Wakefern expands engagement with Simbe to more ShopRite stores

Following a successful pilot, Wakefern Food is expanding its use of Simbe's business intelligence platform to additional ShopRite stores.

Simbe Robotics leverages AI and robotics to elevate retail with real-time insights into inventory and operations.

Over the past several months, Wakefern fully vetted Simbe’s comprehensive platform in more than 20 stores to ensure that its technology solution seamlessly integrated into store environments and optimized inventory management. After a highly productive pilot, the stores were able to leverage Simbe’s real-time insights to meaningfully reduce out-of-stock rates, maximizing inventory availability and exceeding industry standards, the company noted.

[Read more: Instacart’s Caper Carts hit Wakefern supermarkets]

Wakefern first began integrating Simbe’s business intelligence solution, powered by Tally, to drive inventory optimization at the stores and help retail associates do more impactful, customer-facing work. "Tally is the world’s first and most advanced inventory robot that autonomously scans shelves of products using AI to identify out-of-stock, misplaced or mispriced products, as well as generate comprehensive product location data for efficient inventory replenishment. Simbe then delivers high-quality, real-time actionable insights to drive improved store operations," the company said.

“Tally has proven to be the ideal shelf-intelligence solution for our members as it’s been able to roll right into our technology ecosystem, sending real-time shelf condition data directly to retail associates’ handheld devices,” said Charles McWeeney, vice president of technology, innovation and strategy at Wakefern. “With timely, consistent, and accurate product data from Tally, our in-store mobile application presents a prioritized aisle by aisle inventory worklist to the store associates, ensuring they invest their time in the most meaningful and valuable services for our customers.”

Tally’s AI-powered platform detects out-of-stock items at more than 99% accuracy and frees up dozens of hours per week for store teams to focus on other important tasks. Tally autonomously roams stores multiple times per day, requires only one day to set up, and achieves ROI within 60 days. Tally is able to do all of this quickly and seamlessly, operating quietly alongside shoppers and in tandem with store associates.

[Read more: Wakefern expands use of Freeosk in-store sampling machines]

“With our business intelligence solution, Wakefern has real-time visibility into shelf health at a frequency and fidelity that cannot be found anywhere else on the market,” said Brad Bogolea, co-Founder and CEO of Simbe. “This consistent access to deep, precise insights has empowered Wakefern and its members' store teams to further improve the exceptional shopping experience their customers expect by keeping shelves fully stocked. We look forward to continuing to enhance the experience for store teams and shoppers alike.”