Impressed by the shortage of visibility in high-value retail property throughout numerous areas, Karan Bakshi, CEO of Imaginative and prescient Group Retail, dedicated himself to bridging the hole between bodily operations and digital intelligence within the retail world. The corporate empowers CPG manufacturers and retailers with real-time visibility, smarter decision-making, and data-driven execution. Being awarded as one of many “Quickest Rising Corporations of 2025” by The CEO Views, Chief Income Officer Jason DeRienzo proudly takes us on a tour of the corporate’s journey, highlighting its distinctive options and strategic strikes to thwart market competitors.
What inspiration influenced the enterprise concept? What was the mission originally?
Eight years in the past, inspiration struck our CEO, Karan Bakshi, unexpectedly whereas he was presenting an asset monitoring resolution at a commerce present. A consultant who would later grow to be one among Imaginative and prescient’s largest clients visited our sales space and described a major problem: they’d tens of hundreds of thousands of high-value property unfold throughout numerous areas, but they lacked clear visibility into the efficiency of these property. That dialog sparked a groundbreaking concept. Along with his background in IoT and pc imaginative and prescient, Karan acknowledged a chance to develop an answer that will carry intelligence and connectivity to the bodily retail world.
Please give us a short overview of the corporate.
Imaginative and prescient Group Retail know-how firm transforms the consumer-packaged items (CPG) and retail panorama by way of synthetic intelligence and pc imaginative and prescient. We improve bodily retail by offering end-to-end visibility, which incorporates creating digital twins, recommending particular channel-tailored assortments, producing store-level planograms, using AI-powered picture recognition, and providing real-time distant visibility into retail execution. Our platform additionally facilitates frictionless, checkout-free retail experiences. We assist CPG manufacturers and retailers analyze in-store circumstances, observe product efficiency, and optimize merchandising methods on a big scale.
Shed some gentle on the distinctive options provided by the corporate.
Think about driving what you are promoting ahead with a transparent view of the street forward slightly than simply specializing in what’s behind you. That’s precisely what our software program options present. Our options not solely determine issues but in addition ship actionable insights and automation, empowering customer-facing groups and class managers to function with unmatched effectivity. The outcome? Smarter shelf selections, completely optimized product placements, and streamlined operations enhance gross sales and ship an distinctive buyer expertise.
Our shelf-level picture recognition supplies real-time, forward-looking indicators by revealing precisely what is occurring on the shelf at this second. This instant, actionable intelligence lets you anticipate traits, determine points resembling out-of-stock or compliance breaches, and take proactive measures to forestall misplaced gross sales and optimize methods earlier than they affect your backside line.
As one of many fastest-growing corporations, what are the important thing drivers of progress for Imaginative and prescient Group Retail?
Imaginative and prescient Group Retail’s fast progress stems from a three-pronged strategy:
- Strategic Consumer “Land and Broaden” Mannequin: A key driver of our progress, and a definite benefit over opponents, is our profitable technique of touchdown key shoppers and relentlessly increasing our partnerships inside their organizations.
- Adaptive and Agile Product Improvement: Our sustained progress isn’t simply concerning the options we provide, however how we construct them: by way of unwavering adaptation and agility. We actively take heed to our clients, quickly combine their suggestions, and constantly evolve our options to exactly meet their evolving wants.
- Strategic Growth and Key Acquisitions: Our quick progress can also be fueled by strategic growth and key acquisitions. A chief instance is our integration of Hivery Curate, a cutting-edge AI for hyperlocal assortment optimization, to our current strengths.How is the corporate combating the business challenges to thrive?
Holding onto a market place within the quickly evolving retail market just isn’t straightforward. How is the corporate combating the business challenges to thrive?
Imaginative and prescient Group Retail combats business challenges and thrives by strategically leveraging its core strengths and anticipating market wants:
- Steady AI Innovation: Heavy R&D funding retains our AI and pc imaginative and prescient applied sciences superior, evolving from easy detection to superior prescription and automation.
- Actual-time Intelligence: We offer main indicators by way of shelf-level picture recognition, enabling instant corrective actions earlier than points escalate.
- Built-in Options: Our end-to-end suite covers retail execution, visible merchandising, and class administration in a single unified platform.
