How it works
We build the model around your categories and business objectives.
Combining live retailer reviews and continuous CheckoutSmart shopper research.
Face-to-face training, online coaching and user guides to get your teams confident fast.
Consistent, standardised outputs that provide clear answers and practical next steps.
What you can do with it
With your own AI Category Solution, you can:
- See instantly what shoppers value (and where they struggle) in your category.
- Benchmark performance vs competitors across multiple markets.
- Identify NPD opportunities by analysing unmet needs in reviews and surveys.
- Diagnose underperforming SKUs quickly, with clear evidence on what needs fixing.
- Run “what if” scenarios to guide innovation, pack changes or reformulation.
- Report on complaint themes or new category trends
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How much does it cost?
Every AI Category Solution is bespoke to your chosen categories, so the cost depends on the scope of your project
Typically, investment includes:
- Initial set-up fee – to configure the model and category hierarchies.
- Training fee – covering face-to-face launch sessions and ongoing coaching.
- Annual access fee – for a full year of usage, updates and continuous AI-powered insights.
Additional data packages are also available, including bespoke tracking dashboards and continuous consumer panel data, giving you even deeper visibility into how shoppers are responding across categories.
Real-world impact
Our AI Category models are already helping clients across FMCG. In just minutes, they can produce:
- NPD insights – uncovering unmet shopper needs and whitespace opportunities for innovation.
- RAG tables - showing at-risk SKUs that need action.
- Sentiment word clouds -highlighting what shoppers really say.
- Performance dashboards - that cut through noise and focus attention where it matters.
- Product improvement pathways – pinpointing recipe, packaging or messaging changes that will have the biggest impact.
- PDP revisions based on common category language, easily updated to your preferred style.
- Shopper validation – testing early ideas against existing shopper views to build confidence before taking to the next level.
Hear from our users
“It has been a real eye-opener working with CheckoutSmart. They have proactively delivered our new reviews using their data and kept us informed every step of the way. Their account manager has been responsive with additional reporting and analysis and has provided excellent recommendations on where and how to progress. We look forward to continuing the programme and developing the insights further with the CheckoutSmart team.”
“Checkoutsmart’s proposition to deliver ratings and reviews is smooth and unchallenging. They are quick to adapt to our ever-changing business needs with great customer service. Their model provides genuine reviews from real shoppers that are posted directly onto retailer sites. We have now worked with them for over two years and they continue to be our chosen supplier to deliver ratings and reviews.”
“We were very pleased with the Ratings & Reviews activity delivered by CheckoutSmart. Getting the campaign live was very simple and the reviews were delivered in just a few weeks. The impact on our sales was significant and we plan to repeat this approach with them on more core skus across our Hero Brands and to maximise NPD launches”
“It’s a pleasure working with CheckoutSmart as the lead for our Digital Coupon Project. Their Account Manager has been efficient at pulling together last-minute proposals for new campaigns and has been great at supporting us with guidance and advice on the activations and offers. The thorough evaluations shared help us learn best practices for future campaigns too.”