HOW WILL STAYINFRONT’S INTERACTIVE SHELF REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR RETAIL EXECUTION?
Our new product, Interactive Shelf, is difficult to explain – because it’s the first of its kind. It’s so much easier to use a familiar point of reference for comparison – but where there is nothing in the same category it is difficult to convey just how much of a leap forward Interactive Shelf is in Retail Execution. Here we go through a short Q&A to help explain how we are revolutionizing Retail Execution.
Q: What does Interactive Shelf do?
A: Let’s start with the basics: Interactive Shelf shows the user a diagram of the shelf.
Q: So it’s like a planogram of them?
A: Sort of – it does look like a planogram – but the user can manipulate the diagram, moving products around the shelf or cutting in new product.
Q: Kind of like an interactive planogram?
A: Well yes – it does look like a planogram, and the user can move the products around on the screen – so it is like an interactive planogram. But instead of being a view of the shelf created by someone in a far-off place – it’s an image of the actual shelf that the user is standing in front of.
Q: So it’s the actual shelf we are looking at – where did it come from?
A: The graphics the user is looking at were sourced from a photo of the shelf that the user took at the beginning of the store call. StayinFront Digital turned that photo into the graphical depiction the user sees in Interactive Shelf.
Q: Why not just use the photo then?
A: Photos have a lot of distractions and noise in them. We distill the information in the photo into a graphical picture of the shelf so that the user can use their fingers on the tablet to manipulate the data, and so that we can calculate KPIs and make comparisons.
Q: Why can’t I use a data grid as we have always used?
A: A Picture is worth a thousand words in this case – the user can see the actual shelf in front of them, and can therefore quickly identify the issues and opportunities. Interactive Shelf is also capturing data that grids don’t capture – like where on the shelf the products are. So Interactive Shelf is faster to use and collects more information than the old way. Double win.
Q: OK, we like the win, what about competitor products?
A: Yes, we can identify competitors for the user – either at the brand level or the product level. This is how we calculate Share of Shelf metrics for the user.
Q: Great, SoS is an important measure, what about other important indicators?
A: Well, thanks for asking – YES. Interactive Shelf displays Perfect Store KPIs to the user in real-time. By measuring the quality of the shelf against Perfect Store goals and scoring in real-time we help the user make an impact on the shelf immediately. The KPIs show the user what they need to do to improve Perfect Store scores. Real-time feedback is the best way to guide users and get the best results. You determine what KPIs are important to your business, and those are the ones shown to the user.
Other important features include Shelf History – the user can swipe back through previous views of the shelf so they can identify changes over time. This is a really useful sales tool – flicking through shelf history with a store manager is a positive way to show evidence of category changes over time to make a point.
Q: Back to the Planogram – so Interactive Shelf looks like a planogram – but it’s not one?
A: That’s partially correct. We can load up planograms from popular planogram software to populate the screens to start with. But that is just the starting point – as soon as the user updates the information about the shelf, now we have something more like a “realogram.”
Q: We would like to compare the realogram with the planogram so we know whether our plans are being made real !
A: Yes, we can do this if you have accurate up-to-date planograms for the store. If we can get the planogram we can compare the information taken from the shelf and highlight the differences – either locally to the specific store – or globally across the market.
Check out our video for more information about how Interactive Shelf makes store visits more efficient, delivering better information, and most importantly how Interactive Shelf can help your reps sell more in every store visit.
