Acosta, an Acosta Group agency, and Pensa Systems, a digital retail shelf inventory management company, announced they have teamed up to provide “retail shelf visibility, strategic business insights and in-store execution for CPG brands and retailers.”

According to a press release from Acosta, the new partnership brings together Acosta's business intelligence, analytics, in-store data collection and merchandising solutions, and the shelf intelligence of Pensa Systems.

"We are excited to collaborate with Pensa to deliver the source of truth for what's happening on the retail shelf through computer vision and advanced AI," said John Carroll, president of digital commerce and advanced analytics, Acosta Group.

Pensa offers a view of shelf inventory through continuous, automated monitoring of actual shelf conditions. Employing patented motion-based computer vision and artificial intelligence, Pensa's solution captures and then analyzes hundreds of images of each individual product on the shelf, creating a 3D-digital reconstruction of shelf inventory conditions with a 98% accuracy rate, according to the company. A total picture of actual shelf inventory conditions is created with all competitor and private label products on an entire shelf captured.

Pensa, in cooperation with Acosta, informs a variety of key performance indicators, including on-shelf availability, space optimization, shelf compliance and promotional effectiveness, highlighting changes that lead could to better revenue.

The companies say that an entire aisle can be captured by any hand-held device in less than 17 seconds.

“In partnering with Acosta, we bolster the delivery of new data and insights to clients and customers with our ability to touch any store and any category at any time,” said Richard Schwartz, president and CEO of Pensa Systems.

Circle K is among the investors in Pensa.

Read how c-store retailers keep their shelves stocked with the latest products in “Trendsetters” in the July 2023 issue of NACS Magazine