Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a concept of science fiction. As Thomas Belote, the founder of ShelfSet, states, "We can take some of this new AI technology that everyone's talking about and make it available to people at a low cost and a low commitment."
ShelfSet, an AI-based software, is revolutionizing retail space management, especially for beverage distributors, by automating shelf space utilization tasks. By replacing manual tracking with data-driven analysis, ShelfSet is bringing in a new age of retail space management.
The Journey
ShelfSet was born out of Belote's connection to the retail sector. Coming from a beer distribution business family, he has always been interested in marrying software development and retail.
The main objective was to replace the manual work retailers do today in anticipation of audits or checks from big national brands. "People take pictures and manually label what's on that picture to get an idea of how they're doing before the automated system comes in," Belote explained. "So what we'd like to do is make this automated system available to everyone throughout their business cycle."
The Product
ShelfSet utilizes cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology for retail space management. It leverages object detection AI, similar to the technology used by Google and Apple, to recognize and track products on store shelves. One key technology behind this object detection process is You Only Look Once (YOLO), a state-of-the-art, real-time object detection system.
YOLO enables ShelfSet to identify and track each item on a shelf in real time. This fast and accurate detection offers a significant advantage over traditional methods. This AI-based technology allows for continuous and automatic updates of shelf space utilization, eliminating the need for manual audits and checks and providing timely and accurate insights to retailers.
In addition to object detection, ShelfSet employs machine learning algorithms to learn and improve its detection accuracy over time. These algorithms can train on new brands as the retailers onboard, ensuring a highly personalized and tailored service to each client.
Belote elucidates, "The software provides a visual representation of shelf space versus sales volume. For a salesperson, they'd be able to see that, hey, we're selling 60% of the market by volume, but we only have 20% of the space on the shelf. Maybe that's one of the reasons why our product is always running out, and we have to keep going back to the store to deliver more."
The future roadmap of ShelfSet includes further advancements in its AI technology. Plans are underway to incorporate additional metrics and features, like the availability of point-of-sale displays and ideal shelf positioning for each product. ShelfSet is also exploring possibilities of integrating a survey questionnaire in each store for even more comprehensive and accurate insights into retail space management.
Customer Onboarding and Future Plans
ShelfSet prides itself on being customizable for each brand they work with. "Whenever someone onboards, we'll train for whatever brands they care about. So we have a set of brands that we have a model for today. But as we onboard someone new, we train for their brands," Belote stated.
Talking about the future, Belote shared some aspects they are focusing on, including creating metrics to ensure a point-of-sale display's availability in the stores or deciding which shelf the product should be on. He also mentioned exploring possibilities of incorporating a questionnaire survey with each store.
Affordability and Accessibility
Belote's vision for ShelfSet has always been to make AI accessible and affordable. ShelfSet presents a significantly lower-cost alternative to Nielsen and Trax, with an onboarding fee of just $20 per employee per month. This includes training a model and yearly updates.
ShelfSet doesn't require sophisticated hardware. "For object detection, recognizing the products on the shelf, that has to be an iPhone, iPad, or Android device," Belote explained. "But then the reporting and seeing the results is as a website, so you can just go to that on a laptop and get the information from the field you're seeing there."
ShelfSet is not just another AI product. It's a tool crafted with dedication and a clear understanding of the industry's needs. It's a game-changer, a pioneer in the retail space, ready to reshape how we understand and manage retail spaces.
