide merchants with a high-performing digital storefront, equipped with the speed, compliance, and flexible payment options modern convenience retail demands.
Visit our release notes to learn more.
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