- Strategic Development: Acquisitions like Hivery develop our capabilities (hyperlocal assortment optimization) and market attain, making us extra resilient and full.
- International Scale: Working in 55+ international locations by way of scalable SaaS with a customer-first strategy ensures robust retention and sustainable progress.
What distinguishes Imaginative and prescient Group Retail from its opponents in an setting of steady market competitors?
We’re the one end-to-end merchandising resolution supplier.
We mix a 1+ million product picture/attribute library, planogram software program, assortment optimization, retail execution monitoring, and IoT options below one AI-powered platform.
Our dual-AI strategy
Our generative AI by way of an LLM will mechanically rework our picture recognition knowledge into clear insights and suggestions. Utilizing agentic AI, our Assortment Optimization software (“Curate”) autonomously optimizes assortments throughout shelf house, incrementality, and cannibalization—clever automation that different instruments on this house can’t match.
Unmatched Partnerships
Whereas many corporations provide comparable providers on paper, our in depth expertise with large-scale deployments throughout various CPG classes is a definite aggressive benefit. Our partnerships with business leaders like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Kenvue, Ferrero, and extra spotlight this distinctive functionality.
Expertise Navigating Class-Particular Challenges
Each CPG class presents its personal distinctive challenges, requiring our programs to adapt to important visible muddle and frequent bundle modifications.
Our work exemplifies agility and adaptableness. We’ve efficiently recognized merchandise in extremely diversified environments, from meticulously organized frozen pizza shows to dynamic bakery candy shelf units that comprise a mixture of luggage, containers, and tubes.
Delivering Common KPIs with Precision
The core KPIs of the corporate stay universally vital for CPG manufacturers. Our potential to constantly ship correct, actionable insights for these key metrics, whatever the inherent visible chaos or order of a given class, is a testomony to our picture recognition know-how’s unparalleled adaptability, scalability, and precision.
What are the focused KPIs of the corporate to thwart market competitors?
- Product & AI Efficiency
- Velocity to Insights
- Scalability
- Buyer Worth & Quantifiable ROI
- Buyer Retention and growth of options
- Time to Worth (TTV)
- Product Improvement Velocity
What are a few of your buyer acquisition methods that enable you to obtain sustainable progress?
- Webinars & Digital Occasions: Collaborating in webinars and digital roundtables centered on CPG challenges and AI options. These direct engagements permit us to share real-world examples with potential shoppers and place the Imaginative and prescient Group as a confirmed, reliable, and dependable resolution supplier. One notable instance was a latest joint webinar with our shopper Sanofi (Opella). This webinar centered on how AI picture recognition and VR are serving to CPGs acquire shelf house whereas saving time.
- Account-Based mostly Advertising and marketing (ABM): We have now gotten smarter through the years and now not solid our prospects internet extensive. We have now deal with on our ICP (Superb Buyer Profile).
- Growth of Partnerships and Ecosystem Improvement: Current additions embody relationships with Salesforce and the activation of our options in Accenture’s innovation middle, the place potential shoppers can interact with our options reside.
Present a short bio of your self.
Jason DeRienzo is a extremely completed and results-driven govt with over 20 years of management expertise in gross sales, advertising, and class administration inside the retail and CPG sectors. Because the Chief Income Officer at Imaginative and prescient Group Retail, Jason makes use of his deep understanding of gross sales administration, knowledge analytics, and aggressive landscapes to drive income progress, advertising, and strategic initiatives. He joined Imaginative and prescient Group in 2021 by way of the acquisition of SMSB Consulting Group, the place he served as CEO since 2018. As CEO, he performed a vital function in serving to retailers and CPG producers optimize gross sales effectivity.
Earlier than changing into CEO, Jason served as Govt Vice President of Gross sales for over twelve years. Throughout this time, he achieved a 233% improve in income and secured main shoppers, together with Coke, Diageo, Complete Meals, Keurig Dr. Pepper, Crimson Bull, Kroger, and lots of different notable CPG retailers and producers. Notably, Jason was additionally a founding companion within the creation and growth of ezPOG, the first-ever web-based planogram resolution. He excels at sustaining robust relationships and serving to shoppers bridge the hole between class administration, gross sales, and retail execution.
