When most people think about Image Recognition (IR) in CPG, their mind goes straight to the shelf. Supermarkets. Hypermarkets. Aisles neatly stacked with packaged goods. And to be fair, that’s where IR made its name. But like all great technologies, its real value lies in how far beyond the original use case it can stretch. (p.s. we wrote about the other myths about IR here)
Today, leading CPG brands are expanding their use of IR into new frontiers: bars, restaurants, cafés, food service outlets, and pharmacies. These environments may seem less structured, harder to scan, and trickier to decode, and they are, but they’re also packed with untapped commercial insight. And now, with advances in image processing, AI, and on-device computing, they’re finally within reach.
These Aren’t Your Average Shelves
The complexity of these environments is precisely what makes IR so powerful here. Unlike grocery shelves, where SKUs mostly sit neatly front facing, bars and restaurants present a very different scanning challenge:
Meanwhile, pharmacies present a whole different set of variables. SKUs are often smaller, pack designs more intricate, and categories highly congested. Shelves are densely packed with blister packs, creams, vials and boxes, and the difference between a pain relief product and an antacid could be a single word in 6pt font.
In short: accuracy matters more than ever. If the tech can’t tell the difference between a competing variant or misses an item on a cluttered back bar, the entire value proposition falls flat. But with new advances in deep learning, edge computing and image models trained on real-world data, accuracy rates in these environments are now strong enough to drive meaningful decisions.
It’s Not Just Presence, It’s Context
This is where the real step change happens. In traditional retail, IR focuses on presence, share of shelf, compliance, and planogram accuracy. In hospitality and pharmacy, it’s all about context.
For alcohol and beverage brands, modern IR can now decode:
That means insight into not just what’s happening at the point-of-sale, but how your brand is showing up to consumers. Are you listed on the menu? Do you have premium positioning? Is the bartender pushing your brand or the competitor’s?
It’s the difference between knowing your bottle is in the bar, and knowing it’s part of a trending serve with a $12 price tag and high margin.
In pharmacies, IR can deliver similar value. Manufacturers are using it to:
And because IR is now fast and scalable, these insights can be rolled up across territories or markets, creating a powerful commercial dashboard for brand, category and field execution teams.
Who’s Leading the Charge?
Unsurprisingly, beer and spirits manufacturers were among the earliest adopters in hospitality venues. Global leaders like AB InBev and Diageo have long recognized the value of understanding what happens in the final mile of influence, behind the bar, in the fridge, on the menu. IR gives them a scalable way to track brand presence, understand activation ROI, and support field teams with real-time data.
In pharmacy, adoption is accelerating. With many healthcare categories growing more consumer-facing, think vitamins, wellness, and allergy relief, brands are looking for retail-like execution and insight. IR helps these companies bypass the traditional reliance on pharmacy reps by automating checks and surfacing insights that would previously require manual auditing.
AR, On-Device IR and the Rise of Practical Capture
One of the biggest enablers of success in these channels is the shift toward on-device IR, also known as Augmented Reality capture. Unlike traditional image processing, which often relies on sending photos to the cloud for analysis, on-device IR uses the phone’s native processing power to deliver real-time feedback.
This means reps or auditors in a bar or pharmacy can get instant guidance: “Step back for a better angle” or “We’ve captured all items in the fridge, move on.” It reduces the margin for error, speeds up the workflow, and ensures consistency across thousands of visits. Capture time is of course less, and image quality is better than ever – and you still have a full shelf capture, speaking specifically to Trax’s solutions, and why we continue to invest in our AR-powered solutions for field sales teams.
What’s Next?
Looking ahead, expect to see even greater integration of IR with broader datasets: POS sales data, account-level activation plans, and even local demographic data. In combination, this creates a true “digital twin” of the physical outlet, not just showing what’s there, but predicting what should be there to maximize ROI.
And as generative AI and natural language interfaces begin to interact with IR datasets, brand teams will soon be able to ask open-ended questions like: “Which of my top 5 pharmacy accounts are underperforming on visibility?” or “Where am I losing share to Brand X in cocktail menus this month?” and get real, actionable answers.
The Bottom Line
The physical shelf may have been the original battleground for IR, but it’s no longer the only one that matters. If your brand has presence in on-trade, food service, or pharmacy environments, and most leading CPGs do, then it’s time to ask: “Are we measuring what matters?”
Image Recognition has grown up. It’s fast, accurate, and ready to tackle complexity at scale. More importantly, it’s bringing visibility into the places that were once blind spots.
Let’s talk.
If you’re curious about how IR could sharpen your brand’s execution in bars, restaurants or pharmacies, feel free to connect with me or reach out to the team at Trax. We’re helping global brands go where shelf audits never could, and we’d love to show you how.
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