Object Detection and Intelligent Retail Execution

The most successful, profitable players in the consumer goods and distributor industries each have something in common: they’re leveraging cutting edge technology to win more consistently at the shelf in grocery stores. This technology is also helping companies sync up with the needs and habits of consumers.

As companies create their planogram (i.e. the visual plan that determines the placement of products on shelves in the store), they are turning to powerful tech capabilities such as object detection to meet consumer demand.

How Object Detection and Intelligent Retail Execution Works

Object detection is a part of a broader strategy of retail execution that relies on smart technology. For example, Ivy Mobility uses Computer Vision and Image Recognition (IR) to conduct a more thorough, efficient scan of a store’s compliance with your planogram. In this scenario, a CPG field sales rep uses a mobile device armed with this software to determine the placement of stock and ensure that each product’s location on the shelf is in compliance with the planogram.

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The object detection technology:

  • Uses algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze a store’s visual layout and determine which products are out-of-stock
  • Analyzes visual display to ensure the store is remaining in compliance with the planogram for your consumer goods
  • Updates data in real-time so your company can take action rapidly as needed
  • Integrates easily into the current architecture of a company because it uses a standard REST API, which gives the app developer the ability to use just about any language while still incorporating the Image Recognition system.

As Easy as Snapping a Picture

A CPG rep simply has to take a picture of a store display with the products to use the object detection technology. The workflow goes something like this:

  • After the rep takes the picture, the tap a button in their app to send the image to the cloud for analysis.
  • The system then processes the image, identifies the objects on the shelves according to its image classifier that has been programmed to understand your company’s planogram.
  • The system then sends its completed analysis back to the mobile app where the rep can immediately see which items are missing, not placed properly or out of stock.

How Object Detection Benefits You

Object detection technology can save CPG reps a tremendous amount of time, and it can address a number of areas in the consumer goods industry:

  • It allows CPG field sales reps to spend more time on sales and less time with tedious paperwork and analysis.
  • You become more agile in tracking scheme performance and brand distribution, which allows you to meet customer demand in a more timely manner.
  • It helps you create more visual consistency between stores.
  • Our research has shown that using this technology can result in 38 percent increased in-store visibility.
  • Our research also shows a 41 percent improved sales force productivity.
  • The technology can also effectively monitor the freshness of products.
  • It gives you insight into how you can make your visual display more appealing and effective.

The bottom-line: object detection allows you to gather valuable data to optimize the merchandising layout at the market or grocery store.

It helps you find your “picture of success,” as Forbes calls it.

What It Means to Find Your ‘Picture of Success’

In recent years, Forbes coined the phrase finding your picture of success as it pertains to visual display and planogram strategy. The phrase perfectly summarizes the goal of object detection and how it benefits you. As Forbes notes:

Drawing heavily on shopper insights to understand their category’s rules, successful companies zero in on the sales drivers they need to pursue. They use that knowledge to sketch out what an ideal store should look like in order to deliver the greatest results. This is their “picture of success”—a vision of which brands and SKUs to place in each store, where to place them, how many facings, what type of layout and what promotions to activate in a way that will best convince shoppers to buy.

The most successful companies in today’s challenging economic conditions are using AI-powered smart technology to build their picture of success.

Perfect Retail Execution: How Ivy Mobility Can Help You Build That Picture

In the broader context, it all comes down to perfect retail execution. Ivy Mobility’s intelligent retail execution not only gives you powerful object detection technology to help you execute your planogram, it streamlines sales, merchandising, and marketing organizations using a direct link to the cloud. It’s engineered to maximize sales and efficiency by using intelligent, fine-tuned automation in every process of your business.

The Ivy Sales Assistant, for example, uses AI and can help your CPG sales reps handle their daily tasks of managing accounts, processing orders, completing surveys, gathering and reviewing competitive intelligence, and planning their visits.

Another powerful tool: route optimization.

Our technology uses advanced route planning, clustering, and location and outlet analysis by integrating Global Positioning System (GPS) to help you gain productivity and increase market coverage. It uses efficient route planning algorithms that apply integrated demand forecasting, an analysis of real road networks, and automated stock replenishment to ensure you’re meeting consumer demand.

Other capabilities include:

  • Sales Force Automation
  • Digital Merchandising
  • Surveys & Audits
  • Guided Selling
  • Sales Order Management
  • Schemes and Promotions Management
  • Assortment Planning and Allocation

Ivy Mobility specializes in smart retail execution technologies such as object detection. We can help you find your picture of success in every store as you benefit from the latest advances in consumer goods technology. Request a demo today to learn more about how we can assist your business.

Published by December 7, 2022 by

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