Find out why Lighthouse was formed. We vet new technologies on behalf of Asset Protection teams; introducing time-saving, money-saving, problem-solving solutions.
Navigating a New Year
I know the “only constant is change” but didn’t realize it was THIS constant. Feels like we have been in a tailspin lately; every industry has been disrupted from Crypto to Christmas trees! And, yes, even Retail.
What this means to us at Lighthouse is it is time to get back to basics— control what we can control. For thirty+ years, we have witnessed change in the retail space. Employee turnover is historically quite high (60% annual attrition) and, according to McKinsey, will be as high as 2/3 frontline employees and managers leaving their jobs in the next few months.
Whether this is because of Covid, Culture, or the rise of “Quiet Quitting” is irrelevant. What matters is it is happening. As leaders in the retail space have to fill vacancies, cover off-shifts, and really step up, Lighthouse is helping them find the next investments, develop future projects that will keep the business moving forward on a large scale while you battle each day to keep your store running.
Preparing for the next wave of COVID
Not only is Covid spiking in the US, it is continuing to reach new heights. With around 130K new cases reported each day rates are 4 times greater than those experienced during the first wave, so what are the potential implications for retailers in the US?
The last few days have seen significant developments. Most notably, a Biden win in the presidential election along with a pledge to tackle the pandemic and the announcement of vaccine. However, most experts think the Covid vaccine will not be widely available until the middle of 2021. Between now and then we have winter and the need to maintain and regulate social distancing to prevent further spread during the interim, a point demonstrated by Europe as most of it has already entered into a second lockdown, which the Biden administration may also need to enforce. So how can retailers and businesses prepare now for the second wave?
Check out Occupi, an occupancy management solution developed by Ocucon. Occupi uses AI to deliver extremely accurate sensing and integrates with automatic doors to regulate customer numbers in line with government imposed restrictions. Through removing the need for costly door marshals, the system delivers an ROI within 30 days. It has also produced proven increases in both sales and productivity for adopters of it and recently featured on BBC Click.
A newly developed API also allows users to extract occupancy data in real time for the number of customers in store. By taking this data and integrating it within their website applications, retailers can easily display live occupancy levels on a store-by-store basis and clearly indicate whether stores are full or have capacity, and if so how much capacity they have available before becoming full.
Occupi provides a proven and elegant solution that helps to prevent unnecessary journeys, improves overall customer experience, particularly during the winter months, and raises the overall competitive positioning of those that adopt this technology.