AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pensa Systems, a leading innovator in automated retail shelf intelligence, today announced the launch of its facings optimization solution that will help Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands grow revenue through improved retail shelf facings optimization.
The term “shelf facings” refers to the number of units of a product that are visible from the front of a retail store shelf. In grocery retail, competition between CPG brands for facings is fierce given its direct translation to profitable revenue growth.
Traditionally, facings allocation has been determined based on rough estimates of relative sales volume and velocity derived from backwards looking point-of-sale (POS) data. Brands often couple POS data with artificial shelf scenario simulations to estimate shelf performance.
POS data, however, is notoriously “noisy”. For example, slow product sales reflected in POS data might be an indication that a particular product is not selling, or it might be an indication that the product is often out-of-stock on the shelf and not available for sale.
Pensa closes this gap for CPG brands and retailers by providing a continuous view of actual products on the retail shelf across a wide range of stores and deployed shelf configurations. By correlating real on-shelf product availability with the number of facings per product, Pensa applies the concept of pricing elasticity to facings to determine the optimal number of facings by category and by product to maximize revenue without allocating space for one product at the expense of other products. See an example of Pensa’s facings analysis here.
“Optimizing the shelf is now possible in a new way leveraging the practical power of computer vision and AI,” says Richard Schwartz, President and CEO of Pensa Systems. “Basing facings analysis on a highly-accurate and granular view of what’s on the shelf and available for sale heralds a new era of brands and retailers working closely together to optimize facings for mutual benefit”.
Pensa’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the first fully automated shelf intelligence solution. To automatically deliver accurate, near real-time continuous shelf data, Pensa’s AI learns to visually recognize and distinguish between products on the shelf much as a human does versus scanning a barcode on the back of a package or comparing a single product image against a product image database.
Pensa captures then analyzes a video stream of hundreds of images, taken from numerous angles, of each individual product on the shelf to accurately identify and distinguish between products in near real-time to calculate a highly accurate view of shelf inventory. See Pensa capture and analyze a store aisle in seconds here.
Pensa’s facings analysis solution is available now as a new product within its portfolio of data and analytics offerings. Contact Pensa for additional details.
About Pensa Systems
Pensa is the leader in automated retail shelf intelligence, powered by patented advanced AI and computer vision. Pensa delivers the source of truth about what’s happening on the retail shelf to minimize stockouts, increase shelf share, optimize product planning, and improve the customer experience for the omnichannel world. Pensa partners with top CPG brands and retailers globally, including Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Circle K, and Unilever to address a trillion-dollar “blind spot” at a critical time in the industry. Pensa was named to the 2022 CB Insights Retail Tech 100 as a top innovator defining the future of retail. Please visit pensasystems.com to learn more and stay connected.
