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Managing sales execution across thousands of stores, ensuring on-shelf product availability, and staying ahead of the competition are daily challenges in the CPG industry. Whether you're a retail sales leader or a trade marketing leader in the CPG industry, you know the struggle. At the same time, you're under pressure to maximize ROI from trade spends.
These tasks can feel overwhelming without real-time, actionable insights.
So, how can your brand stay on top of all these moving parts and ensure that its in-store execution aligns with its strategies?
How can you influence purchase decisions of shoppers at the shelf with an effective merchandizing strategy?
With the right tools, real-time data can provide a breakthrough in overcoming these challenges. That’s where ShelfWatch steps in.
What is ShelfWatch?
ShelfWatch is an AI-based platform provided by ParallelDots that uses image recognition technology to analyze retail shelf displays and generate real-time insights into the condition of in-store execution. It helps your brand monitor and optimize critical KPIs like:
- Planogram compliance
- On-shelf availability (OSA)
- Share of shelf
- POSM (Point of Sale Material) compliance
It processes images captured by field agents and provides immediate feedback. This allows your field reps to swiftly take corrective actions.
This technology enables you to gain control over your shelves by tracking product visibility, ensuring proper placement, and maintaining on-shelf inventory levels. ShelfWatch also supports seamless integration with your existing retail solutions, enabling you to manage your execution more efficiently.
Innovations Behind ShelfWatch
ShelfWatch uses AI and machine learning to interpret the images of on-shelf displays. This allows for the automatic recognition of SKUs, product placement, and planogram compliance. With real-time analytics, the platform enables you to make data-backed decisions on store performance, based on shelf data that reflects trends based on actual sales.
But will these innovations translate into practical benefits for your brand’s in-store execution? Let's take a look.
Key Features of ShelfWatch
- Real-Time Analysis: Provides instant feedback on key KPIs, enabling you to make timely adjustments.
- Customizable KPIs: You can define specific KPIs according to your needs, including share of shelf, on-shelf availability, and Point of Sale Marketing (POSM) compliance.
- Competitor Monitoring: ShelfWatch tracks competitor activity on the shelf, providing brands with valuable competitive insights and allowing them to make quick adjustments to stay ahead.
- High Data Accuracy: With 98% SKU recognition accuracy, ShelfWatch ensures reliable data, even in challenging environments like low light or when SKUs are rotated or occluded.
- Seamless Integration: Offers a swift setup process, with many clients becoming audit-ready in under two weeks.
- Rapid AI Training: Train and deploy AI models quickly to detect new or unknown SKUs with 80% accuracy within minutes, using incoming shelf images, and then ramp up to 97% detection accuracy in 3-4 hours.
Also read: Understanding In-Store Execution: Guiding Improvement and Importance in Retail Stores
The Importance of In-Store Activity for CPG Brands
In-store activity, including product placement and availability, directly influences a CPG brand’s sales. ShelfWatch provides CPG brands with valuable insights into their in-store performance, enabling them to fine-tune their strategies for optimal results.
1. Share of Shelf and Eye-Level Positioning
Both retailers and CPG brands understand the importance of share of shelf and eye-level positioning in driving sales. ShelfWatch tracks the visibility of products across different locations, ensuring that your brand maintains its presence in prime areas of the shelf. Using data analysis on competitor products and adjacent placements, ShelfWatch helps you strategically position your products for maximum impact, giving you an edge in crowded retail environments.
2. Stock Situations and POSM Placement
Proper stock availability and correct POSM placement are essential for a seamless shopping experience. ShelfWatch monitors stock levels in real time, alerting your field teams about stockouts and enabling them to act quickly. Additionally, it tracks the placement of POSMs to ensure compliance with promotional guidelines, boosting product visibility and promotional compliance.
