UA EN

AI display fridge

29 March 2024

Ukrainian startup PICSELL (part of the CMS Group) is expanding its competence and introduces AI display fridge – refrigerators with built-in cameras that allow to get real-time analytics on Out-Of-Stock, refill percentage and, as a result, promptly respond to a problem. The project team came to the conclusion that large companies that sell products through Retail require a comprehensive solution that would cover all channels of sale: from shelves with products to refrigeration equipment.

«Many companies have already started to develop such solutions in the market, but we are glad to be the first to introduce this product. We are currently in the process of negotiating an agreement with world manufacturers of refrigerating equipment for collaboration. I also want to point out that our technology allows both to upgrade the existing equipment and to cooperate with manufacturers of refrigeration equipment by mounting cameras directly at the production. This allows our customers to complement their existing system with a new market segment», – comments Sergii Lukashenko, Hardware Department Head.

Unlike the classic PICSELL method of obtaining data through an application on smartphones of sales representatives, the refrigerator system creates additional benefits and serves two parties at once.

The first team is the sales and marketing departments in the central offices. They see a real picture of the state of their market, the work of staff, can timely respond to fluctuations in sales and have a complete digitization of the state of their layout on the shelves.

The second team is field trading structures, merchandisers. Today the refrigerator can stand for several days without products, and for one day of hot summer the same amount of bottled water is sold from the refrigerator as, for example, for the whole period of November. Therefore, hot seasons are periods when all investments in equipment and its placement should pay off to the maximum. Not only does the refrigerator system detects refrigerant fillings, it builds optimal routes for merchandisers based on data on empty refrigerators or those that require immediate human intervention. Each manager can contact with the attached trading equipment with the help of messengers. Refrigerators send photos and basic information directly to the merchandiser’s smartphone at each set point of sale. This allows him to check the status of all the points assigned to him in one day just for ten minutes instead of checking the refrigerator once a week according to the schedule. So, the merchandiser responds promptly to trading equipment that has a problem with the layout, and this system completely changes the approach to the functioning of the company’s sales team, raising its efficiency to a new level, which is directly converted into sales.

And the detection of competitors’ products in refrigerators allows manufacturer to combat such a negative phenomenon as using his trading equipment to sell competitors’ goods. It is a rare practice in big cities, however, in traditional retail in small towns such things happen fairly regularly.