Symphony RetailAI Named as a Representative Vendor in the 2021 Gartner Market Guide for Retail Assortment Management Applications: Long Life Cycle Products
Symphony RetailAI, a leading global provider of integrated AI-powered marketing, merchandising and supply chain solutions for FMCG retailers and manufacturers, today announced that it was recognized as a Representative Vendor in the 2021 Gartner Market Guide for Retail Assortment Management Applications: Long Life Cycle Products [1] (Gartner subscription required). Symphony RetailAI is one of 13 vendors named in the report that offer applications for retailers seeking to improve assortment processes for long life cycle products.
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In its report, Gartner recognizes that its volume of retailer inquiries on the topic of Retail Assortment Management Applications (RAMA) “remains significant,” estimating that “basic Excel is still the most common assortment management tool, used by over 30% of Tier 1 retailers and likely boasting an even larger penetration in Tier 2 grocery and specialty retailers.” Gartner says, “Category management processes can no longer operate in organizational or technology silos, requiring complex orchestration across all core processes, such as category review and assortment planning, pricing, space management, allocation, replenishment, and supply chain.” [1]
Furthermore, according to the Market Guide, “AI enablement is key to the future of RAMA solutions.” It notes, “AI provides the ability to quickly discern patterns from voluminous data residing in many different systems to give the retailer good customer insights on trends, better forecasting and predictive analytics.” [1]
Symphony RetailAI’s RAMA offerings fall into three solution suites: Agile Merchandising, Floor Intelligence and Shelf Intelligence. Enhanced and differentiated by CINDE, Symphony RetailAI’s Al-powered Customer INsights and Decision Engine, each application harnesses the power of AI to gain efficiencies in category planning processes. AI is used to plan and optimize the decisions of the complete category management process, recognizing physical constraints and digital opportunities. Further, Symphony RetailAI’s Shelf Intelligence solution maximizes planogram ROI and improves compliance.
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Symphony RetailAI’s enterprise AI platform powers Intelligent Clustering and Assortment Optimization – these solutions enable localized, consumer-centric assortments aligned with changes in consumer demand, rather than waiting for calendar-based resets. This is something Gartner notes as a Key Finding in the Market Guide: “Retailers are moving from annual or semiannual category review processes to more frequent adjustments that eliminate disruptive floor resets and take advantage of market opportunities when they occur.” [1] Interestingly, a recent study commissioned by Symphony RetailAI found that while grocery executives would like to double the number of category resets annually, 68% say they lack the effective systems required to plan and implement more frequent resets.
“Through the use of Symphony RetailAI’s applications for assortment management and optimization, our retail clients are realizing millions of dollars in revenue and margin growth, with 30 times more efficient assortment revisions and a three-fold reduction in category reset cycle times,” said Cheryl Sullivan, Chief Product Officer, Symphony RetailAI. “We believe that our inclusion in Gartner Market Guide for Retail Assortment Management Applications: Long Life Cycle Products speaks to our category planning expertise, as well as our solutions’ ability to deliver collaborative workflows resulting in more intelligent assortments and category resets. This will be increasingly important with retailers supporting cross-channel assortments as we emerge from the pandemic and customer demand fluctuates.”
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