Store execution, inventory, audits and delivery operations.
Researchers working with a European grocery company found that a storewide inventory audit was followed by a relative sales improvement of approximately 11%. The largest gains occurred among products whose recorded stock exceeded the quantity physically present.
SSP America introduced photo audits to check what its airport outlets were selling. The system also found a problem with the information used to judge those outlets: some products visible in store photographs were absent from the operator's master product list.
When a customer asks Pepin Distributing when its truck or merchandiser will arrive, the answer no longer has to begin with a round of phone calls. John Barton, a Pepin manager quoted in material published by logistics-software provider Descartes, describes checking the computer and seeing that the worker is leaving a nearby account.
A store photograph can show that a beverage is available while also recording the price sign and promotional display beside it. Retail-software company FORM is trying to turn that combined observation into structured campaign information, with product and promotional-material recognition in the same image.