Amazon was recently in the news for its new grocery store concept called Amazon Go in Seattle. This store, the first of its kind and a technology testbed for Amazon, uses a variety of cameras and sensors to track items shoppers select, and then automatically charge their credit cards once they leave the store. All the customers have to do is check in via smartphone at a kiosk at the entrance. No waiting in lines, no cashiers, just grab your items and leave (which, admittedly, feels wrong for many shoppers).
So, how's it Amazon Go-ing? Surprisingly well, says Amazon Vice President Gianna Puerini. A majority of traffic is coming from nearby offices because it's so simple to grab a drink or lunch and return to work. In fact, store associates spend most of their time restocking shelves, an easy metric to watch as to the success of the store. Granted, the store is barely exiting its period of being a novelty but Amazon is noticing repeat visits. The question remains - will Amazon expand this technology to its recently purchased Whole Foods? No, according to Amazon, but analysts are suspicious.
Amazon Go is under close scrutiny from its parent of course, with the metrics being closely analyzed to drive future business decisions and expansions, but also by the retail industry at large to see how viable the format is. Research-focused venture capital firm Loup Ventures wrote of Amazon Go last month: “Our experience was flawless, leaving us increasingly confident that Amazon is best positioned to own the operating system of automated retail. Eventually, we expect Amazon to make this technology available to other retailers.” But, the technology still needs improvement, a task that is more easy to handle with one shop that has a team of engineers waiting in the wings to complete fixes. In fact, their current task is teaching computers to learn retail items more quickly, possibly simply by showing the product to a camera. Us humans can learn to recognize an item with only two to three views of it, so why can't the computers?
With time we'll see what Amazon is able to accomplish with their pet project, but for now it's an interesting observation into computers having to take on unfamiliar roles.
This article was based on a March 18, 2018 Reuters article by Jeffrey Dastin.