FORM Acquires ShelfWise for AI-Powered Retail Execution
FORM, a field execution platform for enterprise teams, announced that it acquired ShelfWise, an image recognition platform that recognizes products and prices on retail shelves with AI to give brands more accurate store data in near real-time.
Together, FORM and ShelfWise aim to create an integrated task management and image recognition platform to make in-store data collection faster, simpler, and more reliable. ShelfWise provides a real-time view of critical in-store conditions using computer vision that tracks product availability and placement.
With ShelfWise, FORM's image recognition capabilities now enable retail audits on more display types from shelves, displays, and cold boxes, to drink coolers and menus — to give consumer goods brands, brokers, distributors, and retailers full store visibility on product position, price, placement, assortment, and competitor activity.
[See also: Retaining the New Consumer Through the Power of Technology]
The acquisition marks another milestone in FORM's journey to create an end-to-end platform that makes frontline work even easier and more efficient for enterprise teams across consumer goods, beer, wine and spirits, retail, and restaurants and hospitality.
The ShelfWise platform is expected to allow reps to automatically capture images of products on mobile — eliminating manual data collection and compiling lengthy reports on spreadsheets after store visits. After reps capture photos, ShelfWise's algorithm analyzes data at the brand, SKU, and UPC level, including facings, out-of stocks, shelf share, and pricing and positioning before delivering accurate insights in near real-time.
Its capabilities include discrepancy reports, image overwriting, photo stitching, image acceptance, and on-device reporting to cut audit times in half and improve in-store execution everywhere.