実証実験では最大50％※以上の売上増加も！全体では5.27％※の増加を記録！！
飲料補充の効率化で、業界の働き方改革も実現！
※近似環境でAIシステムを使用しなかった自販機との同一期間比較 ... learn more

豪州AIスタートアップHIVERYがJR東日本ウォータービジネス社と事業展開〜「HIVERY Enhance」をエキナカ自販機に本格導入〜

The two companies have been collaborating since 2017, leveraging Hivery's AI technology to optimize product assortment and column space for individual vending machines in Japan. Validated results from proof of concepts increased sales by 5.27％overall, up to a maximum of more than 50%, as well as reducing replenishment trips and improving operational productivity... learn more

Hivery, an Australia based artificial intelligence provider, will roll out its AI driven vending machine management solution to 6,000 machines across East Japan Railway's train stations, according to a press release.

Retail AI pioneer, HIVERY (headquartered in Sydney, Australia) and JR East Water Business (headquartered in Tokyo, Japan), a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company, have agreed to rollout HIVERY Enhance - an AI-driven vending machine optimization solution, to 6,000 vending machines across East Japan Railway’s train stations.

Validated results from numerous PoCs (proof of concepts) increased sales by 5.27％ [1] overall, up to a maximum of over 50%, as well as simultaneously reducing replenishment trips and improving operational productivity.  

HIVERY and JR East Water Business have been collaborating since 2017, leveraging HIVERY’s latest AI technology to optimize product assortment and column space for individual vending machines in Japan. During the winter of 2019, the results of HIVERY Enhance showed an overall increase in sales volume by 5.27%, up to a maximum of over 50%. Furthermore, given labor storages due to a declining population, there has been growing pressure to improve operational productivity within the Japanese vending industry. HIVERY Enhance enabled JR East Water Business to streamline operations and reduce replenishment trips by automatically recommending the optimal product assortment and quantity for their vending machines. Based on this success, JR East Water Business has agreed to rollout HIVERY Enhance across 6,000 vending machines on their train stations for East Japan Railway - a first in Japan.

Until now, product assortment selection had been decided by individual operators (drivers) who are responsible for replenishing the vending machines at their designated locations. Given those decisions have been based on the operator’s accumulated experience and intuition over many years, it has been an ongoing challenge to transfer that knowledge to new operators and maintain a level of quality. HIVERY Enhance leverages the power of AI and JR East Water Business’ point of sales (POS) data, to automatically determine which products need to be stocked in which vending machine, as well as the optimal timing to swap products for individual machines. This enables any operator to efficiently make the right product assortment choices that will lead to a profitable outcome. 

Select products that are likely to sell well – By analyzing the vast amount of sales data from the full fleet of vending machines, it identifies patterns in the sales data and identifies products that are likely to sell well in any particular location.

Optimize product assortment - By understanding the demand for individual products and the effects of cannibalization of demand between products in each location, it can determine which products should be inserted and which should be taken out, to lead to the optimal outcome.

Reduce replenishment trips - From the demand forecasts of products in any location, it can calculate the number of days before each product is likely to go out of stock and recommend the optimal quantity and column allocation to maximize the time between replenishment trips, thereby reducing labor costs.

Optimizing a  group of vending machines - Rather than only focusing on individual vending machines, it can also assess a group of banked vending machines in the same area at the same time, and optimize the products for the entire area as if it were one large vending machine.

By ingesting vast arrays of data and incorporating intricate operational rules as well as physical and business constraints into its algorithm, HIVERY Enhance can instantaneously provide executable recommendations for the optimal product assortment and column configurations for both an individual as well as a group of vending machines. Furthermore, by leveraging weather data, it can respond to changes in seasonal patterns and suggest the optimal time to insert hot and cold products, while taking into account the effects of cannibalization for the product mix at each location, thereby providing the optimal product assortment at any given time.

In March 2018, HIVERY invited JR East Water Business’s Vending Division team to its Sydney headquarters to meet with one of HIVERY's first customers, Coca-Cola Amatil, to exchange ideas and share their experience and best practice for implementing cutting edge technology for their respective vending businesses.

“We believe the combination of the rich human experience of our operators cultivated over many years and the utilization of big data is our greatest strength.  With HIVERY Enhance, we can realise that vision, and we aim to establish a new platform for our vending machine operations that will help us recover from the impact of this year’s pandemic, as well as improve worker productivity which has been an issue for us for many years.” 

