The retail industry has been heavily affected by the pandemic. It is estimated by Forrester that retail industry losses due to COVID-19 are expected to be $2.1 trillion globally. To uncover these losses it will take at least four years. Though federal agencies have lifted lockdowns, returning to stores and restaurants is proving to be very challenging. To facilitate a smooth Back to Doing for the retail industry, here we propose 4 ways to ensure business continuity.
Manually performing health screening can increase the risk of spreading the infection to the person who performs the health screening. Installing touchless thermometers or thermal cameras at the retail store entrance and staff entry points, to make sure that people and employees entering the store pass certain health requirement such as a low temperature. Integrating these systems with AI capabilities detects higher temperatures by analyzing data from health screening systems.
To avoid spreading infection, employees and customers are required to adhere to safety standards enforced by local authorities, like social distancing and wearing a mask. With a manual process, it’s not possible to continuously monitor every customer and employee movement within the retail store.
An AI-powered Computer Vision solution can monitor the store to ensure employees and customers are following safety procedures. The camera data is fed into an AI algorithm, which will then be analyzed to send alerts and proactive recommendations to the proper team members if any violations are observed. Thus implementing AI Computer Vision solution ensures a safe and healthy workplace for employees and customers.
In retail environments, as per CDC instructions for reopening retail businesses there are restrictions on the number of people allowed in a retail premises at a certain time to ensure social distancing. Here AI driven computer vision cameras can be a better solution, as the image processing and pattern recognition capabilities permit the system to detect a particular object or a person and track their movement. This solution can be used to control number of people in the retail store, observe people movement, and alert management if social distancing is violated.
To prevent in-person contact, delivering products through AI delivery bots can be a better solution. The bots are equipped with advanced technology to navigate their surroundings and delivery essential goods like medicine and food to at-risk communities in timely manner. To learn more about the technology and uses of Delivery bots during the pandemic, click here.