MiMEX · Micro Market Experience

The retail world is going through a period of strong evolution, accelerated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. E-commerce has been shown to be a pillar of society and through necessity it outperformed physical shop retail in many product sectors, e.g. electronics, books. To cope with new social distancing measures being enforced by nearly all countries, in the near future traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers must introduce innovations that can help them to maintain their profit margins and support customers’ choice, access and most importantly their employees’ safety. Shoppers are demanding reduced waiting times, the possibility of buying a greater variety of products when they want them, i.e. 24-hour opening hours, and to feel safe when shopping. The solution we have developed in MiMEX, using intelligent shelves, and connected smart spaces targets these problems and opportunities. We propose to automate social distancing checks and adhere to regional safety protocols (such as wearing gloves and masks). We will exploit deep-learning algorithms and low-cost sensors to answer product choice and availability needs. We will create a complete hardware & software micro-market solution that can monitor shoppers’ safety and simultaneously track products/goods collected by customers in real-time inside a store, facilitating smart and safe checkout with bespoke payment systems. A complete monitoring system will make it possible to offer high-value services such as exhausted product alarms, attempted thefts or display-shelf tidying requests to retailers.