~ Yuta Higashino, Manager at JR East Water Business

Moving into category management: the $US900[2] billion opportunity.

HIVERY Enhance is just the beginning. HIVERY has released its new offering - HIVERY Curate  - The world’s first truly hyper-local category management solution, helping companies like Coca-Cola and Walmart transform category management. HIVERY Curate delivers store-level recommendations with sophisticated self-learning AI algorithms that discover buying patterns at each store and make product assortment and space recommendations from this, resulting in a 10X return on investment to date.

HIVERY is a multi-award-winning pioneer of hyper-local retailing, combining Artificial Intelligence (AI), operations research, and human-centered design to help Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers generate a return on physical space investments. HIVERY is transforming category management and retail trade promotion, with innovative algorithms sourced from Australia's national science agency - CSIRO's Data61. HIVERY is venture-backed and headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices in the USA and Japan. HIVERY was founded on the vision that Data Has A Better Idea[TM] - and we’re working together with our clients to uncover its full potential.


Innovation Leaders Summit Tokyo (ILS) 3rd~12th March 2021

HIVERY has been selected by Austrade (The Australian Trade and Investment Commission) and the NSW Government of Australia, as one of 2 promising startups to participate in next year’s Innovation Leaders’ Summit.  Details of the event can be found here: https://ils.tokyo/

JR East Water Business Co media release  

[1] Compared to vending machines not leveraging HIVERY Enhance during the same period.

[2] “Out of Stocks, Out of Luck How Retailers Alienate Customers and Lose Billions Due to Poor Inventory Practices” IHL Group 2018, G. Buzek

Hyperlocal retailing pioneer HIVERY (headquartered in Sydney, Australia) and JR East Water Business (headquartered in Tokyo, Japan), a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company, have agreed to rollout HIVERY Enhance, an AI driven vending machine optimisation solution, to 6,000 vending machines across East Japan Railway’s train stations.

Australian AI startup HIVERY partners with JR East Water Business to optimise vending machines in Japan

Australian AI startup, HIVERY, partners with JR East Water Business to optimize vending machines in Japan.

Expert food industry analyst and journalist, Phil Lempert, has a candid conversation with HIVERY's CEO, Jason Hosking, on future of retail, category management and AI. Watch this episode of Lost in the Supermarket... watch video

Future of retail, category management and AI (video)

HIVERY is taking data science to the next level by adding an additional layer with prescriptive analysis – what should happen – removing human effort to understand the data, as well as human bias that sways future decision-making....read more

How an Aussie analytics start-up is helping retailers with ROI

On Thursday 15 October, Technical Officer at HIVERY, Andy McQuarrie and co-founder, Matt Robards will be speaking at the Databricks APAC Industry Leadership Forums. Backed by The Coca-Cola Company, CSIRO and Blackbird Ventures, HIVERY is pioneering hyper-local retailing.... read more

HIVERY to present at Databricks APAC Industry Leadership Forum

The 14th World Retail Awards aim to put a spotlight on many examples of innovation, creativity and world-class retailing.

The retail industry is embracing a rapid transformation in the digital age; and we are excited to be shortlisted for the "The Retail Technology Game-Changer" category. This is a strong validation of our hard work over the years.

The category recognises technology companies that are inventing new solutions to re-shape the industry for the better. At HIVERY, we are helping consumer packaged goods (CPGs) companies and retailers prevail in an era of big data, complex merchandising rules, and AI, supporting their shoppers and employees in the process. Ultimately, HIVERY’s AI-driven recommendations are about allocating our planet's resources more optimally.

Last year's winners included METRO GMBH, The Dubai Mall, Afterpay (category winner), and Nike, to name a few. HIVERY is honored to be amongst great brands.

Learn more about the World Retail Congress and the Awards

HIVERY is proud to be shortlisted for the World Retail Awards this year

Aussie AI startup HIVERY has raised $8 million in Series A funding, led by Blackbird, as it makes a grab for a global opportunity helping retailers stock the products consumers really want.

Founded in 2015 and backed by drinks giant Coca Cola, HIVERY uses AI to inform retailers which products should be placed where, and how much they’re likely to shift.

Find out why HIVERY has secured funding for the development of innovative rapid Strategic Category Stimulation informed by AI and deep learning.

