POST-PANDEMIC RETAILING TECHNOLOGIES TO MINIMISE CLOSE-CONTRACT SCENARIOS BETWEEN WORKERS & CUSTOMERS
                     POST-PANDEMIC RETAILING: 
TECHNOLOGIES TO MINIMISE 
CLOSE-CONTRACT SCENARIOS 
BETWEEN WORKERS & CUSTOMERS
What seemed unimaginable just a few months ago – stay at home 
orders, social distancing, and frequent cleaning of high-touch 
points, is widely accepted as the new norm now. The COVID-19 
outbreak has exposed us all to new realities.
Despite best efforts, front-line workers in healthcare, retail, public 
safety, manufacturing and transportation & logistics, at some point, 
have found it particularly challenging to maintain a three-six feet 
distance from other people while offering their essential services.
That being said, many technologies are emerging that can 
help workers and customers practise social distancing 
successfully. Some of them are listed below:
Co-Bots and Similar Intelligent 
Automation Solutions
Tracking, cleaning and moving goods from shelves, analysing shelf 
inventory- all these tasks are no longer suitable for humans. 
Smart robotics and artificial intelligence solutions, are gaining 
more popularity in retail and manufacturing environments as 
they help cut costs, save time and improve operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has given a stronger reason to integrate 
these technologies into retail and warehousing operations. 
Employing co-bots to pick, load and transport items can eliminate 
workers’ movements and interactions with each other.
Aerial drones and shelf auditing robots powered by AI-
powered computer vision, can be used to scan and sense 
shelves, taking hassle out of monitoring, pricing and 
management of products within the store.
Co-bots highly promote social distancing which makes them 
an ideal solution for different industries during the pandemic.
Kiosks
lf-servicing kiosks are another boon in this new normal era which 
helps minimise contact between customers and retail staff. 
These machines allow customers to scan their purchases, place 
food orders and even pay for their purchases without coming in 
close contact with the staff.
Voice-Assisted Commerce
Voice assistant technology already had an audience before this 
pandemic, but voice commerce has gone one stage further 
through the convergence of artificial intelligence and chat bots 
to create personalised shopping experiences for customers.
Voice assisted technology allows customers to make purchases using 
voice commands. Instead of typing in a search query, customers 
speak their queries into the mic of their device to find products or 
any information. Customers can use any devices and platforms that 
support Google Assistant or Siri. Once you have placed an order, the 
in-store workers will gather selected items and deliver by the 
method you have chosen while placing the order.
This is just another way how retailers can enhance customer 
experience. Smart speakers and voice commerce technology 
are becoming more popular day-by-day, thus continuing to 
revolutionise the future of retail.
Internet of Things 
(IoT)
With the help of IoT enabled 
thermometers, not only healthcare 
workers can take patients’ temperatures 
from a distance, but patients can also take 
their own temperature and upload data 
via mobile devices for virtual monitoring 
by their care team. This way, more 
healthcare workers can collect data and 
reduce risk of getting exposed to virus.
Apart from all these technologies, 
extended range barcode scanners 
can also be used in retail, healthcare 
and public safety environments to 
scan barcodes while maintaining 
required physical distancing.
There are many other ways in which technologies which were 
once considered good-to-have in the business can be leveraged 
to protect customers and workers against COVID-19. Choosing 
the right technology for your business can help you use this 
pandemic as an opportunity to improve your operational 
efficiency, and customer and staff safety.
Contact 
POSU Ssales
PO Box 7921 Baulkham Hills BC 
NSW 2153
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1300 026 062