Amazon, the purveyor of your impulse purchases with two day shipping, today opened a new brick and mortar store that's the first of its kind. The store, named Amazon Go, sells groceries alongside prepared food items, but what makes this store unique is that there is no checkstands. In the Seattle store, buyers simply toss their items in a bag and head on their way, via Amazon's "just walk out technology". Visitors simply check in at the entrance via their smartphone at subway-style gates, then the store's army of overhead cameras and sensors take over - tracking shoppers and the items they take, silently building a tab as one works down their shopping list. The system even has accounting for when items are put back on the shelf. However, questions remain over the system's ability to reliably handle items returned to the shelf incorrectly or its ability to distinguish shoppers who are alike in body shape or clothing. When a shopper has finished collecting their items they just walk out, with the system finalizing the purchases and billing them to the customer's Amazon account. If there's no need to show ID for certain purchases shoppers very well could not even interact with or even see a store employee.
The idea of line-free shopping isn't new, but when concepting the idea Amazon had very little to go on - the technology used to passively ring up customers did not exist and Amazon was left to build everything from the ground up. The system has been in testing with Amazon employees for some time now while the wrinkles were ironed out. While they're mum on the specifics, Amazon does say that the system does rely on "computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion, much like you'd find in a self-driving car." However, while they're not releasing any information about the accuracy of the system a journalist was unsuccessful in shoplifting a can of soda. The system added it to his bill.
Ironically, Amazon's effort to design a store without lines generated so much curiousity that a line formed outside of the building just for entry.
Currently, there are no announced plans to expand Amazon Go into other areas, but with Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods last year there are eyes on possible tech implementation in those stores. And, as anyone who has shopped Amazon knows, the easier the shopping experience is the more likely it is that customers will return, and Amazon is likely banking on that.
This article was based on a January 22, 2018 BBC article by Chris Johnston.