A US company has developed an app which rewards customers for tracking empty shelves in retailers’ stores and helping retailers stay well-stocked.

Shelfie, developed by Cincinatti-based marketing analysts Datacrowd, works by customers taking a picture of an empty shelf with its product tag and sending the image, which tracks its GPS location to Datacrowd.

Customers are then offered points as a reward that can be redeemed in store. And Datacrowd tells the retailer about the empty shelf, telling them when, where and which products are out of stock, so retailers can fill up the shelves.

Shelfie is only available to US consumers currently.