Wakefern Food Corp. recently announced it is expanding Simbe’s business intelligence solution to additional ShopRite stores after a successful pilot.
Over the past several months, the Keasbey-based retailer-owned cooperative fully vetted Simbe’s products, which leverage artificial intelligence and robotics to elevate retail with real-time insights and comprehensive platform. The products were tested in more than 20 stores to ensure that the 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.
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.
“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,” Charles McWeeney, vice president, technology, innovation & strategy at Wakefern Food Corp., said. “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 return on investment within 60 days. Tally is able to do all of this quickly and seamlessly, operating quietly alongside shoppers and in tandem with store associates.
“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,” Brad Bogolea, co-founder and CEO of Simbe, said. “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.”
In July 2023, Simbe announced a Series B raise of $28 million, led by Eclipse. This latest investment will help Simbe meet growing demand for its proven solution among innovative retailers like Wakefern.
