Abstract
After the first lift of the COVID-19 enforced lockdown, with consumers being reluctant to shop in physical stores and online deliveries taking double the time to arrive, in-store pickup –commonly referred to as “Click & Collect”– has become a pragmatic alternative. Still, most retailers require their in-store pickup customers to wait in lengthy lines before being served and then wait again for their orders to be collected. It is, hence, imperative for the “Click & Collect” business model to be adjusted to minimize physical contact, so as to prevent future government-enforced store closures, safeguard the heavy downturn of retail sales and support the ailing economy during a potential recurring COVID-19 related crisis. That is exactly where the proposed solution sets its vision aiming to adapt “Click & Collect” to the new reality, by introducing an innovative, completely contactless customer order delivery system. The proposed innovation is based on the rapidly expanding “curbside pickup” model and enhanced with two technologies, i.e. Wi-Fi Positioning System and Augmented Reality. It intends to be highly scalable and support retail industry in its battle against the pandemic by arming retailers with an easy to implement and use system, helping them overcome the challenges created by COVID-19.
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Acknowledgments
The present work is co-funded by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (EPAnEK), under the call “RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATE” (project code: T1EDK-01168 & acronym: SMARTFLEX Warehouse).
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Ponis, S., Aretoulaki, E., Plakas, G., Agalianos, K., Maroutas, T.N. (2022). Zero-Touch Customer Order Fulfillment to Support the New Normal of Retail in the 21st Century. In: Arai, K. (eds) Intelligent Systems and Applications. IntelliSys 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 295. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82196-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82196-8_1
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