Beyond Grocery: How Autonomous Intelligence is Transforming Retail

From autonomous mobile robots to computer vision and data insights, many grocery retailers are leading the way in adopting in-store technology. These tools help grocers to monitor, measure, and manage inventory, staffing, merchandising, and other critical aspects of their operations. For instance, some retailers have seen up to 90% fewer pricing and promotion errors while reducing out-of-stocks by 60% using inventory robots in store. Efficiencies like these drive bottom-line impact—particularly significant in an industry that is traditionally low-margin and heavily reliant on customer loyalty.

While grocers have been early adapters, any retail environment with complex inventory or a need for streamlined operational processes can benefit from similar technologies. Faster restocking, automated ordering, and freeing up associates to engage with shoppers are just a few of the benefits. From wholesale clubs to liquor stores and beyond, retailers embracing autonomous solutions are finding that the future of retail is smarter, more responsive, and better equipped to meet evolving shopper needs.

Wholesale Club: See the Physical Space

Large-format retail stores like wholesale club environments occupy a different kind of space than grocery retailers—both literally and operationally. With their warehouse-like layouts, these stores feature larger footprints, higher and deeper shelves, and products typically stacked on pallets with oversized barcodes. Effectively managing inventory in such environments requires visibility into the entire physical space where products reside.

The advanced computer vision capabilities in Simbe’s Tally robot are best-in class for pallet detection and depth data analysis. Tally can scan inventory stored on upper steel shelves for restocking, track time-in-steel to optimize pallet selection, and identify open areas—whether on pallets or shelves—for storing new inventory. This functionality is crucial, as wholesale environments often lack designated overflow storage. By leveraging Tally's insights, club teams can locate and restock products faster, improving customer satisfaction both in-store and online.

Additionally, for wholesale clubs managing RFID-tagged items such as apparel and electronics, autonomous RFID scanners provide near real-time visibility with sub-meter accuracy. This technology helps wholesale retailers improve inventory accuracy, reduce misplaced items, and prepare for omnichannel opportunities like BOPIS—all while improving shopper satisfaction both in-store and online.

Farm Supply: Prepare for Seasonal Fluctuation

With rising interest in gardening, homesteading, and rural lifestyles, farm supply stores are experiencing growing demand for a wide range of products, from lawn and garden essentials to pet and livestock supplies. However, this demand fluctuates throughout the year, driven by seasonal shifts and changes in commodity prices. To stay competitive, these retailers must maintain a well-timed, seasonally appropriate inventory that aligns with shopper needs. Autonomous intelligence technology helps streamline inventory management, ensuring shelves are stocked with the right products at the right time.

Solutions, such as robots, can continuously scan store shelves, delivering real-time data to identify which items are selling quickly and which are not. These insights enable store managers to make smarter, data-driven purchasing decisions, adjusting orders to match current demand trends. With precise knowledge of what’s selling and what isn’t, farm supply stores can minimize overstock, prevent stockouts, and optimize their seasonal offerings.

Plus, tools like 360-degree store views—similar to Google Street View—are transforming how farm supply retailers manage operations, especially for those with locations spread across rural areas. These capabilities allow executives to remotely monitor stores, verify compliance, and optimize layouts without the need for travel, helping maintain operational excellence across geographically dispersed locations.

Alcoholic Beverages: Pricing Accuracy for a Dynamic Industry

Product pricing in the alcoholic beverages industry is influenced by various factors, including federal and state excise taxes, import tariffs, and region-specific regulations. With frequent supplier changes introducing new promotions and compliance requirements, retailers face the challenge of managing a diverse product range—balancing variety without overstocking or understocking key items and maintaining accurate prices.

Autonomous intelligence technology, like Simbe’s, streamlines these complexities. Tally can read all kinds of price tags, including barcodes, and instantly identify if a price needs updating. When paired with electronic shelf labels (ESLs), it becomes even easier to ensure product tags reflect accurate pricing in real time. This level of precision leads to satisfied shoppers and fewer financial discrepancies, which is especially critical during seasonal or promotional peaks. 

Furthermore, insights from Tally’s data can enhance vendor performance management—critical in an industry marked by frequent supplier changes. Simbe Brand Insights allows you to pass on the value of shelf-level data to your network of brands, vendors, and distributors, giving them crucial information about product locations, stockout durations, and promotion execution daily instead of having to wait for traditional syndication data.

Home Improvement Stores: Maintain Diverse Inventory

Home Improvement stores are known for their extensive inventory, offering countless variations of tools, parts, and gadgets to help DIYers and professionals with renovation projects. While this variety is invaluable for shoppers, it presents a significant challenge for home improvement stores: managing thousands of unique SKUs while maintaining stock visibility, especially across multiple locations. Keeping track of such diverse inventory is essential for delivering a reliable shopping experience—if a product isn’t in its designated spot, it could result in a missed sale and a disappointed shopper.

Autonomous mobile robots like Tally simplify this process by creating a virtual map of the store’s layout and product locations. Tally continuously monitors and updates this map, delivering near-real-time insights into stock levels, product locations, and inventory needs across all departments in a store. With this technology, teams can easily track what’s on the shelves, identify low-stock items, and determine restocking priorities without manually checking each aisle. These insights help hardware stores keep inventory organized, streamline restocking processes, and enhance the shopper experience by ensuring products are always available and easy to find.

By combining autonomous robots with fixed sensors, home improvement stores can achieve precise, real-time coverage across all areas of the store. These technologies work together to provide additional monitoring in critical zones, such as high-turnover sections (seasonal items), high-theft areas (tools and hardware), and checkout lanes for bottom-basket detection. This approach helps retailers reduce shrink and improve overall inventory accuracy.

Creating Seamless Experiences Across Industries

Autonomous intelligence solutions bring powerful benefits to retail industries managing large, diverse, or complex inventories. By leveraging real-time data, these technologies enhance operational efficiency across sectors, reducing shrink, increasing stock accuracy, and freeing employees from time-consuming manual tasks. This shift allows staff to focus on higher-value activities, such as engaging with shoppers or managing team members, ultimately boosting both employee productivity and job satisfaction.

For shoppers, the impact is equally positive. Improved stock visibility ensures products are consistently available, creating a more reliable shopping experience and fostering customer loyalty. From home improvement stores and farm supply shops to alcoholic beverage retailers, autonomous intelligence is redefining retail, shaping its future with smarter, more efficient operations.