A Closer Look at Saarthi and Its Role in Optimizing In-Store Execution

In-store execution is crucial for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands to maintain brand presence, maximize sales, and ensure a seamless customer experience. Yet, many CPGs struggle with challenges like stockouts, planogram compliance, and poor promotional execution, leading to missed opportunities and lost revenue. As the retail landscape becomes increasingly complex, there is a growing need for smarter solutions that can automate and streamline in-store operations. This is where Saarthi comes in. Saarthi, developed by ParallelDots, is an AI-powered platform designed to help CPG brands optimize their in-store execution.

A recent survey by Google Cloud, reported by FoodNavigator-USA, highlights the power of AI in driving business growth. It found that 66% of CPG companies and retailers using generative AI experienced annual revenue increases. Of these, 57% saw a growth of 6–10%, and 30% reported growth of over 10%. By leveraging AI, machine learning, and image recognition, Saarthi automates the process of shelf monitoring, stock tracking, and promotional compliance, providing real-time insights that drive better decision-making and enhance operational efficiency.

In this article, we will take a closer look at how Saarthi optimizes in-store execution and the key benefits it brings to CPG brands.

What is Saarthi?

Saarthi is an AI-powered tool developed to streamline retail operations for CPG brands. The platform uses advanced image recognition and machine learning to automate key tasks such as shelf audits, product placement tracking, and compliance monitoring. With its real-time data analysis, Saarthi offers CPG brands a comprehensive view of their retail execution across multiple store locations, enabling them to address issues like stockouts and planogram violations quickly.

Key Features of Saarthi

Rapid AI Model Training: One of Saarthi’s key features is its ability to train AI models on new SKUs within just 48 hours. This significantly reduces the time to market for new products and ensures that the latest inventory is always monitored.
Automated Data Annotation: Saarthi eliminates the need for manual data labeling, making shelf audits faster and more accurate. The computerized annotation process ensures that the system stays updated and consistent across all retail locations.
Shelf KPI Monitoring: The platform tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) such as on-shelf availability, share of shelf, and planogram compliance. This helps brands monitor their performance in real-time, identify discrepancies, and take corrective actions promptly.

The Role of Saarthi in Optimizing In-Store Execution

Effective in-store execution is crucial for ensuring that CPG products are consistently available, visible, and well-positioned for consumers. Saarthi, an AI-driven platform, plays a significant role in optimizing in-store execution by providing real-time insights into key aspects of retail operations. From enhancing shelf visibility to improving stock management and supporting promotional execution, Saarthi ensures that CPG brands can execute their strategies efficiently and accurately. Let’s take a closer look at how Saarthi helps brands optimize these critical areas:

Enhancing Shelf Visibility

One of Saarthi’s primary benefits is its ability to enhance shelf visibility. Keeping products visible is essential for sales, and Saarthi helps CPG brands ensure that their products are always in the right place. Through real-time shelf audits, Saarthi provides visibility into product placement, ensuring that shelves are stocked and organized according to planograms.

Planogram Compliance: Saarthi helps CPG brands maintain planogram compliance, which is crucial for ensuring that products are displayed according to the agreed-upon layout. The platform scans shelf images and checks them against predefined planograms, alerting brands when products are misaligned or out of stock.
Stockout Detection: Saarthi also detects stockouts in real time, allowing brands to act quickly and restock products before they run out. By preventing stockouts, Saarthi ensures that CPG brands never miss a sales opportunity due to product unavailability.

Improving Stock Management

Saarthi plays a critical role in stock management by automating the process of tracking on-shelf availability. Using AI, the platform continuously monitors inventory levels and tracks product placement across various locations. This allows CPG brands to make data-driven decisions about stock levels, ensuring that shelves are always stocked with the right products in the right quantities.

Inventory Optimization: By tracking stock levels in real time, Saarthi helps brands optimize inventory, reducing both overstocking and understocking. This ensures that the right products are always available, improving both sales and customer satisfaction.
Efficient Replenishment: With accurate data on stock levels, CPG brands can make more informed replenishment decisions. Saarthi helps brands streamline their restocking processes, reducing the risk of human error and improving overall inventory management.

Enhancing Promotional Execution

Promotions are an essential part of retail strategy, but they can be ineffective if not executed properly. Saarthi helps CPG brands monitor the execution of promotional campaigns in real-time, ensuring that all promotional materials are correctly placed and aligned with the brand’s objectives.

Promotional Material Tracking: Saarthi scans shelves and verifies that promotional materials, such as signage, displays, and price tags, are in the correct locations. This helps brands maintain promotional consistency across all store locations and avoid missed opportunities.
Evaluating Promotion Effectiveness: The platform provides insights into promotion performance, helping brands assess whether their marketing efforts are driving sales and customer engagement. This allows CPG brands to fine-tune their promotional strategies and maximize their return on investment.

As we explore Saarthi’s strengths in optimizing in-store execution, it is important to understand how it compares to traditional methods. In the next section, we will delve into the key differences between using advanced technology like Saarthi and relying on conventional retail practices. This comparison will highlight the advantages of adopting AI-driven solutions for enhanced retail performance.

