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The race to win at the shelf is an ongoing battle in which Consumer Goods companies need to constantly come up with new strategies and deploy innovative technologies in the hopes of out-working, out-smarting, and out-performing competitors. However, to truly win at the shelf, companies need be able to extract reliable, relevant insight from their field data with innovative CRM software solutions. 

Image Recognition delivers highly accurate and timely metrics that enable companies to measure the true state of their sales performance, product placement and share of shelf. The insights derived from these metrics can then be distributed and acted upon across the organization.

By having proper and accurate measures, companies are able to control, target and continuously improve their holistic sales strategy. Image Recognition is not a “winner takes all” game. The benefits of Image Recognition go far beyond just one player or party.

Here are some of the image recognition winners:

1. Sales
   Image Recognition increases sales force ROI by supporting and ensuring the successful rollout of initiatives including perfect store, planogram compliance, trade programs, and promotions. With deeper insights into actual store conditions in real-time, sales teams can optimize their time and resource allocation to the most value-driven activities.
2. Key Account Management
   With improved visibility into store strategies and their impact on sales at the key account level, KAMs become better informed partners, improving collaboration around trade program performance and compliance. Timely feedback at the head office level enables KAMs to optimize trade programs and maximize value for both parties.
3. Marketing and Trade Promotion Management
   Marketing and trade teams receive accurate feedback from stores as to whether or not the displays have been deployed – within hours of launching a new promotion – and are able to initiate workflows to rectify issues and dark spots. Leveraging powerful Image Recognition technology, category management can assess planogram effectiveness and the TOP team can better understand whether a program’s poor performance was a result of lack of proper design or a flaw in the execution.
4. Supply Chain
   Having a better understanding of supply chain distribution points allows companies to collaborate with internal and external partners in addressing weak spots of existing distribution models. As a result, supply chain teams can focus their resources on improving processes to ensure that stores, channels and regions have sufficient stock availability where needed.
5. Category Management
   Perhaps the biggest winner of all is Category Management. With access to accurate store-level and shelf-level data and metrics, category management teams can assess shelf strategies and their impact on sales at the individual product, subcategory, and product category levels. By analyzing historical trends, they’ll derive valuable information on competitive activities and react quickly to counteract new strategies and initiatives. In addition the category management team will be empowered to better understand the different channels, especially the underrepresented traditional trade channels.

The companies that are quicker to adapt evolving technologies and innovations like Image Recognition will ultimately end up ahead of their competitors and closer to their end customers.

To learn more about leveling up your retail execution with Image Recognition, watch our latest webinar here or contact us today for a demo.