Friday, May 8, 2020 - 10:06 by Paul Tissington

With its stores still closed for the time being, Currys PC World is taking advantage of cutting-edge technology to help its sales assistants provide support to customers who are still placing orders online.

The retailer is taking advantage of the ShopLive platform to let members of staff chat with visitors to its e-commerce site, allowing them to work from home and provide advice to people in real time, with high-definition video and audio streaming ensuring that the experience is essentially identical to the one that customers would receive at bricks and mortar locations.

While this is a move which Currys PC World had been planning for some time, the emergence of the coronavirus and the ensuring lockdown conditions imposed on the UK convinced it to expedite the rollout of the service, and it has proved to be a timely implementation.

The retail industry in Britain and around the world has been put under immense strain in the wake of COVID-19 evolving into a full pandemic, not just in terms of the sales which have been lost due to store closures but also because of the changes that have been necessary to keep staff safe and customers satisfied now that most purchases are being made online.

Online customer consultations are set to become a reality of the retail sector going forwards, especially if social distancing measures are still in place after the tighter restrictions of the lockdown are lifted.

Indeed, if current trends continue and more people get accustomed to placing online orders to fulfil the majority of their retail needs, being able to chat to human sales teams over video calls will eventually be seen as normal rather than simply a necessity of the current circumstances.