Goods Checker is an IT solution that automates all merchandising stages: creating and editing planograms, analyzing SKUs on store shelves, comparing displays against planograms and generating detailed analytics.
Goods Checker users have already improved the employee performance, made reporting at retail outlets faster by almost 3 times and increased the percentage of compliance with planograms from 60% to 90%.
In this article we will tell you what updates were available to Goods Checker customers and describe the benefits of each.
Table of Сontents
New features available to Goods Checker customers in 2024?
Recognition of goods from fixed store cameras, identification of POS materials on shelves, control via a chat bot in Telegram — these are just a small portion of innovations that became available to customers this year.
Mobile app: iOS, fixed cameras and vertical photo merging
- A multi-platform application was created. Thanks to this, updates to Android and iOS versions will be released faster, and all users will have the same version installed. This approach prevents situations where some functionality is not yet available to some users.
- iOS application released. Now managers and merchandisers have access to the Goods Checker functionality on all iPhones running iOS 16 and higher.
- Processing from fixed cameras is available. Where the company does not employ merchandisers, but it is necessary to monitor the display, Goods Checker can now recognize products on shelves from fixed cameras if they are aimed at shelves with goods. This approach reduces personnel costs, and there is no need to purchase additional equipment. All this helps to implement automation and improve display monitoring at minimal cost.
- Vertical merging of goods. Merchandisers are faced with the problem where, due to narrow aisles, wide and high shelves and walking customers, it is difficult to take a good photo of the rack. To solve this problem, Goods Checker can merge multiple photos together and generate one photo of the entire shelf. Previously, Goods Checker could only merge photos horizontally. But our customers talked about the problem of vertical display, when you need to take one narrow and tall photo. Now merchandisers can take several photos either horizontally or vertically and merge them together.
- WhatsApp and Telegram bot. The bot is useful for two purposes: notification of employees and sending photos for processing.
In the first case, the employee in charge of the product display will get the message that when specific products are missing from shelves or improperly displayed in certain section.
In the second case, the employee may take photos of the product display in sales points and upload them to the bot. The bot is integrated with the Goods Checker neural networks that identify the goods in the photo, send the processed image back to a chat, and load processing data for analytics.The messenger bot allows you to get information quickly without having to install a mobile app, and makes it easy to onboard new employees. This is good for companies looking to start a project quickly, avoiding the need for new mobile apps. Since most employees already have messaging apps on their phones, and it is easy to connect to the bot.
Product recognition
- Detection of empty shelves. Goods Checker may now identify gaps on the store shelves without recognising the specific goods. The stock-out is to be monitored, for example, in cafes with the pastry display cases, in retail stores with its culinary section—wherever there are high-turnover goods and the constant shelf fullness is essential. After all, empty shelves mean lost sales.
To monitor product gaps, the existing surveillance cameras pointed at shelves may be used. Goods Checker integrates with the surveillance system, providing retailers with continuous shelf monitoring and timely notifications when restocking is needed.
- Identification of various goods. At the very beginning, Goods Checker only recognized products that had a clear shape, for example, bottles of water, juices, and boxes of chocolates.
We are now using the latest model for recognition, which has speeded up the operations of Goods Checker and improved their quality. Goods Checker now handles irregularly shaped items; with goods that not only are on the shelf, but also hang on hooks. In addition, we recognize POS materials and price labels.
For example, our customers work with pharmaceuticals, oral hygiene products, holiday decorations, etc.
Web application: planograms and analytics
- BI system with detailed analytics and interactive visualization. BI system in FMCG converts the merchandisers’ work into easy-to-understand figures: managers can see how products are displayed across different stores, whether display standards are met, and how much time staff spend checking each location. All shelf audit data, photos and comments are consolidated in one place, allowing a quick identification of a problematic store, evaluation of the staff work, and making decisions to improve the representation of the goods on shelves.
Besides, an open-source solution provides businesses with flexibility to customize analytics to the current business goals and track the specific KPIs needed by the company. For example, if you need to monitor the competitor’s part of a shelf, you may add this indicator to the report. An open-source solution isn’t constrained by vendor policies and can be enhanced more easily thanks to a large developer community.
- New display verification types. The system now extends beyond basic planogram compliance checks to evaluate displays against custom-defined rules. For example, if monitoring specific SKUs (Minimum Stock Level) on store shelves is crucial, Goods Checker can now focus exclusively on these items. We customize these display check KPIs for the customer.
- Special zones introduced into the planogram. Now, when creating a planogram in the Plano Creator module, you can quickly select the number of cells, place additional products on the shelf for recognition, etc.
In addition, Goods Checker may process the merchandisers’ photos that are kept in your archive—on the server, in the cloud or other storages. You will get the final reports on the product display once a day, and in this case, there is no need to change the usual working processes or set up any special apps. This allows you to run the analytics quickly and to start using data to upgrade business efficiency.
Goods Checker team responds to customer needs and is constantly improving the application
Marketing agencies, pharmaceutical companies, retailers, chocolate candy distributors, and soft drink manufacturers are already using Goods Checker to improve the quality of their outlet audits.
Thanks to Goods Checker, merchandisers complete store audits faster and with better quality, and analytics are based on accurate and reliable data that becomes available to managers immediately after the audit.
Automation using solutions like Goods Checker helps to identify bottlenecks in merchandising processes, obtain more reliable and complete data that will allow making smart management decisions in a timely manner and enabling higher sales.
