Swiss smart data capture firm Scandit has acquired Polish image recognition and AI software company MarketLab to boost its retail shelf intelligence capabilities.

The asset acquisition covers MarketLab’s shelf audit automation technology. As part of the transaction, MarketLab employees will join Scandit to build and expand the offering.

MarketLab’s expertise in fixed camera offerings complements Scandit’s existing ShelfView mobile capture approach to provide hybrid data capture shelf intelligence for retailers. The global retail sector loses approximately $634bn annually due to problems with on-shelf availability alone.

Delivering increased workforce efficiency and automating time-intensive store operations processes, the hybrid option should help retailers gain insights into on-shelf availability, planogram compliance, pricing issues and more to maintain optimal store conditions, increase sales and reduce lost revenues due to stockouts, particularly in high-SKU volume environments such as grocery stores. It will also provide AI-enabled notifications to improve store key performance indicators and flag problems in near real time to store staff and management.

“The acquisition marks a new milestone in Scandit’s evolution as we continue to broaden our smart data capture capabilities for the wider retail industry,” said Samuel Mueller, CEO of Scandit. “Integrating MarketLab’s fixed camera-based shelf recognition experience and technology into ShelfView strengthens our ability to empower retailers to enhance their overall store performance, boost store associate efficiency and optimise the monetisation of shelf data with CPG partners.”

Piotr Wardaszko, CEO of MarketLab (marketlab.pl), added: “We are delighted to join forces with Scandit. Combining our complementary technologies, we look forward to delivering additional value, RoI and insights to grocery retailers globally so they can benefit from increased visibility into their shelves, ensure accurate stock availability and ultimately enhance the customer experience.”

Leveraging the strengths of mobile capture and fixed cameras offers retailers complete, scalable and flexible technology for all store formats, with a seamless path to more efficient and cost-effective shelf management. Mobile capture, via smartphones or handheld computers, is easily deployable using existing devices and adaptable to different store environments, and it can be scaled quickly. The addition of fixed cameras provides continuous high frequency data capture for near-real-time shelf monitoring while freeing up store staff to higher-value tasks such as customer engagement.

The acquisition strengthens Scandit’s ShelfView retail shelf management and analytics offering, which leverages object recognition, augmented reality and other computer vision technologies to process images for more intelligent and efficient store operations. Thanks to Scandit’s AI and machine-learning capabilities, ShelfView (www.scandit.com/products/shelfview) delivers alert accuracy at 99.7%, crucial for delivering reliable insights quickly in rapidly changing shelf situations.

With Scandit’s existing retail customer base, including eight out of the top ten US grocers, plus MarketLab’s existing accounts including Carrefour Poland, Scandit is well positioned to drive growth and retail innovation. The acquisition opens routes to market by providing insights to consumer packaged goods (CPGs) and merchandising agencies to increase revenues through higher on-shelf availability, accurate pricing, promotions and planogram compliance as agreed with their retail partners. Beyond the retail sector, Scandit (www.scandit.com) sees potential in fixed camera deployments in other environments such as warehousing to automate logistics workflows.

This announcement follows Scandit’s $150m series D investment in 2022 which helped accelerate its R&D, with a focus on AI and ML capabilities, reflected in recent product developments such as ID Validate, ID Bolt and MatrixScan Find.