Simbe Robotics, the provider of in-store inventory robots and its proprietary Store Intelligence software, is expanding into farm supply with a partnership with Country Supplier.
After a successful proof of value, Country Supplier, a farm and ranch retailer with stores across Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, will install Simbe technology across additional locations.
Farm supply stores are vital to local communities, providing essential products that support daily operations for farms and local businesses. To meet seasonal demand, store shelves need to be well-stocked with the right products, at the right time, and at price points that customers expect.
However, inventory management for farm suppliers can be challenging due to store size and product volume. It often takes two weeks to conduct manual scans of stores carrying more than 100,000 products or SKUs.
Tally, the world’s first autonomous, item-scanning robot that powers Simbe’s store intelligence platform, utilizes AI and computer vision to scan the store multiple times a day and read tags on various fixture types, including shelves, hooks, bins, and top stock.
Tally captures and processes images of shelf conditions in near real-time, translating inventory data into actionable insights available on the Simbe platform and the Simbe Mobile app.
Country Supplier stores participating in the proof of value have already seen significant results, including a 25 percent improvement in on-shelf availability and a 90 per cent improvement in price accuracy.
Simbe’s new offering of an adaptable Farm Supply intelligence solution empowers teams to automate manual, labor-intensive inventory tasks and focus on high-value activities that enhance both the associate and shopper experience.
Many farm supply stores also operate within co-ops, with locations dispersed across rural areas and multiple states. With Simbe Virtual Tour, retail executives view and walk stores remotely, reducing travel while optimizing layouts, ensuring compliance, and facilitating faster decision-making across locations.
For retailers operating in a fast-paced, seasonal market, Simbe delivers in-store visibility to anticipate and meet evolving customer demands.
Mandi Dyer, chief operating officer, Country Supplier, says: “Tally is redefining the way we run our business while working within our operational boundaries. The Simbe teams’ dedication to understanding all aspects of our business needs and goals was instrumental in Tally’s successful implementation.”
Over the next several months, Country Supplier will continue integrating Tally into all stores.
Strong market benefits
Demand for automation across retail sectors continues to rise as business leaders look to enhance performance through strategic technological investments that elevate the shopping experience, improve store teams’ job satisfaction, and reclaim revenue.
Simbe says it is the only company which has the proven capabilities, global production resources, multiple chain-wide deployments, and numerous customer successes to meet today’s surging demand for retail technology.
For Simbe, 2024 has been a year of accelerated growth, highlighting maturation in the retail technology industry. In October, the company closed a $50 million Series C round proactively led by Goldman Sachs, underscoring Simbe’s tangible impact on all facets of the retail supply chain.
In the last year, Simbe has won and scaled more new and existing retailer and banner logos than the previous three years combined, including CarrefourSA, Albertsons’ United Supermarkets, TOPS Friendly Markets, Price Chopper Supermarkets-Market 32, SpartanNash’s Family Fare, Martin’s, D&W Fresh Market, VG’s Grocery, Wakefern’s ShopRite, and many more.
With significant traction across three continents, Simbe’s global customers achieve substantial profitability improvements, while delivering top-grade store team and shopper experiences. Across deployments, the Tally fleet has:
- Traveled 900,000 km, the equivalent of circling the globe over 22 times.
- Captured and analyzed 21.6 billion photos of store shelves, catching 675 million out-of-stock instances – 270 million of which were controllable and quickly solved.
- Scanned 11.2 billion price tags, identifying over 112 million errors and enabling store associates to promptly fix them, guaranteeing customers confidence they’re getting the best price.
- Ingested data from 15,000+ brands and vendors into the system, enabling unique insights that can be translated to vendor partners to strengthen supply chain operations across the retail ecosystem.
Brad Bogolea, Simbe’s co-founder and CEO, says: “Our enterprising retail partners across a growing number of verticals are ushering in a new era of retail technology and automation.
“2024 has been another monumental year of growth for Simbe, as innovative industry leaders increasingly recognize the real, wide-reaching impact that AI and automation have on every layer of their operations.
“With Simbe’s in-store intelligence, our partners are thriving in a competitive retail landscape while elevating the in-store experience for all involved.”
