Applications of AI in Visual Merchandising

In many large retailers, this is often a very complex process involving teams from across the business and usually relying on people from marketing, creative, VM and retail ops to work together. And, of course, the field team – Store Managers and Area Managers – have a key role to play too.

We wondered if AI could help improve in-store execution, by making it easier and faster to review in-store standards. What if we could instantly identify those stores that are doing a great job of delivering their brand experience, and those which need support?

So we’ve been applying ourselves to two key questions.

• Can we measure compliance remotely?
• Can we help retailers increase the speed at which their stores become fully compliant?

There is a huge learning curve with AI, and it’s been fascinating to explore this area, with more than one false start. But we are now at the stage where we have a working prototype that demonstrates some of the core concepts.

Cegid Retail Store Excellence Labs

At Cegid Retail Store Excellence we believe that the application of innovative technology to core retail processes can drive huge benefits – so we’ve created Cegid Retail Store Excellence Labs to explore these opportunities. We’re working on AI, but we’re also experimenting with genetic algorithms to optimise route planning for Area Managers – with productivity savings of up to 30%, this could have a significant impact for retailers managing large portfolios.