IHL Group - Experts & Thought Leaders

Scandit, the pioneer in smart data capture, announces the asset acquisition of shelf audit automation technology from MarketLab, a Polish image recognition and AI software company specialising in the retail industry. As part of the transaction, MarketLab's expert team will join Scandit to build and expand the new offering. MarketLab's expertise in fixed camera solutions complements Scandit's existing ShelfView mobile capture approach to provide a hybrid data capture shelf intelligence solution for retailers. The global retail sector loses approximately $634 billion annually due to problems with on-shelf availability alone, according to research from IHL Group. Optimal store conditions The new hybrid solution will enable retailers to gain insights into on-shelf availability Delivering increased workforce efficiency and automating time-intensive store operations processes, the new hybrid solution will enable retailers to gain insights into on-shelf availability, planogram compliance, pricing issues, and more to maintain optimal store conditions, maximise sales, and reduce lost revenues due to stockouts, particularly in high-SKU volume environments like grocery stores.  It will also provide AI-enabled notifications to improve store key performance indicators and flag issues in near-real time to store associates and management.  "The acquisition marks a new milestone in Scandit's evolution as we continue to broaden our smart data capture capabilities for the wider retail industry. Integrating MarketLab's fixed camera-based shelf recognition experience and technology into ShelfView strengthens our ability to empower retailers to enhance their overall store performance, boost store associate efficiency and optimise the monetisation of shelf data with CPG partners," said Samuel Mueller, CEO and Co-Founder of Scandit. Accurate stock availability "We are delighted to join forces with Scandit. Combining our complementary technologies, we look forward to delivering additional value, ROI, and insights to grocery retailers globally so they can benefit from increased visibility into their shelves, ensure accurate stock availability, and ultimately enhance the customer experience," said Piotr Wardaszko, CEO of MarketLab. Leveraging the strengths of mobile capture and fixed cameras offers retailers a complete, scalable, and flexible solution for all store formats, with a seamless path to more efficient and cost-effective shelf management. Mobile capture, via smartphones or handheld computers, is easily deployable using existing devices, adaptable to different store environments and can be scaled quickly.  The addition of fixed cameras provides continuous high frequency data capture for near-real-time shelf monitoring, while freeing up store associates to devote their time to higher-value tasks, such as customer engagement. Cost-effective shelf management The acquisition strengthens Scandit's retail shelf management and analytics solution, ShelfView The acquisition strengthens Scandit's retail shelf management and analytics solution, ShelfView, which leverages object recognition, augmented reality and other advanced computer vision technology to process images for more intelligent and efficient store operations.  Thanks to Scandit's AI and machine learning capabilities, ShelfView delivers alert accuracy at 99.7% — crucial for delivering reliable insights quickly in rapidly changing shelf situations.  With Scandit's large existing retail customer base, including eight out of the top ten US grocers plus MarketLab's existing accounts including Carrefour Poland, Scandit is well positioned to drive further growth and retail innovation. Providing valuable insights The acquisition opens new routes to market by providing valuable insights to consumer packaged goods (CPGs) and merchandising agencies to maximise revenues through higher on-shelf availability, accurate pricing, promotions and planogram compliance as agreed with their retail partners. Beyond the retail sector, Scandit sees future potential in fixed camera deployments in other environments, such as warehousing to automate logistics workflows.    The acquisition of MarketLab signals a new phase of growth for Scandit and advancement as the smart data capture leader. Today's announcement follows Scandit's $150m Series D investment in 2022, which has helped accelerate its R&D, with a focus on AI/ML capabilities, reflected in recent product developments such as ID Validate, ID Bolt, MatrixScan Find and more.

