DRIVE SALES GROWTH WITH IMAGE RECOGNITION

There are a handful of global issues that consumer goods companies have faced in recent years that hindered their retail execution in store, such as the coronavirus pandemic, the UK leaving the European Union, and the change of leadership in the White House. Many of these issues are still relevant to people. However, for CPG companies, many of these issues have been superseded by inflation, supply chain issues, and even a shortage of haulage drivers to deliver our everyday goods. In order to take on these growing problems, businesses must utilize modern and innovative CPG solutions to optimize their performance in all retail environments where their products are displayed. Image recognition is the solution companies need to build the Perfect Store and outperform competitors.

The new world we find ourselves in means that everyday purchases are more widely considered than ever before. Shoppers want to make sure that they will get the most value with each dollar spent. Meanwhile, retailers are consolidating ranges and removing products from the shelf while they are increasing space for essential products that have a steady supply. When Tesco released their year-end numbers, there was an interesting point made that despite there being a 6.5% decline in online grocery sales, shoppers are returning to stores as their confidence builds. Their findings suggest that the return to stores is higher than forecasts expected and helps show that stores remain as important today as they were before the boom of online stores over 20 years ago.

While the consequence of these challenges is impacting how CPG companies trade in the store and drive sales growth, there is a desire for a deeper understanding of the true conditions at the shelf to aid growth, and the smallest detail of conditions at the shelf could have a significant impact on sales. It is this desire for more granular store information which is driving the adoption of innovative technology that can help uncover new insights.

Image recognition is one of the innovative technologies which has seen significant growth in recent years, being a vital solution for CPG companies two years after the pandemic began. CPG companies using image recognition are provided with richer data sets about their assortment, its place on the shelf, its share of the shelf, pricing, and promotions – all captured from a single image, or a series of images captured at the shelf. In addition, image recognition can be used to gain the same insights on your competition. Just imagine the power of that data, understanding your competitors’ trends and promotional activity, and then compare them against your performance. However, does the insight provide enough detail to help plan against the competition on future promos?

We have seen multiple use cases where image recognition insights provide a holistic view of the condition in the field across a key account. This same data is driving decision making, which is having a positive impact on the shelf. It is not just about availability – position, price, and assortment are all key drivers. This new data in the new world we find ourselves in is also driving conversations on Joint Business Plans with questions asked about return on investment (ROI) on listing fees.

StayinFront Digital is a pioneer in image recognition technology, and the results speak for themselves. Our innovative machine learning AI analyzes a brand’s performance on the shelf with over 96 percent accuracy, while saving reps’ time by up to 50 percent. Reps can take photos of shelves with ease with StayinFront Digital’s new Burst mode, where a series of shelf photos are taken and stitched together to analyze an entire shelf display. Our solution’s interactive shelf creates a Realogram to highlight non-compliance issues that are present. When combined with StayinFront RDI, StayinFront Digital reaches its fullest potential for enhanced retail optimization. POS data gathered in StayinFront RDI can be used to determine the Size of Prize for each store, and its Dynamic Routing feature determines the optimal route of stores daily.

Want to learn more? Contact your local Retail Execution expert to find out more on how Image Recognition Technology can improve the performance of your field representatives. Also be sure to watch our on-demand webinar which dives deeper into how Machine Learning AI can digitize retail shelves.