Funding For AI Category Management Solutions

Aussie AI startup HIVERY secures $8 million for tech telling retailers what to stock

The data economy is making new demands of Australia’s, and indeed the world’s, business models, with rapid advances and availability of technology redefining markets and reshaping industries.

AI is already helping business owners better understand their customers, supply chains and emerging opportunities. There are numerous companies (large and small) using predictive analytics and machine learning to analyse their data. 

One company that applies AI-powered solutions to help retailers generate a return on retail space investment is HIVERY, a big-data start-up using cutting-edge AI tech to inform product recommendations, price learning, space rationalisation, and promotions.

Founded in 2015 and spun out of CSIRO’s Data61 the same year, HIVERY uses  cloud-based AI-powered solution based on machine learning to gather and convert data findings into easy-to-action measures.

From small experiments with dozens of vending machines in Newcastle Australia, to counting Coca-Cola as a client and exporting five products globally, HIVERY have expertly leveraged the power of AI and machine learning to grow and expand their business.

Retailers need to know which products to stock, how much of that product to stock, and how to price/promote it all in the most cost-effective way in different locations and markets.

“Take Coca-Cola – they have 500 brands and around 3,000 beverage types or SKUs (stock-keeping unit, most often a scannable barcode printed on product labels),” explains HIVERY COO and co-founder, Franki Chamaki. 

“Coke in a can, Coke in plastic bottles and even different variations of Coke: Coke Diet, Coke Cherry and not to mention Coke in 200ML, 250ML, 1.5 Litre, etc. How do you determine what SKU should be placed in a specific outlet? What is the best?

Optimal space is just a derivative of the right assortment and the right price/promotion. In order to have optimal space, you need to work out what optimal SKU/assortment and as well as price/promotion. This is what we solve.”

Self-learning algorithmic models that use AI and machine learning provide the mechanics behind HIVERY’s unique product ranking method, while the operations research element (the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions) determines how much of the recommended product should be supplied. 

This process also simultaneously incorporates the specific requirements and rules distinctive to individual businesses. 

The same methodology can be applied to vending machines. “It takes a vending planner around 45 minutes to optimise one vending machine, and that’s just space, not assortment,” says Chamaki. 

“With HIVERY’s solution, this is done seconds and we are able to optimise for both space and assortment while incorporating merchandising rules all simultaneously in one click of a button. Literally one button.” 

AI can be used in any business and any industry, says Chamaki. “It has the potential to create new competitive advantages provided the goals are well defined.

AI is a general-purpose technology, meaning it can be leveraged by any entity, just like the internet or electricity before.” 

In four years, HIVERY has grown their product suite from one to five, have four international offices (Sydney, Japan, USA, and Mexico), and count The Coca-Cola Company, Walmart, Red Bull, Diageo and TRIAL Co as clients. 

They recently won the Export Council of Australia’s Technology and Innovation Award, Deloitte’s Top 500 Technology Award (2018), Business Chamber’s Excellence Export (2018), and are representing New South Wales in the 57th Australia Export Awards. 

Over the course of the next four years, HIVERY plans to continue scaling their AI and operational research products, with an outlook to generate US$20 million in recurring revenue. 

HIVERY COO Franki Chamaki at Export Awards 2019, where HIVERY won Export Council of Australia’s Technology and Innovation Award

Chamaki credits CSIRO’s Data61 with a critical role in fostering HIVERY, lending specialised knowledge in AI and skills to develop unique intellectual property, acquire talent, and access grants. 

“Our recent product in the trade promotion space was actually co-developed with Data61’s research assistance. Here, we needed to demonstrate to our client that we could generate a more profitable promotional schedule, observing a number of constraints. 

A Data61 researcher worked with us in developing a unique prediction model to produce an optimised promotional schedule. The promotional schedule generated results that are 40 percent better than the current business method,” explains Chamaki. 

“Given over 80 percent revenue of most consumer-packaged foods revenue comes for trade channels like supermarkets, any improvement can generate significant commercial benefits and competitive advantages.” 

AI, ML and data science revolutionising industry

According to Chamaki, AI technology has the ability to reshape and optimise not just Australia’s retail industry, but industry in general. “It’s a general-purpose technology, hence it will impact all and every aspect of personal life, society and industry just as electricity or the internet did.” 