The research illustrates the differing ways in which IT and loss prevention (LP) teams view priorities Axis Communications, the global leader in network video surveillance, today revealed the results of “The Great Disconnect Between LP and IT,” a 2015 study by IHL Group, a global research and advisory firm specialising in technologies for the retail and hospitality industries. The research illustrates the differing ways in which IT and loss prevention (LP) teams view priorities, including staff and budgetary allocation. It also outlines the barriers to a closer LP to IT relationship and new revenue-generating functions of IP-enabled technologies. Research suggests that after using IT budget to fund significant data breach protection and PCI certification efforts, retailers on average still have 6.4 percent of that budget left to spend on other LP priorities. As organisation revenues increase, PCI and data breach protection costs level out, and IT budgets continue to grow linearly, larger retailers end up with two to three times more funds than smaller retailers for additional LP activities, such as organised retail crime and slip and fall prevention, electronic article surveillance (EAS), CCTV, video analytics and more.  Greg Buzek, founder and president of IHL Group, said, “In the retail industry, we all have a general understanding that a lot of effort and money is dedicated to EMV compliance, PCI and data breach protection. In conducting this research, what was fascinating to our team is just how much that prioritisation drains resources for other LP efforts, specifically in IT. There certainly is a disconnect in regards to focus of existing budget and resources. However, our findings indicate that real opportunities exist for other business units to actually generate revenue from these technologies with new applications, such as traffic counting and video analytics for marketing optimisation, and more.” The great divide: LP thinks and staffs differently than IT While retailers are planning to further leverage the benefits of surveillance by implementing smart software and analytics, in the near term, CCTV camera use will remain dominated by traditional LP functions IT budgets for LP are known to experience economies of scale, and the same holds true for the availability of IT staff for other business unit activities. By ranking retailers in terms of LP technology spend, with tier 1 retailers spending the most, the research found that tier 1 retailers with more than $1B in sales dedicate only 4.5 percent of their IT staff to LP efforts. In contrast, tier 3 and 4 retailers devote nearly eight percent, clearly demonstrating that the percentage of IT staff for LP decreases as revenue and access to efficient systems and technology increases. As retailers devote more spend to investments like IP-enabled video technology, LP functions demand less personnel attention and free up resources for business growth activities.  When assigning weight to IT and LP initiatives, PCI and data breach protection take 35 percent of the overall IT focus, while only 26 percent of LP initiatives are similarly focused, with LP giving much greater weight to its own functions, such as employee and consumer theft. At odds with both IT and LP, other organisational business units, such as finance, see PCI and data breach protection as 54 percent of their focus—likely linked to recent, high-visibility data breaches in the public sphere. Barriers to a closer IT and LP relationship When asked to rank the biggest barriers to a more cohesive relationship, IT and LP were generally on the same page, weighting “other business priorities” and “systems integration” as the two most important reasons. Other titles in the organisation weighted “systems integration,” for example, as the largest concern, showing a disconnect in perceptions around issues and the influence of IT. Internal politics is one of the lesser worries when converging the LP and IT relationship showing a general promise at all levels of the organisation to work more efficiently together to maximise efforts and spending. While primary issues are due to an overall organisational focus on growth, economically it shows a shift in moving beyond cost control to forward-looking growth objectives. "Our team has noticed a clear disconnect in retail between IT and LP departments when it comes to budget, focus and staffing," says Hedgie Bartol, Business Development Manager, Axis Commuications Future opportunities for LP and IT with CCTV Advances, flexibility and 24/7 access to surveillance technology place it in high demand across many business units, especially when considering the power of video for traffic monitoring, marketing purposes and trade compliance. According to the survey, 86 percent of respondents have CCTV in place today, making it a large component of LP initiatives. Of those same respondents, 64 percent leverage IP-enabled technology. While retailers are planning to further leverage the benefits of surveillance by implementing smart software and analytics, in the near term, CCTV camera use will remain dominated by traditional LP functions. The following highlights how respondents plan to use CCTV cameras over the next 18 months, showing a large disparity among IT, LP and other business unit respondents: Employee theft in-store – While 89 percent of IT and 90 percent of LP find the prevention and discovery of employee theft within the walls of the store incredibly important, only 71 percent of other business units find this to be the number-one priority.  Consumer theft – Following as a close second, 79 percent of IT and 90 percent of LP respondents prioritise the use of CCTV to mitigate consumer theft in store, while only 57 percent of other business titles find this an important focus of the technology. Cashier monitoring – Unsurprisingly, 100 percent of LP professionals surveyed say cashier monitoring is a priority use of CCTV, while IT and other business units de-prioritise it at 56 and 57 percent, respectively. “Our team has noticed a clear disconnect in retail between IT and LP departments when it comes to budget, focus and staffing,” said Hedgie Bartol, Business Development Manager, Retail, for Axis Communications. “This is a natural and expected interaction given their differing priorities, but IHL Group’s research has put in place actionable feedback and future-looking opportunities due to IP surveillance technology advancements that can be put in place organisation-wide to create stronger relationships and ultimately, turn up revenue from a department otherwise known as a cost center.” Axis Communications will be at NRF Protect, June 23-25, in Long Beach, CA, at booth # 1019