Name: Betsy Ferrer, Director of Sales

Tenure With Current Company: 1 year

Years of Industry Experience: 12 years

Give us a brief history of your company, when and how did you get started and what is your high-level mission statement?

The Vision Group is a global group of technology companies that digitize brick-and-mortar retail. Currently, we have client installations in over 60 countries with offices in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, India, Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland, and China. Previously I worked at Blue Yonder for over 10 years before moving to Vision Group, Inc. last year as Director of Sales. My mission statement is, “love what you do”. We spend so much time with the team we work with that I truly believe you need to enjoy what you do and who you work for.

What would you like CMA and SIMA members to know about your company?

Our innovative solutions allow CPG Retailers, Suppliers, Brokers, and Distributors to design the perfect store, measure retail execution, and monitor consumer behavior, allowing them to identify trends and create personalized experiences for customers. Our Category Management and Shopper Insights solutions help solve strategic business issues and provide superior results including:

Creating Digital Product Content and auditing retail execution
Measuring On-Shelf Availability and Out-of-Stocks
Delivering Image Recognition – Picture to POG in seconds
Developing Assortment and Planogram Compliance Metrics
Providing Business Intelligence with Real-Time Reporting

What is the most common question you hear from current and potential customers, and how do you answer it?

How can we ensure what is on the planogram is what is on the set in the store? With our Image Recognition Application called Store 360, we can take a photo or video of the live set and measure planogram compliance for you.

Any white space in the industry or areas you are looking to expand into?

The Vision Group will continue to make investments in advanced Image Recognition (IR) and Internet of Things (IOT) solutions that digitize physical retail environments to enable CPG brands and retailers to measure, analyze and optimize how their products and promotions perform in real-time. An emphasis will be placed on eliminating the retail execution “Blind Spots” by providing corrective action reporting that helps drive increased profitability and improves operational efficiencies.

What is the most important thing that needs to be addressed in the category management and shopper insights disciplines going forward?

How are you measuring “the Perfect Store” and what KPI’s are you looking at to in turn make important recommendations that will increase sales, reduce costs, and deliver the optimal assortment and space on the shelf?

How are you thinking about the next 3-5 years in retail?

The current Image Recognition capabilities are revolutionizing the CPG industry allowing retailers and manufacturers to automate the identification and tracking of products to improve overall retail execution, deliver optimal assortments, and provide the ability to analyze consumer behavior. Image recognition is becoming a requirement, empowering retail stakeholders to transform the shelf management process and elevate customer experience.