Can CPGs Achieve the Perfect Shelf with Image Recognition Apps?
16
JUNE, 2018
Despite a burgeoning e-commerce marketplace, most FMCG brands still rely on brick-and-mortar retail locations to sell their products. Here’s the problem: by the end of last year, brands had 1,000+ fewer stores to sell to and there were 9,000 more CPG items vying for shrinking shelf space.
If you’re lucky enough to be on a store shelf, analyzing shelf conditions to improve the performance of your brand (and hold onto your coveted shelf space) have never been more important.
The opportunities being generated from image recognition apps to achieve and maintain the “perfect shelf” are gaining traction among FMCG and CPG manufacturers.
The strategy of arming field reps with a smartphone camera to capture data regarding share of shelf, out-of-stocks, planogram compliance, and expired price tags – all in a couple of minutes – is a major competitive advantage.
Best-of-breed image recognition apps only cost pennies per photo, yet some say the price tag doesn’t justify the ROI. If you calculate the size of your field force, number of retail locations and quantity of SKUs, wouldn’t your company’s bottom line be positively affected by:
Sharing and leveraging accurate data to improve trade promotion activities
Completing store checks faster so more stores can be visited
Presenting a real-time shelf analysis to retailers
Focusing on strategies to improve/maintain shelf performance
Reducing errors from manual counting and data collection
While gathering field intelligence at the store level has become quicker and easier over the past decade, CPGs can benefit from accelerating the speed of information. Snapping a series of pictures can complete multiple in-store tasks with a single action. The swift output of data digitizes store metrics against sales performance and allows the field rep to address shelf issues with the retailer before leaving the store.
To continue reading about image recognition apps, click here.
