Simbe Solution Gathers Retailer Shelf Insights for Brands
The retail industry is embracing technology, particularly artificial intelligence and automation, at an increasingly rapid rate. However, automation needs a strong data foundation to be effective.
To address the "data desert" that exists on store shelves, San Francisco-based Simbe Robotics, the creator of autonomous inventory robot Tally, has launched a new offering to its Store Intelligence platform, according to a media release shared with P2PI.
Simbe Brand Insights provides retailers' vendor partners with near real-time shelf intelligence for the first time. It allows retailers to convert shelf data collected by Simbe into daily intelligence for vendors of all types, including direct store delivery partners (DSD), national CPG manufacturers and smaller brands represented by brokers and agencies.
Simbe's retailer partners can use the Brand Insights reports and dashboard to equip brands with information on promotional execution, SKU-level shelf availability/shelf space needs, precise item location and product performance trends. Simbe said the insights can help vendors improve inventory, product placement, pricing, shelf share, promotional effectiveness and the overall shopper experience. More specifically, it can help:
- Store category managers hone strategies to drive product category performance and guide resets or schematic changes.
- Merchandisers understand product availability across stores and adjust inventory plans before arriving.
- Brands and account managers enhance in-store visibility to understand and improve product performance, promotional compliance, execution and in-stock rates as well as support negotiations on shelf space.
Simbe Brand Insights is available to vendor teams through Simbe Mobile, which details a near real-time, prioritized list of pricing and restocking tasks.
"With Simbe Brand Insights, we now have data that vendors like Pepsi and Coca-Cola can use to stock shelves, optimize resources and make sure our customers' needs are met collectively," Tom Henry, chief data and deputy chief information officer at Schnuck Markets, said in the release.
"For years, our retail partners have run their businesses with [the Simbe platform’s] item-level data, and it’s become clear that this information also has immense value beyond store walls," Brad Bogolea, Simbe’s co-founder and CEO said. "By sharing store intelligence with vendors, Simbe Brand Insights puts the retail ecosystem on the same side of the table, leading to stronger relationships and performance across the board."
Historically, data syndication companies have aggregated information from various sources, such as retailers' point-of-sale (POS) systems, and provided it to vendors the following month. According to Simbe, this information lag subjects vendor partners to imperfect and stale data – limiting their ability to act when it matters the most.
Simbe's multimodal technology solutions, including Tally, deliver store intelligence to retailers around the world, such as recently announced new and expanded deployments with Wakefern Food Corp., SpartanNash, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Albertsons, United Supermarkets, Northeast Grocery, Price Chopper Supermarkets-Market 32 and others.
"Accurate, always-on inventory data is no longer just an asset. It’s a must-have for retailers and vendors to keep competing," Chris Walton, analyst and co-CEO at Omni Talk, added. "Retailers and CPGs both want to elevate shoppers' experience. With daily item-level insights, they stay in lockstep to stock shelves with well-priced items that shoppers want."