Simbe launches quarterly retail benchmark from billions of shelf images and store observations
On April 15, 2026 Simbe launched the Simbe Index, a quarterly retail benchmark built from over 45 billion shelf photos captured by its Store Intelligence platform; the inaugural release covers the 14-day window around Easter and Passover in 2025 and 2026, reporting out-of-stock rates rising from a 3.8% baseline to 8.3% during the holiday surge.
What happened
- Launch announced April 15, 2026 from San Francisco; quarterly cadence tied to cultural moments including back-to-school and winter holidays.
- Underlying corpus: 45 billion+ shelf photos across Simbe's Store Intelligence deployments in 10 countries.
- Shoppers 119% more likely to encounter out-of-stock items in the 14-day holiday window; OOS rose from 3.8% baseline to 8.3%.
- Floral category: a 42.3% restock rate cut OOS by more than half year-over-year.
- Egg demand peaked two days earlier in 2026 than 2025, with a 131% surge over baseline; protein main dish OOS pressure jumped 150%; brunch categories (plant-based milks, cottage cheese) ran 141% above baseline.
- Caitlin Allen, SVP of Market, named as the spokesperson; no buyer, licensee or price disclosed in the release.
Why it matters
Simbe is running the stack a syndicated-data business runs — 45 billion shelf photos, Tally robots, computer vision, a quarterly cadence tied to Easter and back-to-school — but the April 15 release names no buyer, no licensee and no price for the Index. Until one appears, the 3.8%-to-8.3% out-of-stock finding is a marketing tactic to walk back when Caitlin Allen's team later tries to charge for it.
The argument this deal tests: Data monetisation: three routes to value creation
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Sources
- simberobotics.com — primary
Announced 2026-04-15