The Branded Pantry

Welcome to ShelfSnap.  After months of investigation, experimentation, negotiation and development ShelfSnap has launched!

ShelfSnap is a process infrastructure and patented capability for turning digital pictures of in-store conditions, products and promotional material into execution-level information.   ShelfSnap aims directly through  the roof of the CPG retail store which has long been considered a data desert.

Manufacturers and retailers have watched as products, merchandising plans, pricing directions, inventory and labor have gone into the backdoor of the stores, and they waited hoping these ingredients would turn out, much as a recipe should, as tasty predictable sales and customer satisfaction.

Most of the time the plan ingredients do not turn into the satisfying repast.  Trading partners have almost no visibility into what happens in the store.  It is similar to having no visibility into the kitchen where all those ingredients have been sent.  What is happening with all those ingredients?  What do they turn into?  We know through occasional store samples that the journey these ingredients take through the store is often circuitous and, occasionally, reminiscent of that famous Three Hour Tour  on the Gilligan’s SS Minnow. 

Orchestrating in-store compliance between the plan and operations is very hard.  All of the necessary activities need to occur while coping with an uneven and changing flood of customers, a fluid labor force (difficult to staff and at times difficult to motivate), a myriad of daily directives from headquarters  and a pressure to tighten the lid on the budget.

What the last 25 years has taught us over and over is that accountability drives execution and execution drives results!  Accountability requires measurement.  The task of measurement has traditionally been very difficult and costly to do.  Generally, completed on a periodic, sample basis by syndicated data providers and generally with part-time auditors using handheld computers who capture their interpretation of a “side-stack” display. 

ShelfSnap solves for the four biggest hurdles facing the comprehensive collection of in-store intelligence.  With ShelfSnap almost anyone with a camera can be an In-Store Intelligence Data Collector.  Snap a picture of the planogram, new product cut-in, display, Point of Sale material or other condition.  Upload the picture to ShelfSnap’s servers via the Internet and we turn that image into data on product presence, number of facings, product adjacencies, shelf position, out-of-stocks, planogram compliance or new item or display cut ins in 1 store or 10,000 stores.  The hurdles we solve include:

1. Costs.  ShelfSnap is more efficient and accurate than scanning product UPCs.  Almost type of store labor, broker, 3rd party merchandiser, DSD labor or even the store personnel themselves, can snap a quick picture and effectively collect the data needed.  ShelfSnap enables census collection on every event that you are funding.
2. Accuracy.  Pictures don’t lie.  ShelfSnap provides a wealth of summary statistics on store conditions and underneath it all is the digital record available for verification and review. 
3. Collaborative.  Trading partners can review the pictures and agree on the results.
4. Action.  Data can be turned around for exception based reporting in just two days.

In addition to myself, the ShelfSnap Team includes:

Craig Hamilton:  After almost 25 years with Kroger  in a variety of line and technical roles, Craig caught the entrepreneurial bug while at efficient market services, inc.   Following ems Craig helped found STORE EYES which is a digital image collection platform and task management aid designed for retailers.  Currently, at ShelfSnap Craig runs our retailer products, product development and business development.

Brian Rock:   With a career that began in Customer Service at Nielsen South Africa, Brian truly found his calling in the product development arena.  The Architect at efficient market service,  Brian designed the infrastructure that supported store-specific data collection and reporting and first introduced the CPG industry to the first taste of census data.  Following ems  Brian has continued to work in the CPG industry with MyWebGrocer, Gladson, Hobart Valassis  after co-founding POSNet which offered the first engine to convert promotional offers from a variety of sources into POS resident

Rimas Siliunas:  With years of developing systems and software for the CPG industry first at ESCA and most recently at his own venture, Intersoft, Rimas has been the leading system contributor for the following companies:  efficient market services, inc., Nielsen, POSNet, Hobart/Valassis and Market6.

• Housing prices off another 9% in September
• Fuel prices off peak but we still ship $70 billion off shore to fuel the economy
• Market down and gyrating enough so that no one knows which way is up
• Credit trust = bone dry
• Jobless rates climbing
• Retail businesses choosing to liquidate because they cannot line up credit to go chapter 11.
• Good time to start a business, right?

A number of business associates/friends and I have been looking at some new technologies in the in-store intelligence arena for about 10 months now, and have integrated/developed solutions in this space under the company name ShelfSnap.  I will cover more about what this service offers in another blog update.

My eldest daughter, who works for NPD’s  Displaysearch, worked for me in one of my earlier ventures and suggested that starting a business in such a challenging environment might be an interesting topic for some blog updates.  Who am I to argue with someone as smart as Heather?

 When I started Panther Mountain over a year ago, I became involved with a number of companies which are offering some real advances in in-store intelligence and online capabilities, aimed at either current demand chain ills or current consumer-serving opportunities.   The market has been tough on funding, piloting or even getting-in-early, despite substantial proof of both execution and ROI.   Still, all of the firms continue to progress.   I spent quite a bit of time reviewing the challenges all of these firms have faced, trying to decide how that would influence my decision to go ahead and start ShelfSnap.  Needless to say, I decided to move ahead anyway. 

Part of my reason for moving ahead despite the unsettled times is driven by a firm conviction that the service can provide real value to our customer base, the manufacturers, and retailers in the CPG space.  At the CPGCatNet Category Management Conference last week, Bob James who heads up marketing strategy for A&P  listed a group of values that Retailers should be following in these troubled times.  One of those was to DASH FOR EFFICIENCY, in other words find simple solutions to current problems that can impact profitability quickly.  Our new service does that for both manufactures and retailers, so I was encouraged. 

Another reason to move ahead was that two of my prior start-ups began during recessions or “busts”.  efficient market services, Inc. opened its doors in 1991.  Four other folks and I started the company despite the times.  The company reached $30 million in annual revenues and break-even by 1999 when I left, but subsequently went away after some new leadership decided to take the company into the software space.  We made plenty of mistakes, but had an offering that we believed would solve some of the Industry ills and day/item/store level forecasting and reporting has become more commonplace today as elemental in understanding demand and customer reaction.    The second company MyWebGrocer started on the eve of the Popping of the Internet Bubble in 2000.  Webvan rose and fell in our first 18 months of existence.  Everyone thought we were baked.  However, we focused on finding what the consumer really wanted in online Grocery services, and established superior services that met those needs building conversion, repeat and click through e-mail and advertising rates that are unparalleled by any Internet service, serving any industry, anywhere.   Today the company offers the biggest and fastest growing connection with consumers of any food site or network.  Thank goodness I am still an owner and still involved with this one.

Both these companies offered serious solutions that signficantly advanced either the state of the art in supply chain applications, or consumer convenience and service.   Both were a bit early for their market, but all innovation is ahead of its market.  Both these markets met with success due to offering real value to customers who had problems or recognized opportunities and, even in tough times, knew that Industry leaders would find ways to become involved in these innovations because that is how Industry leaders maintain their leadership.

So as we continue to move forward with ShelfSnap I will occasionally report on progress, setbacks and the process of starting up companies in times such as these. 

Meanwhile, we are excited, way overworked, a bit frightened, grateful for some early successes and mostly having a ball.