Saarthi vs. Traditional Methods

When it comes to in-store execution, there has always been a stark contrast between traditional methods and advanced technology solutions. Conventional approaches to shelf audits and stock tracking often rely on manual labor, leading to slower processes, more errors, and increased resource consumption.

On the other hand, Saarthi transforms in-store execution by automating key processes, offering faster insights and better accuracy. Let’s examine how Saarthi compares to traditional methods in terms of speed, accuracy, and scalability.

Speed and Efficiency

Traditional methods of shelf audits and stock tracking often involve manual processes, which are time-consuming and prone to errors. In contrast, Saarthi offers rapid data processing, providing real-time insights and eliminating the need for manual interventions.

Traditional Methods: Manual audits can take days to complete, and they often miss key issues such as stockouts or planogram violations. These methods are also labor-intensive and prone to human error.
Saarthi’s Advantage: Saarthi automates shelf audits, enabling faster and more accurate data collection. With real-time monitoring, CPG brands can act on issues immediately, improving overall efficiency.

Accuracy and Reliability

Human error is a significant issue in traditional retail execution methods. Inaccurate stock counts, misplaced products, and incorrect promotional displays can all lead to lost sales opportunities.

Human Error Factors: Manual audits are susceptible to mistakes, especially when dealing with large volumes of products across multiple locations. This can result in missed stockouts, misaligned products, and inconsistent promotional displays.
Saarthi’s Precision: Saarthi uses advanced AI and image recognition to ensure high accuracy in detecting shelf conditions. The platform provides consistent, reliable data, reducing human error and improving overall execution.

Scalability and Adaptability

Traditional methods can be challenging to scale across multiple locations, especially for large CPG brands with diverse product lines. Saarthi, on the other hand, is designed to scale effortlessly across numerous stores, ensuring consistent performance monitoring regardless of the number of locations.

Scaling Challenges: Manual methods can be difficult to scale, requiring significant resources and time to audit large numbers of stores.
Saarthi’s Scalability: Saarthi seamlessly scales across thousands of locations, providing real-time insights and enabling CPG brands to maintain consistent in-store execution without additional manual effort.

Saarthi’s ability to address the limitations of traditional methods is a game-changer for in-store execution, ensuring faster, more accurate, and scalable retail operations. However, despite its numerous benefits, some common concerns remain about the adoption of such advanced technologies. In the next section, we’ll explore how to overcome these concerns and ensure a smooth transition to AI-powered retail solutions.

Overcoming Common Concerns

As with any advanced technology, adopting AI-driven solutions like Saarthi can raise certain concerns for businesses, particularly around data privacy, security, and system compatibility. While these concerns are valid, Saarthi has been designed to address these challenges effectively, ensuring a smooth integration process and maintaining high standards of data protection. Let’s explore how.

Data Privacy and Security

One of the top concerns when implementing AI-driven platforms is the protection of sensitive business and consumer data. Saarthi places a strong emphasis on security, ensuring that all data is handled securely and complies with relevant privacy regulations.

Client Data Handling: Saarthi adheres to industry-standard security protocols to safeguard data. The platform encrypts all customer and business data, ensuring that it is stored securely. Saarthi also complies with global privacy regulations like GDPR, providing businesses with peace of mind regarding data security and compliance.

Integration with Existing Systems
When adopting new technologies, businesses often worry about compatibility and integration with their existing systems. Saarthi is designed to integrate effortlessly with retail management tools and ERP systems, ensuring minimal disruption during the transition and maintaining operational continuity.

Compatibility: Saarthi seamlessly integrates with other retail management tools, which enhances its versatility. Whether it’s linking with inventory systems, sales tracking, or customer relationship management tools, Saarthi ensures smooth adoption and reduces implementation time, making it easier for businesses to leverage AI-powered shelf monitoring without disrupting their existing workflows.

With these concerns addressed, Saarthi not only provides the technological benefits of AI-powered shelf monitoring but also ensures that businesses can implement it safely and efficiently. The next section will dive into the broader impact of using Saarthi for CPG brands, exploring the tangible benefits they can expect from leveraging its full potential.

Conclusion

Saarthi by ParallelDots is a game-changer for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands striving to optimize their in-store execution. By leveraging AI, machine learning, and image recognition, Saarthi transforms how CPGs manage shelf visibility, stock levels, planogram compliance, and promotional execution. With real-time insights and automated processes, brands can make faster, more accurate decisions, ensuring that products are always available, correctly placed, and promoted effectively.

By adopting Saarthi, CPG brands can eliminate the inefficiencies of manual audits, reduce human error, and scale their operations effortlessly across multiple locations.

The result? An improved in-store performance, better in-store shopper experiences, and a significant boost in sales.

If you’re ready to see how Saarthi can revolutionize your in-store execution and drive better retail outcomes, book a demo today to explore the platform’s full potential.