Find out where HIVERY is exporting innovative AI Planograms Software and how it can help your retail chain.

Exports Of Our AI Retail and CPG Software

HIVERY utilises cutting edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology to provide key product insights to retailers, including stock recommendations, price learning, space optimisation and more.From small experiments with dozens of vending machines in Newcastle Australia in 2014, to counting Coca-Cola as a client and exporting five products globally, HIVERY have expertly leveraged the power of AI and machine learning to grow and expand their business... Read more

Learn about our cutting edge AI Category Management software and how it can help you generate exceptional Trade Promotion Calendars.

Cutting Edge AI Category Management, Trade Promotion Software

Retail’s changing dynamics demand planning for the required retail selling space, not the available space. New applications deliver constant assortment editing for new products and near-real-time updates. Retail CIOs can use this research to understand current trends and identify vendors.  HIVERY Curate mentioned in the analysis. Access report (account access required)

HIVERY Curate mentioned on Gartner's Market Guide for Advanced Retail Space Management Applications

Artificial intelligence (AI) gives companies and organizations the ability to make use of vast amounts of data to improve operational efficiencies and drive top line growth. Given the capital intensive and detail intensive nature of vending, it stands to reason that AI brings an invaluable tool to the table.

While AI is finding application in a wide range of industries, Australia based HIVERY has recognized the benefits AI can bring to vending and developed a vending focused package called Vending Analytics. For the second year in a row, the NAMA show at the Las Vegas Convention Center featured a presentation on how the HIVERY AI tool has made vending operations more efficient and improved profitability. Read More.

Operators Explain How AI Boosts Efficiencies And Improves Profits At NAMA Show

The Export Awards celebrate NSW business excellence in international trade and recognise exporters’ contribution to the NSW economy.  HIVERY digital technologies finalist. Read more.

ECA announces 2018 Premier's NSW Export Awards finalists

Last weekend HIVERY won Excellence in Export nomination at Sydney City Regional Business Chamber Awards. HIVERY is to compete at the State Awards this coming November.  Read More.

Reyes Coca Cola Bottling, based in Irvine, Calif., improved its full line vending profitability by deploying an artificial intelligence (AI) tool. Company representatives gave an overview during the recent NAMA show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Read More

Artificial Intelligence Delivers Sales And Service Improvement For Coca Cola Vending Machines

Australian firm HIVERY has solved business problems in the retail and FMCG sectors in Australia, the US, Japan and China using artificial intelligence (AI), helping customers generate ROI never seen before.  Read more.

Find out how our cutting edge AI Category Management Software can help your FMCG business and retail stores.

How Vending Machine Merchanise Optimization Works With AI

The power of artificial intelligence in automated retailing has been proven in the full line beverage vending industry, a business that requires managing product selection and service for thousands of machines across hundreds of miles.  Read More.

AI delivers sales, service improvement for Coca Cola vending machines

HIVERY is all about data. The company lives by the motto ‘Data has a better idea’. The Coca-Cola backed company uses artificial intelligence and data to optimise the product offering in a specific vending machine, store or pop-up. It’s all about the products that will sell in that location, even if they’re all different. Read More.

Vending machines that think for themselves?

Last month we took a deep dive into the 40 Melbourne Startups to Watch 2017. This month we’re turning the spotlight onto Sydney; our Aussie city most accustomed to soaking up the accolades and with good reason. For each startup, we looked at launch, funding, size, product and of course the founders and decided to chuck in another 10, just for good measure.

HIVERY build prescriptive analytics tools, leveraging data using AI and Machine Learning to find new humanly impossible patterns that drive new profits. HIVERY was born following a big data hackathon that brought together Franki ChamakiandJason Hosking, serial entrepreneurs from the Coca-Cola Founders platform, and Charles Gretton, Matthew Robards, and Menkes van den Briel, data scientists with backgrounds in AI and Operations Research.  Read more.

he pair used prescriptive analytics, which combines machine learning and artificial intelligence with historical data, to help the soft drink giant stock its machines more efficiently. Before, Coke used “a lot of gut feel, manual intervention, many hours of experimentation. We do it at a single press of a button.” After a Data61 pilot study for Coke turned out to be a success... Read More

Science friction: Larry Marshall, CSIRO 2.0 and the politics of innovation

Turning raw data into retail insights