Focal Systems

Every retailer wants to know the answer to one simple but hyper-critical question - what do my shelves look like? Historically the only way to find this answer has been to travel to the store and see for yourself - or have someone take a photo and send it in. There are multiple problems with this approach including: 1) Usually the store knows this visit is coming so its the best the shelves will ever look and not a good assessment of what your customers typically see 2) Even if it is a surprise visit, you're gathering a very limited data set 3) We as humans can only be in one place at once By leveraging discreet shelf-edge cameras, you unlock the ability to "virtually teleport" into any store from anywhere in the world and not only see what your shelves look like this hour, but also every hour of the day over multiple days. A few use cases this can be particularly valuable for include: 1) Do I have enough rotisserie chickens and other food service items stocked during the lunch/dinner rush every day of the week? 2) Are my DSD vendors meeting their service levels and showing up on schedule? 3) Which of my stores/departments have the lowest presentability scores and should get an in person visit? To learn more, check out the link here: https://lnkd.in/eAEySNer

Innovation teams play a critical role for retailers with their responsibility to solve the problems of today while also future-proofing the business for years ahead. They must gather business requirements from multiple stakeholders and then evaluate both internal build and external buy options compared against competing sets of priorities. Anyone who has attended a trade show the past few years can attest to the fact that this task is made exponentially harder by the "buzzword bingo" thrown at retailers by the tech community. So how do you sift through the noise? By finding a partner that: 1) Has happy customers that have rolled the solution out chain-wide and publicly stand by the tangible ROI captured 2) Doesn't make you take their word for it but actually deploys and proves the value of the solution quickly in one or multiple of your stores with minimal integration 3) Has a full end-to-end solution now and into the future - for example a computer vision vendor that does not just give you a CSV/PDF of your out-of-stocks but instead provides easy to use apps for replenishment, ordering, planograming, etc. At Focal Systems, we are grateful for the opportunity to be that type of partner for retailers like Village Super Market and Morrisons and also to have innovative advisors like Donald High and Thomas Nielsen helping to assure our roadmap remains tightly aligned to the needs of the grocery community. Check out the video below to learn more. https://lnkd.in/dDzGcYKU

Operations teams are the life blood of any succesful retail business. Every single day, they shoulder the burden of assuring that one item we all need is stocked in the right location in their stores while also playing the role of customer support when we barge in frantically looking for it. In order to assure this whole process goes smoothly, historically frontline retail employees have had to: 1) Walk the entire store to scan for out of stocks each morning 2) Check IMS for what inventory they have in the store and put together a pick-list of products they believe can be restocked 3) Either manually write orders or do continuous maintenance on IMS systems to assure automated orders are as accurate as possible 4) Build displays, damage out expired products, update signage, cut in new products, etc. etc. etc. With having to spin all these plates at once for 30K+ SKUs - and understanding that any miscalculation has ripple effects on every process - it is inevitable that things go wrong and customers, profits, and employee job satisfaction are all worse off for it. In order to overcome these challenges, forward thinking retailers like Gene Tommasi, Robert Belsky, and Jonathan Luster have adopted computer vision and AI systems that have saved over 100 hours of labor/week, increased inventory accuracy by 66%+, and improved job satisfaction to such a degree employees have been quoted as saying they'd take a job at a store farther away from their home if it meant having access to the system. Check out the video to learn more. https://lnkd.in/eTftRqQp

Improving On-Shelf Availability by optimising every aspect of business ✔️ Reducing workload and improving productivity and compliance ✔️ Congratulations to Focal Systems for being recognised as one of the top innovations globally in the #ECRchallenge to improve On-Shelf Availability. Check out our top 30 here https://lnkd.in/e2P7-Z_D

Honored to be selected as one of the 30 hottest innovations in OSA! For the past 9 years we've woke up every day with a laser focus on helping retailers improve availability to better serve their customers and lower the cost of living for all mankind.

Big news today! After 9 successful years running Focal, Francois Chaubard will pass the baton to Kevin Johnson as CEO and remain on as CTO. See more below: https://lnkd.in/g5x4jh-9

Grocery executives truly have the deck stacked against them in many ways: 1) With wage growth outpacing sales growth, it's often difficult to hire to operational capacity - a problem that is made even worse by legacy manual processes that are unattractive to the modern technology savvy workforce 2) Global infrastructure constraints continue to disrupt the supply chain and make it difficult to consistently keep the products customers demand in stock 3) Consumer expectations are higher than ever and omni-channel + global expansion of the biggest players in the space makes it harder than ever to keep shoppers loyal So the million - if not billion - dollar question is what can they do about it? Check out the video linked below featuring grocery leaders John Sumas and Tony DeNunzio CBE for their thoughts on how shelf edge cameras - and more importantly the data and AI capabilities they unlock - can be your ace in the hole driving productivity and sales. https://focal.systems/ceo

We are honored to partner with Morrisons and bring this solution to every one of their stores this year! It's incredibly rewarding to read the comments on this post from the Morrisons team sharing the impact this is already having on their stores! Can't wait to continue transforming how stores operate to better serve the customers visiting those stores every single day.

Honored to partner with Village Super Market on the launch of this beautiful new store!