3. Overcoming Traditional Retail Audit Challenges
Before the advent of technology like ShelfWatch, traditional audits were often slow, prone to human error, and inefficient. Field agents were relied on to manually track stock and product placement, which resulted in missed opportunities and delays in addressing in-store issues.
4. High Time Consumption
Conducting audits across multiple stores took weeks, reducing your ability to act quickly on in-store execution issues. By the time problems were identified, opportunities for sales growth were often missed. With ShelfWatch, you can streamline audits and get real-time, actionable insights within minutes, enabling your team to focus on strategic improvements instead of getting bogged down by time-consuming manual checks.
Advancements in Image Recognition Solutions
ShelfWatch transforms the traditional retail audit process by utilizing image recognition technology to automate real-time shelf monitoring. Field agents capture images of store displays, which are immediately processed in the cloud.
This allows your team to receive instant insights into critical metrics such as product availability, placement, and pricing accuracy. These real-time insights enable you to address in-store issues quickly, ensuring your products are positioned correctly and minimizing the chances of stockouts or misplaced items.
The platform also sends immediate alerts when discrepancies are detected, such as products being out of stock or incorrectly priced. This empowers your field teams to take quick corrective actions, ensuring that your retail execution remains seamless. By using ShelfWatch, you can efficiently track and improve the in-store experience, keeping your products visible, available, and properly positioned for maximum sales impact.
Also Read: Overcoming Store Execution Challenges with Retail Execution Solutions
How ShelfWatch Transformed In-Store Execution for a Personal Care Company?
A leading personal care company faced challenges with its incumbent Image Recognition vendor, including low SKU-level on-shelf availability (OSA) accuracy, limited reporting capabilities, and poor field user experience.
After conducting a pilot comparison, ShelfWatch delivered a 95 %+ OSA accuracy—a significant improvement over the previous vendor’s 85%—and provided detailed Share of Shelf (SoS) insights.
One of the most significant benefits was the user experience. Field agents, initially concerned about switching from their existing solution, found ShelfWatch to be faster and simpler to use. The transition was smoother than expected, and due to Shelfwatch's superior features, the client saw better audit outcomes at a lower cost.
Read About: High Accuracy Achieved for a Personal Care Company
Why ShelfWatch Stands Out?
ShelfWatch provides CPG brands with an innovative, AI-powered solution that not only streamlines retail execution but also enhances operational efficiency and sales performance. With real-time insights, fast integration, and unmatched accuracy, ShelfWatch empowers brands to make data-driven decisions that drive growth and improve in-store visibility. Here’s why ShelfWatch is the preferred choice for leading CPG brands:
- Quick Setup and Accuracy: ShelfWatch delivers 90% accuracy within two weeks, enabling brands to achieve fast results compared to other platforms, which can take up to eight weeks to provide similar levels of accuracy.
- Rapid SKU Training: The Saarthi portal allows for the quick training of new SKUs, ensuring smooth integration with minimal delays. This will enable brands to stay agile and adapt to market changes faster.
- Time and Cost Efficiency: ShelfWatch automates the audit process, significantly reducing the time spent on manual checks, allowing brands to cover more stores in less time. This increased efficiency frees up resources to focus on higher-value tasks.
- Data Privacy and Security: At ParallelDots, privacy and security are top priorities. ShelfWatch adheres to industry-leading data privacy and security standards, ensuring that CPG brands can confidently use the platform without concerns about data protection.
Also read: Retail Execution and Monitoring: A Guide for CPGs and Retailers
Conclusion
Success in retail hinges on more than just having a product on the shelf. It’s about ensuring that the product is always available for the shopper at the right place and time. ShelfWatch helps CPG brands achieve this by offering real-time insights and AI-powered solutions that upgrade on-shelf execution.
With its ability to improve shelf performance, reduce stockouts, and boost planogram compliance, ShelfWatch enables brands to take charge of their retail strategy, securing long-term growth and staying ahead of the competition.
Request a demo today and see how ShelfWatch can take your in-store execution to the next level!
