Dive Brief:
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Indyme, a shopper engagement and loss prevention tech company, announced the launch of SmartDome, a device which provides real-time awareness of social distancing in retail stores — particularly in heavily populated parts of the store.
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The SmartDome, which looks like a security camera, spots shoppers and alerts them with a message like, "For your safety, please maintain at least six feet of social distance," according to the company’s announcement.
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The tech is battery operated and store staffers can install it in places such as checkouts, service counters, entrances and busy departments, the San Diego-based company noted.
Dive Insight:
Indyme's launch of the SmartDome comes as essential retailers, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, address consumer's concerns during the pandemic. According to the CDC, COVID-19 appears to spread between people who are within 6 feet of each other, which has led to widespread social distancing efforts across the U.S.
In this landscape, technology efforts that allow for less physical interaction between retailers and their customers have moved to the forefront. Companies, such as Amazon, Postmates and 7-Eleven, have introduced their own contactless or cashierless technology to meet consumers where they are, whether they are braving in-store shopping or ordering goods online. Amazon is also selling its cashierless technology to other retailers, as companies offer up their augmented reality, digital storefront and mobile checkout tech for free to assuage some of the pain of businesses going all digital during the pandemic.
"This health crisis demands that U.S. technology companies rapidly innovate solutions to assist in this dynamic and evolving situation," Joe Budano, CEO of Indyme, said in a statement. "Our retail partners shared their health and safety challenges with us — we listened — and this simple and rapidly deployable solution promoting social distancing is the result."
Such technology could come in handy as the retailers that remain open need to keep employees and customers safe. Though many non-essential retailers have closed, the ones that remain open now have to stay abreast of changing government orders like Rhode Island's social distancing requirement in retail stores
via https://ift.tt/2Jn9P8X by Tatiana Walk-Morris, Khareem Sudlow
