Greater ROI on every shelf with Shelf Intelligence

Identifying on-shelf availability is critical to keeping shoppers satisfied, yet you can’t rely on POS data alone to determine out-of-stocks. With an AI-enabled shelf intelligence solution, you can easily identify and restock misplaced items within minutes, report on key KPI’s such as share of shelf, as well as adjust your merchandising strategy.

Hear more from Abby Haynes, Solutions Consultant, Symphony RetailAI when she spoke to Mike Troy, Editor-in-Chief at Retail Leader.

  • Read Video Transcript

    MT: Hello, I’m Mike Troy, Editor of Retail Leader. I’m here at Irving, Texas at the Symphony RetailAI Xcelerate Conference, joined by Abby Haynes.

    AH: Hello.

    MT: And your solution is shelf intelligence.

    AH: Yes.

    MT: Tell me a little bit about what shelf intelligence means and the problem that you’re solving for retail.

    AH: Yeah, yeah, of course. So shelf intelligence is a two part solution. You have the capture side and then you have the recording side through CINDE. So on the capture side, you can do it via photo, video, if you have the on-shelf cameras, robots, what have you.

    MT: So the on-shelf cameras that are on like the opposing shelf, capture the other shelf and then obviously the robot’s going up and down.

    AH: On the other aisles, yeah.

    MT: Okay.

    AH: So you can use that and then what happens is, you capture the live shelves. That data all goes up into CINDE and so then we’re able to get some really, really valuable insights.

    MT: And I’m asking everybody to say what CINDE is, because if the people only see this one video…

    AH: Yeah, of course.

    MT: …they need to know what CINDE…CINDE’s the conversational…

    AH: Conversational Insights Decision Engine.

    MT: Okay.

    AH: So CINDE is our natural language processing kind of guru, that’s our Alexa. So with CINDE, you’re able to get some, not just data, but you get actually what to do with the data. And if you’re uncomfortable talking to her, it’s fine, you can also just use…just use the typing.

    MT: Right.

    AH: And that works out as well.

    MT: Okay. Okay.

    AH: Yeah. But with this on the reporting side, what happens is, CINDE takes all of that data and then is able to filter it at a really deep level. So you’re able to see things like, okay, what is my planogram compliance across stores, what is my price compliance, what’s my promo compliance, or then even deeper, more on the CPG side of things, like okay, what’s my share of shelf, are my products at the prime position on the shelf, where customers are going. So you can do a lot with it.

    MT: But wouldn’t the CPG company know where…well, they would know where their product’s supposed to be, right?

    AH: Exactly, but not where it actually is.

    MT: Okay.

    AH: So that’s really valuable to them, if they’re paying all this money, to have it be in a certain place. Is it actually in that place? And is that place the best place for them? Should they move it to another place?

    MT: Oh. So if the retail…I’m thinking through this, so a retailer would have to have the cameras in the store, but then they would have to make that data available to the CPG company, to know what was going on, on the shelf, correct?

    AH: Not quite. So what happens is, this can be used by either retailers or CPGs. In the retail case, typically they empower their store associate with it, with the app.

    MT: Okay.

    AH: Where they can go and capture the store shelves, to then fix it up to compliance to the planogram. On the CPG side, they typically have their auditors already going into the stores. So that’s who would typically be equipped with the app, to then do the collection for the CPGs.

    MT: Oh, okay. Okay. And then just identify, fix compliance, shelf integrity.

    AH: Exactly.

    MT: All of those basic store level execution issues. How is it working with…you know, a lot of…there’s a lot of buy on line, pick up in store, where products are picked from shelves. Are you seeing sort of an impact from that click and collect surge of activity?

    AH: …it’s really helpful there, because it can also identify your on-shelf availability. So you know, you typically know your out of stocks, but that’s just looking at your POS data in the sales. So being able to know what’s actually on your shelf there, because you can’t currently account for, okay, a customer picked it up and is wondering round the store and maybe they set it down on another shelf. If it doesn’t go through the POS, currently, it’s just, you know, you don’t know, and this is great for that. And with click and collect, a lot being pulled form the shelves, you have the big carts going through during the collections, you’re able to see exactly at a point in time, what’s going on.

    MT: I feel like you’re kind of ahead of curve on this particular thing, because the whole thing with the robots and the store capturing imagery, there’s some activity there and then the shelf edge cameras, there’s some activity there. It’s certainly not widespread.

    AH: Yeah, it is, it’s a pretty new, up and coming thing, I feel like. I feel like it’s going to be massively popular soon. But you’re right…I think it’s kind of the edge of the curve right now.

    MT: Oh, right. Well, very good.

    AH: Yeah.

    MT: Okay. So you mentioned CINDE, what is CINDE, just in case, yeah?

    AH: Yeah. So CINDE is our Conversational Insights Decision Engine. So think of it as kind of our Alexa. CINDE is a natural language processor, so you can speak to her, asking questions. If you’re uncomfortable with that, that’s okay, you can type as well.

    MT: So type?

    AH: Yeah, but for this solution, CINDE has got we’re calling, the shelf intelligence skill. So CINDE is able to take all of the data from that capture in store and get some really, really powerful insights. And we have out of the box KPIs, but we’re also able to work with each customer and see what their specifically looking for, data wise and make that view available for them in CINDE.

    MT: Is CINDE a thing I query or a thing that serves me information?

    AH: So it can kind of work either way. CINDE serves information, of hey, these are some pieces of data that affects your business, you might want to look at. But you can also query CINDE with just speaking to her a question or typing in your question. So you can…she can kind of work either way.

    MT: Do you ever ask CINDE questions in your job?

    AH: On occasion.

    MT: Okay

    AH: Typically, what is the planogram compliance or what are my out of stocks?

    MT: Okay. Very good.