ShelfWatch Retail Image Recognition

ParallelDots is a computer vision company headquartered in Seattle, USA, with a major development centre in Gurugram, India, and an office in Prague. It builds image recognition software for retail execution, helping consumer goods brands and retailers see what is actually on store shelves instead of relying on manual audits.

Its flagship product ShelfWatch analyses shelf photos taken by field reps through a mobile app, or by the new fixed ShelfWatch Camera, and returns KPIs such as on-shelf availability, share of shelf, planogram compliance, price tag and POSM compliance with corrective feedback. Saarthi trains recognition models for new SKUs within 48 hours, and ShelfGPT turns raw shelf images into a product recognition model in a few hours. ShelfWatch is deployed in more than 50 countries for brands such as Unilever, Heineken, BAT, ITC and Sappe.

• Shelf KPIs: Measures on-shelf availability, share of shelf, planogram, price tag and POSM compliance from photos.
• Mobile audits: Field reps capture shelf images in an app with augmented reality guidance.
• ShelfWatch Camera: A fixed shelf device tracks shelf activity without manual photos.
• Saarthi: Trains recognition for new or unknown SKUs within 48 hours.
• ShelfGPT: Builds a product recognition model from raw shelf images in 1 to 3 hours.
• SFA integration: Sends audit results into existing sales force automation workflows.

A beverage company in Vietnam can check cooler and shelf compliance in grocery stores and minimarts from rep photos. A personal care brand can track share of shelf against competitors in supermarket chains. A distributor can verify that merchandising agencies set up promotions and price tags correctly.

The company reports 98% SKU recognition accuracy and more than 50% shorter store audits. Unilever Ghana raised on-shelf availability from 46% to nearly 91% and almost doubled share of shelf to 66%. BAT reports saving 16 hours per month with 98% data accuracy. Audit data can flow into existing sales force automation tools.

Consumer goods companies are moving from paper or manual store audits to image recognition so they can measure perfect store programmes across thousands of outlets. In Southeast Asia, where general trade and small stores still carry a large share of sales, brands need fast and comparable shelf data across distributors and merchandising agencies.

ParallelDots Inc. is headquartered in Seattle, USA, with offices in Gurugram, India and Prague, Czech Republic. It raised USD 2 million in 2017 and a USD 4.5 million Series A from Btomorrow Ventures in 2022. It holds ISO 27001:2013 and shows a SOC 2 badge, and won NASSCOM Emerge50 2020 in Retail Tech. Partners include Intel, Google Cloud and SAP. Founding year is not stated on the website.