You know when something comes along and you think ‘why has no-one ever thought of that before’ – well, you’re about to have one of those moments.
The very literally named ‘Avoid The Shopping Crowds’ is a web based app which advises customers which are the busiest shopping areas in town. Cool, huh?
Seriously – this could be game changing for the nightmare otherwise known as Christmas shopping or Saturday on Oxford Street.
The app analyses the number of updates, photo uploads and check-ins from a number of different social media platforms (basically any geo data they can their hands on) to assess congestion in four different shopping stores in Amsterdam. This is supplemented by real time webcams to get a complete picture.
Imagine the other kinds of data that could be fed into this system – like installing entry/exit sensors to estimate footfall or monitoring the number of transactions in each store, to name a few. The possibilities are exciting.
Now, this may be two for the price of one but we spotted another app of a similar flavour a few weeks ago for trains called Moovit. This nifty tool tracks real time arrival times and tells you which are the most crowded trains. Say hello to always getting a seat on the tube (maybe).
Unfortunately, both of these apps are only available for users in the Netherlands but we’re hoping someone jumps on this and brings something similar to the UK.
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This post was written by Clemi Hardie, founder and MD of Noodle Live.