Beyond the Barcode: Exploring the Future of Retail Intelligence

JW Franz, Director of Innovation at TRG, returns with another episode of Beyond the Barcode—this time joined by Caitlin Allen, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Simbe Robotics.

Their discussion explores how technologies like robotics, RFID, computer vision, and AI are being applied inside stores to digitize the shelf and generate more accurate, actionable data. They examine what this shift means for inventory management, pricing accuracy, labor efficiency, and the shopper experience.

Topics include:

• The evolution of autonomous mobile robots in retail
• Early lessons from deployments and adoption challenges
• How on-shelf availability and pricing accuracy remain core use cases
• The “crawl, walk, run” approach to scaling store intelligence
• The role of robotics alongside RFID and fixed sensors
• Regional differences in adoption priorities across global markets

This conversation takes a practical look at where automation and store intelligence stand today, what’s driving adoption, and how retailers are approaching the next wave of in-store technology.

About Simbe Robotics
Simbe Robotics develops technologies for shelf visibility and store intelligence, including Tally, its autonomous inventory robot used across multiple retail sectors.

Learn more: https://www.simberobotics.com

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