How it works: collecting in-store data using product images and monitoring product stock at a shelf level
Traditionally, retailers have relied on employees to monitor shelf stock levels throughout the day, a tedious task that involves a lot of guesswork and can be a challenge in a fast-paced retail environment. A number of factors can contribute to out of stock situations in retail. These include delays in the supply chain in areas such as production and distribution, unreliable shelf-level data, disorganised storerooms, and the effectiveness of store employees in managing the journey from the storeroom to the shelf.
In the food retail market, in particular, the last stage in the logistics chain is the most important. Yet the last few meters in the chain – the route from the storeroom to the shelf in-store – is the most costly and challenging to manage. For retailers, it’s essential to ensure that their products are available in stores. Issues with stock availability connect directly to loss of sales and an increased likelihood for customers to use a competitor brand instead.
In order to address some of these challenges, PAL Robotics has teamed up with Agmis EasyFlow to streamline the shelf-restocking processes. Combining PAL Robotics’ inventory tracking and data collection robot StockBot, with Agmis’ EasyFlow analytics software, together we have developed a retail-data solution, that combines the unique characteristics of StockBot Vision and autonomous navigation, and EasyFlow out-of-shelf Computer Vision powered analytics, to identify when a particular product stock on a shelf is running low.
The solution constantly monitors the store and shelf stock levels, providing near real-time information to the store manager, and produces notifications to the store employees when a particular shelf requires replenishment. This combined single autonomous platform improves your stock management process through automation, helping to quickly react to restocking needs, and covers large areas with a single device without the need for additional equipment thanks to this optimised retail robot.
StockBot with EasyFlow is a complete retail-data solution that uses in-store images to provide the data you need to make decisions and improve your in-store strategies.
- StockBot Vision: the retail robot autonomously navigates throughout the store and collects in-store data using product images.
- Agmis EasyFlow Analytics: analyses the images provided by StockBot and monitors product stock at a shelf level and produces notifications when restocking is required.
There are two types of StockBot robot – StockBot Vision which displays pictures along with the location of each picture, and StockBot RFID which displays the tag IDs (EPCs) and location of these tags. It’s also possible to combine both types of data with StockBot Combo.
Cover large areas with a single retail robot and be able to react to restocking needs fast
The combined solution by PAL Robotics and Agmis of retail-data brings some of the following benefits to retailers:
- Improve your stock management process through automation
Introduce automation to your shelf restocking process to improve product shelf availability and out of stock rates in-store. - Cover large areas with a single device
The solution reduces the need for additional cameras for shelf monitoring. StockBot covers stores of all sizes and provides regular updates even when the store is open. - Be able to react to restocking needs fast
Be provided with up-to-date information on product stock levels at a shelf level and identify when restocking is required. - Automate management of stock across multiple locations
View multi-location shelf tracking, as well as historic stock level analytics. - Get the data you need to improve money mapping strategies
View data to help you make decisions, improving your restocking systems and money-mapping strategies. - Ensure better product placement to increase sales
Use planogram checking to help track how the products appear to consumers on shelf and show the products’ share-of-shelf percentage at specific in-store locations. - Get started using StockBot with EasyFlow without changing your store layout
A single initial set-up is all that is needed to automate data collection in your store, keeping the store layout as it is. Analytics are provided in an easy to use interface.
A single initial set-up of the retail robot is all that is needed to automate data collection in your store, keeping the store layout as it is. Analytics are provided in an easy to use interface.
StockBot by PAL Robotics is an autonomous platform automating in-store inventory tracking and data collection. StockBot is the most mature solution in the inventory tracking and data collection market and is trusted by retailers worldwide. We offer a strong quality of service and work with some of the biggest retailers, including Decathlon Singapore, in order to ensure our solution keeps improving to be able to meet industry demands.
EasyFlow – Real World Analytics works with video data analysis to quantify what happens in the real-world. By harnessing Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence, EasyFlow solutions turn real world data into actionable business insights. It provides solutions to retail, construction, manufacturing and aerodiagnostics industries, and is an AI product development spinoff from software developer, Agmis.
Read our brochure on the collaboration between PAL Robotics and EasyFlow to create a StockBot with optimised analytics for retail.
To find out more about our retail robot StockBot, visit our blog page to know more. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team to ask about how to use our autonomous mobile robot (AMR), and our retail robot’s capabilities for improving operations in your store.