FreshDirect LLC, a web-only retailer of groceries, is offering its customers a new online shopping tool that lets them quickly buy the ingredients in recipes shown on millions of food-related web sites and blogs.

The retailer, No. 80 in the Internet Retailer Top 500, is the first to offer consumers Popcart, a free shopping tool from e-commerce technology vendor Foodily, the two companies said today. Once consumers bookmark the Popcart application in their web browser, they can use it to buy ingredients listed in recipes on any web site. 

It works like this: At GetPopcart.com/freshdirect, a consumer drags the “Popcart it” box to her web browser’s bookmark or favorites section. When viewing a recipe on a web site or blog, she clicks on Popcart to open its window. Then she uses her cursor to highlight the ingredients she wants to buy, drags the content into a Popcart box and clicks “Continue” to complete the purchase of the ingredients on FreshDirect.com.

“FreshDirect is always looking to innovate and make shopping for food easier,” said Jodi Kahn, the retailer’s chief consumer officer. “Popcart for FreshDirect enables customers to have a new way to shop the recipes they love and cook with the freshest ingredients from FreshDirect.”

Adds Andrea Cutright, CEO of Foodily: “The web is the number one resource for home cooks, but when you go from online to browsing to in-store shopping, buying the ingredients can take hours and be a deterrent to getting dinner on the table. Popcart removes the friction from shopping for recipes.” 

Popcart for FreshDirect is  available in the FreshDirect service areas: the New York metropolitan area, including parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, and the Philadelphia metropolitan area, including parts of Delaware. 

The cost to retailers of offering Popcart was not immediately available.