Simbe Introduces Robotic Autonomous Shelf Auditing and Analytics Solution

Global retailers lose nearly $450 billion annually¹ as a result of out-of-stock items, empty shelves, and other in-store inconsistencies. To address this problem, Simbe Robotics today announced the availability of its first product – Tally. Tally is the world’s first robotic autonomous shelf auditing and analytics solution.

The solution consists of one or more mobile robots that can autonomously traverse large brick and mortar retail environments to capture, report, and analyze the state and availability of merchandise and help ensure compliance with the store's planogram – the ideal placement of products on shelves in order to maximize sales. Tally performs the repetitive and laborious tasks of auditing shelves for out-of-stock items, low stock items, misplaced items, and pricing errors. Tally operates safely during normal store hours alongside shoppers and employees. A video of Tally in action is available here.

Tally has the ability to audit shelves cheaper, more frequently, and significantly faster than existing processes, and with near-perfect accuracy. Tally also requires no infrastructure changes to the store. Combined with Tally’s cloud-powered software platform and API, retailers have unprecedented information and insight into the state of their stores. This information can be used to streamline store performance, maximize customer satisfaction, increase sales, and reduce operational expenditures.

"When it comes to the retail industry, shopper experience is everything. If a product is unavailable at the time the shopper wants to buy it, the retailer has missed an opportunity and disappointed their customer,” according to Brad Bogolea, CEO and Co-founder of Simbe Robotics. “Tally helps retailers address these challenges by providing more precise and timely analysis of the state of in-store merchandise and freeing up staff to focus on customer service.”

To date, retailers have tried relying on their IT systems and manual labor to account for product availability. This approach, however, is both costly and inaccurate. According to Aberdeen Group, seventy percent of retailers rate themselves “average” or “below average” with respect to inventory management.²

Tally provides retailers with unparalleled visibility and insight into the state of store merchandise. With Tally, retailers benefit from:

• High-accuracy inventory count of front facing items
• Out-of-stock and low stock detection
• Identification of misplaced items
• Identification of incorrectly facing or oriented items
• Product price tag validation
• Third-party supplier compliance and vendor management

Tally is equipped with a charging dock that it can autonomously navigate back to between scans allowing for continuous operation. The robot includes a suite of sensors enabling it to operate reliably and safely in retail environments while capturing information on the state of merchandise in the store. The data captured by the robot is sent securely to the cloud for processing and analysis. The data is then exposed through both an API and front-end application alongside specific recommendations to improve store performance to key stakeholders.

Additionally, Tally can be integrated into the retailers’ existing IT systems. Tally is built upon the open source Robot Operating System (ROS).

Tally stands 38 inches tall, and has an adjustable and modular mast of sensors for capturing shelf data. The overall height is variable, depending on the retailer's shelf height requirements. Tally weighs approximately 30 lbs. and can be easily moved to an optimal docking location within a retail store's floor plan.

Availability

Tally is currently in trial with several North American retailers. Please contact [email protected] for more information regarding pricing and pilot program inquires.

¹ Retail’s $1.1 Trillion Inventory Distortion Problem and Inventory Distortion: An $800B Issue for Retailers Worldwide

² Real-Time Inventory Accuracy And Visibility