Shelves that notice what staff can't.
Existing store cameras taught to watch the shelves, flagging staff the moment an item runs empty or sits out of place, then managing the restock.
Computer vision
What they were up against.
Retail floors are chronically short-staffed, and the cost of that shows up on the shelf: empty facings that should be full, products drifted out of their planogram, sales quietly lost because no one walked the aisle in time.
Hiring back to full coverage was not on the table. The stores needed the shelves themselves to raise a hand.
How the approach works.
The approach did not require new hardware. The cameras already on the ceiling are taught to read the shelves, recognizing when a facing has gone empty and when an item is sitting where it should not be, then alerting the nearest staff member.
From there, Smart Shelves closes the loop: not just spotting the gap but recommending the restock and feeding inventory management end to end.
What it changes.
The system turns passive cameras into an always-on set of eyes on the shelf, delivering real-time empty-shelf and misplacement alerts without a single new device. It is rolling out across stores in the UK and France.
Smart Shelves takes it past alerting into full inventory management, the difference between knowing a shelf is empty and having the restock already in motion.