Imagine one of your loyal customers going to the supermarket for their weekly stock of supplies. They have a shopping list, and they have decided which products to buy. They can find anything they want, except their favourite brand of shampoo, which happens to be your brand. They will either try a different shampoo brand or buy the same product from another store.
Or let’s look at it from a different perspective. You’ve seen a YouTube ad showing the launch of a new vegan option for your favourite milkshake flavour. You go to the grocery store to try the new product but find it’s not there on the shelves.
These are examples of how the low shelf availability of products impacts the customer experience. They say lack of stock leads to strikes. For the entire retail industry, it is known that out-of-stocks cause lost sales for retailers and CPGs.
What is on-Shelf Availability?
Shelf availability refers to what percentage of the SKUs should actually be on the shelves. Let’s say a shampoo company wants 10 of its best-selling products to be in a retail store, but there are only six on the shelf. This means that the shelf availability for that assortment is 60%.
Image recognition technology-backed retail solutions come to the rescue to increase on-shelf availability. Retail execution solution of many global brands, Vispera.co, solves the problem with two main products:
Shelfsight, the automated retail execution solution, keeps on-shelf availability at higher rates by implementing cameras that track on-shelf availability in real-time.
Storesense, the mobile solution of Vispera, leverages mobile devices to track on-shelf availability and team members.
Why Is Shelf Availability Important?
High shelf availability creates a better image in customers’ mind, which brings higher loyalty and ultimately translates to higher market share. With AI-powered retail intelligence solutions from Vispera, shelf availability can be increased by keeping track of out-of-stock situations.
Handle new product launches
It takes a lot of analysis, development, and marketing effort for CPGs when it comes to launching a new product. But the results aren’t always the way things were planned. All the effort can quickly be lost when a new product isn’t available on the shelf for the customer to purchase. Absence will automatically lead to reduced market acceptance of the product, reducing the chance of success. For this reason, maintaining high levels of on-shelf availability for new products is crucial to help ensure their success.
How does Image Recognition Technology Help Increase Shelf Availability?
Image recognition technology helps increase in-store productivity by tracking retail execution performance in real-time. With instant notifications, planogram compliance, and price check issues, retailers can act immediately and create better shopping experiences for their customers.
Considerations for Effective On-Shelf Availability
There are key points for effective on-shelf availability. These points are as follows:
- Data collection, data processing, data visualisation, data analysis and application are essential for accurate measurement of product availability.
- Understanding planogram vs shelf reality and transforming shelf intelligence into practice is essential.
- Performance gaps and revenue margin opportunities should be identified across all retail channels.
- Price control, competitor prices and promotional prices should be tracked continuously.
- Increasing store performance is critical to delight your customers and maximize sales.
- SKU availability and management are essential.
You can solve all the important issues listed above with Vispera’s “Storesense” and “Shelfsight” solutions. To increase your sales through on-shelf availability, request a demo now.
