From Blind Spots to Clear Visibility
Barilla, a global leader in pasta, faced a persistent retail challenge: the “last three feet.” Despite its scale and market leadership, Barilla lacked real-time, store-level visibility into how products were actually presented on shelf. With no direct sales force visiting stores daily, the company relied heavily on third-party brokers and delayed syndicated data—leaving their teams blind to issues of incorrect display execution, inconsistent pricing, and competitor activity until weeks later.
This was especially problematic during key initiatives, like the 2022 relaunch of Barilla’s premium red-box pasta, Al Bronzo. Early execution was critical, but traditional tools provided limited feedback.
Additionally, display execution was difficult to monitor. In one campaign, Barilla invested heavily in branded assets, only to later discover that many stores had discarded critical components—wasting marketing spend and undermining campaign effectiveness.
We’re a very visual company. When I can say, ‘Here’s what the shelf actually looks like,’ it’s simple—and incredibly powerful.
Solution
Barilla implemented Storesight to close the visibility gap. Using AI-powered image recognition and crowdsourced, real-time shelf photos, Storesight gave Barilla an immediate line of sight into store conditions—across the U.S. and key global markets.
The platform allowed teams to:
Monitor New Launches in Real Time: For Al Bronzo, the Barilla team confirmed shelf placement, pricing, and promotional execution across retail partners immediately—course-correcting in real-time, as needed.
Verify Display Compliance: Storesight revealed that promotional displays were often missing branded components, prompting internal changes to ensure execution matched design intent.
Respond to Market Trends Faster: When a TikTok-driven demand spiked for Pastina and led to out-of-stocks, Storesight confirmed the surge before Nielsen or internal systems did—enabling rapid production and distribution adjustments to prevent lost sales.
Debunk Misinformation: When a retailer claimed that a competitor was facing widespread out-of-stocks, Storesight images showed otherwise, preventing unnecessary shifts in retail shelf sets and potential lost sales.
Track Competitor Activity: Storesight’s searchable, visual database allowed Barilla to analyze packaging, display strategy, and pricing for brands like Ronzoni and private labels—keeping Barilla informed and competitive on all fronts to ensure growth remained on-plan.
Align Cross-Functional Teams: With 22 active users across category management, brand, and sales, Storesight became a shared source of truth, improving collaboration and response times to ensure proper strategic focus and growth trajectory.
Results
Faster Launch Performance: Al Bronzo's shelf execution was validated in real time, allowing Barilla to identify and fix inconsistencies early in the launch phase to ensure launch goals were exceeded.
Improved Promotional ROI: Real-time insights helped Barilla identify that crucial visual components of displays were being discarded—leading to smarter, more execution-friendly display designs.
Weeks-Long Lead Over Traditional Data: During the Pastina viral trend, Barilla acted on real-time out-of-stock data weeks ahead of Nielsen reports—boosting agility and capturing demand.
Cross-Team Adoption: With over 1,400 photos viewed and 500+ features utilized, Storesight has become a key platform for category, brand, and sales teams—replacing manual audits and improving speed to insight and action.
Competitor Clarity: When faced with unverified claims of competitor supply chain issues, Storesight confirmed availability, helping Barilla avoid unnecessary and costly reactions.
It’s not just about visibility—it’s about agility, accuracy, and acting with confidence. That’s what Storesight gives us.
Looking Ahead
Storesight has become a cornerstone of Barilla’s retail intelligence toolkit. With plans to deepen usage in the sauce category, expand to global markets, and integrate more advanced analytics, Barilla continues to invest in smarter retail intelligence delivered by Storesight.
From the Barilla Team
“We use Storesight to fill in the story for post-promotional analysis, especially with new item launches. You don’t know if it’s a little rack or a whole lobby display until you look.”
“I told my director, ‘I can't live without this tool. So whatever happens, we need to make sure that Storesight stays. This is table stakes without a retail team.’”
“We had a lot of blind spots... We don’t have a direct sales force in stores every day. We rely on brokers, but that information is often delayed, filtered, or incomplete.”
— Janelle Heinrich, Associate Director of Category Management, Barilla
“Had we not had those pictures, we might not have known what really happened to all those beautiful displays.”
“Storesight proved the TikTok Pastina demand in real time—long before our syndicated data caught up.”
“We told our category manager, ‘Go check Storesight.’ That visual proof helped us avoid reacting to false assumptions.”
