Symphony RetailAI, a global provider of AI-enabled revenue growth management solutions and customer-centric insights for retailers and CPG manufacturers, has announced a new partnership with InContext Solutions, a global provider of 3D simulation software and virtual shopping insights for retail. This partnership supports Symphony RetailAI’s agile merchandising initiative and allows retailers to identify, design and test category and store layouts in an AI-enabled virtual environment. It also has proven to significantly reduce the time and expenses traditionally associated with these processes.

The new partnership is a logical outgrowth of Symphony RetailAI’s focus on enabling retailers to respond to today’s need for constant agility in the marketplace. Now, Symphony RetailAI’s space planning solutions are enhanced through the advanced VR technology of InContext Solutions’ ShopperMX platform, enabling retailers to streamline the space planning process and drive more effective use of physical store real estate. The resulting outcome is 5-10% improvement in category performance. 

“Using machine learning to intelligently optimize trade promotion spend and model new layouts with virtual simulation testing presents unprecedented efficiency and confidence for retailers when it comes to incremental resets or significant format redesigns that impact category and store profit,” said David Rich, Executive Chairman and CEO of InContext Solutions. “We are excited about the opportunity to deliver a unique solution to our combined customer base; a robust planning and optimization solution that enables an end-to-end experience from demand planning to store execution.”

Symphony RetailAI Store Planning and Optimization are seamlessly integrated with InContext Solutions’ ShopperMX 3D Content & Curation platform to make multi-user virtual reality testing possible. By creating a unified feedback loop between the AI-enabled planning solution and VR testing process, users can refine the planogram before updates are made to physical stores – increasing speed and reducing costs. This integration brings first-of-its-kind capabilities that further extend Symphony RetailAI agile on-demand merchandising solutions while reducing time to market for these decisions.

About InContext

InContext Solutions is the global leader in 3D simulation software for retail. Our virtual simulation platform, ShopperMX, enables brands and retailers to create better shopping experiences through its ability to digitally prototype, validate with real shoppers, and activate through our field enablement applications within the context of a retail store environment. InContext Solutions’ ShopperMX platform delivers substantial cost and time savings while mitigating major risk when bringing new ideas to life in retail.  

About Symphony RetailAI

Symphony RetailAI is the leading global provider of role-specific, AI-enabled revenue growth management solutions and customer-centric insights for retailers and CPG manufacturers across the entire value chain. Our proven, industry-leading, AI-enabled software, coupled with the industry’s only conversational natural-language AI interface, CINDE, provides key users with proven prescriptive and preemptive recommendations that make it easy to identify end-to-end growth opportunities, activate plans, and realize measurable profit and revenue growth. Our solutions are specific to key decision-maker roles focused on profitable growth across the retail value chain from source to consumer. With our strong global partner ecosystem, we serve more than 1,200 organizations worldwide – including 15 of the top 25 global grocery retailers, 25 of the top 25 global CPG manufacturers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains – all through the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Symphony RetailAI is a SymphonyAI company.