UAE’s retail conglomerate Al-Futtaim has launched a web-based crowd management service for its store customers, while adhering to social distancing guidelines
The service, developed in response to the Dubai Government’s health and safety directives, aims to manage the flow of customers to maximum 30 per cent of store capacity, ensuring the safety of customers and retailers.
The service allows customers either to book a time slot in advance or to walk into the store using a virtual queuing system after scanning a QR code, ensuring that there is never any overcrowding or heavy queuing in the stores.
The pilot was launched at three ACE stores in Dubai: the biggest flagship ACE store in Dubai Festival City, the Sheikh Zayed Road and the Motor City stores. No customer has been admitted to ACE without a check-in since implementation of the system.
Regis Schultz, president, Retail at Al-Futtaim, said, “Our focus is on ensuring we are abiding by all directives issued by the Dubai Government to keep our customers, employees, and retailers safe.
“Upon announcement of retail stores re-opening, we quickly collaborated with our teams to develop a solution that would ensure we could fully comply with all precautionary measures. We are pleased to announce this in our ACE stores and hope this provides customers with additional peace of mind when visiting for their essential needs.”
The crowd management service is fully integrated with Apple and Android OS. Data collected for pre-booking and QR code, including mobile numbers for customers, will not be kept or used for commercial or marketing purposes. No individual information is stored, thus ensuring complete customer data privacy.
