All You Need to Know About Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour

As Simbe continues to innovate and push the boundaries of retail technology, last week we were thrilled to announce the launch of one of our largest software updates yet: Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour. These groundbreaking applications introduce a revolutionary approach for retailers to understand their stores, delivering today's most precise and actionable insights into the hands of key stakeholders across a retailer's business.

These latest advancements not only extend the value of our proven Store Intelligence™ platform, but also introduce unprecedented levels of visibility and actionable insights across devices and virtually. Whether looking to streamline task management, enhance inventory monitoring, or optimize store layouts remotely, these new capabilities are designed to empower retailers like never before.

Following, are frequently asked questions (FAQs) that retailers have about these two industry-leading capabilities:

Will current customers automatically have access to these updates? Is there an additional fee for Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour?

Simbe Mobile is already available to download for our current customers, allowing them to immediately take advantage of features like prioritized inventory and pricing tasks, near real-time data analytics, planogram compliance, and more, on any device.

Tally is also already equipped for Simbe Virtual Tour, giving retailers the ability to regularly conduct high-definition, 360-degree scans of their store interiors that can be navigated remotely anytime, anywhere. Simbe Virtual Tour will be accessible through both Simbe Mobile and Simbe’s industry-leading web platform – the only Store Intelligence solution delivering proven, quantifiable results at scale across dozens of leading retailers around the world.

Innovative retail partners, including BJ’s Wholesale Club, are already using these capabilities.

For a limited time, both services will be free to all customers to trial.

Can Simbe Mobile be embedded into a store’s existing software system?

Simbe integrates seamlessly with existing software solutions via API or can operate independently. Simbe Mobile is an application that is available for download on any device used by store teams, including iOS, Zebra, and Android.

How is this different from what Simbe could already do?

Retailers can’t remain competitive without a fundamental change in their business’ operating model. Automation and AI are driving this change. Top retailers use Simbe to fundamentally change the cost structure of their businesses via automation as they build stores of the future – and digitize their stores’ interiors. Both product updates extend the value and functionality of Simbe’s industry-leading web application, used by dozens of retailers globally. Early adopters are already seeing significant value from both capabilities and are exploring additional use cases across their teams.

Simbe Mobile is our proven Store Intelligence platform on the go. It puts all the actionable insights captured by Tally into the palms of store teams’ hands, ultimately granting associates easier access to prioritized tasks, near real-time analytics on stock levels and promotions accuracy, and more. This allows for even more simplified task management and enhanced inventory monitoring and responsiveness. We are continuously working on new customizable modules that can be rolled out to retailers in the future.

With our new Simbe Virtual Tour capability, retailers can access extensive, on-demand store navigation, which enhances store oversight by providing a complete, virtual view of store interiors without requiring physical presence. This serves as a powerful tool for optimizing product merchandising and stocking strategies, comparing product layouts across locations, and ensuring compliance for seasonal promotional displays or safety regulations. It also means leadership can now remotely ensure store conditions are optimal and consistent, allowing for timely intervention as well as performance benchmarking across locations.

How does Simbe Virtual Tour save retailers money?

Typically, if a retailer wants to conduct a full scan of their stores, they have to rely on costly manual capture services to take a one-time snapshot of stores on an annual basis. This can be challenging for regional managers, who are tasked with keeping an eye on multiple stores at one time and are often required to travel across their region for more frequent insights and inspections – another additional cost for retailers.

With Simbe Virtual Tour, Tally captures precise images of each aisle to provide diverse views and time-lapses of retail interiors, offering a near real-time understanding of store conditions on a regular basis. This unlocks the ability for retailers to better optimize layouts, ensure compliance, and proactively spot and solve efficiencies, all helping to reduce overall costs for the retailer. This is part of fundamentally changing cost infrastructure in support of retail efforts to build stores of the future.

How does this differ from solutions like Matterport?

Matterport requires a person to physically place a scanner into a retail location and move it throughout the store. Because this process is time-intensive and costly, retailers often only complete a full-store scan once a year.

With Simbe Virtual Tour, retailers gain frequent access to automated high-definition, 360-degree views of their store interiors that can be navigated anytime – providing improved remote oversight while transforming expensive annual processes into cost-effective, continuous oversight.

Will these new updates replace human jobs?

Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour are solutions designed to empower store teams to spend time on higher level tasks that only humans can do. Through Simbe Mobile, store associates have direct access to prioritized inventory tasks, near real-time data analytics, the ability to verify stock levels, and more – right at their fingertips.

Associates are essential in responding to the actionable feedback, recommendations, and inventory data captured by Tally – not to mention, store teams love working with Tally. In a recent Simbe survey, 90% of managers say that Tally makes their jobs easier, 89% say they want to continue working alongside Tally, and 85% said Tally helps them sell more and increase consumer loyalty by improving the shopper experience.

SpartanNash, for instance, rededicates 30 hours per week per store to better customer service.

Define “near real-time.” How often can retailers conduct a virtual scan of their stores?

Retailers can conduct a virtual scan of their stores as often as they’d like. Once retailers determine which areas of their stores they’d like to capture, Tally can scan those locations to provide a virtual walk-through a few times a day, a few times a week, or a few times a month, depending on the retailer’s preference and needs.

Define “configurable.” In what ways can retailers tailor the app to suit their teams’ needs? Why might retailers want to limit the amount of inventory insights available to store teams?

Through Simbe Mobile, store teams receive reports, dashboards, and recommendations directly to their device. Retailers can tailor app access and functionality by role so that the right level of data and control is available to the right team members, based on their unique needs and responsibilities. This ability to set individual permissions allows retailers to optimize efficiency, effectiveness, and security by ensuring that each team member has the appropriate tools on hand. The Simbe team is also working proactively with existing customers to develop future capabilities to meet and exceed additional needs across the business.

Does the Simbe Virtual Tour take photos of customers when doing its scan?

Simbe Virtual Tour is designed to provide retailers with easy, continuous access to high-definition views of their stores, so that their teams can do things like: verify stock levels, compare product layouts across locations, understand what assets exist in-store, ensure compliance for seasonal promotion displays or safety regulations, and more. ​​

Tally is not a surveillance machine. If an associate or customer is in the way while Tally is conducting a virtual tour, the robot will simply pause or try that spot again later.

How do these new solutions differ from other solutions/competitors?

Simbe Mobile is the most intuitive, actionable app for store teams on the market. While other mobile apps exist purely as task managers or to share operational hardware updates, like if their device is stuck or whether the battery is low, our mobile app arms retail partners with the same powerful, actionable insights available on our proven web platform – from recommendations on product merchandising and stocking strategies, to inventory and pricing alerts organized from most to least urgent. Simbe Mobile is our Store Intelligence™ Platform on the go.

Meanwhile, Simbe Virtual Tour offers the most precise insights out of all the solutions on the market. And you can actually navigate your store virtually, unlike other solutions that simply provide time-lapse shelf views of the aisle. Through Tally’s advanced computer vision, we’re providing retailers with unmatched virtual views of their stores.

Simbe is excited to bring these revolutionary solutions to market, offering unparalleled advantages in store intelligence and operational efficiency. By integrating Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour into your retail operations, you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure your store teams are equipped with the best tools to succeed.

To learn more about Simbe Mobile and Simbe Virtual Tour, and to see these solutions in action, schedule a demo today.