Amazon to swipe away checkout queue
Amazon.com unveiled technology that will let shoppers grab groceries without having to scan and pay for them, in one stroke eliminating the checkout queue.
The company is testing the new system at what it’s calling an Amazon Go store in Seattle, which will open to the public early next year. Customers will be able to scan their phones at the entrance using a new Amazon Go mobile app. Then the technology will track what items they pick up or even return to the shelves and add them to a virtual shopping cart in real time, according a video Amazon posted on YouTube. Once the customers exit the store, they’ll be charged on their Amazon account automatically.
The concept store and automated checkout mark Amazon’s latest attempt to upend the grocery business. The company is now testing what looks a lot like a convenience store.
“Most people still have two requirements,” said Forrester analyst Brendan Witcher.
“One is, ‘ I want something today, I don’t want to wait.’ Number two is ‘I want to touch and feel the product before I commit to it.’ ”
So if the Amazon Go concept works, will the company build small grocery stores in cities all over the United States? Amazon isn’t saying. But some analysts envision a combination pickup center, warehouse and small grocery store. After all, Amazon is already building urban warehouses, including a facility in midtown Manhattan, that handles same-day deliveries to locals.
Selling fresh food is a strategy long employed by retailers to boost foot traffic and get people to buy more.
“I believe you’re going to see grow- ing offline presence in high-turnover goods, which is mostly groceries and household items,” said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt.
Amazon employees are testing out the store on the company’s campus, where they can buy ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack options as well as grocery essentials from bread and milk to artisanal cheeses and locally made chocolates.
The Amazon Go store is just part of Amazon’s retail strategy. Another format the company is considering is a larger shop that also has a curbside pick-up component, according to the Wall Street Journal. If this concept works, Amazon could open 2000 locations, the Journal reported.
Grocers have been experimenting with automated checkout for years. The stores argue that the idea is not to get rid of workers, but to free them up to mount displays and help customers. In some Stop and Shop stores customers can use scanning guns to total up the bill as they troll the aisles. But shoppers still have to go to a checkout station at the end to upload their bill and pay, or hand the scanner over to a cashier, which sometimes still entails waiting in the queue.