Amazon Go - Shopping Without a Checkout
Amazon is known for being on the cutting edge of many different technologies and industries. Forbes ranks them the #11 most innovative company in the world, citing their tremendous track record of investing in the research and development of new technologies such as Echo, Echo Dot, and Alexa all the time. Coming in early 2017, Amazon Go is a new smart store technology that could very well let Amazon change the way we shop (they're getting pretty good at that). Watch the video below to learn more.
Basically, Amazon Go grocery stores will be small markets with an electronic gateway system for customers to scan themselves into the store via QR code on their Amazon Go app. Once inside, picked-up items will automatically be added to the customer's virtual cart using a combination of sensors and computer vision. Gateways sense your phone passing through as you leave the store and automatically charge your Amazon account for the total cost of the items in your virtual cart.
User interaction with the store and the companion app are mind-blowingly simple. There has never been an easier way to buy groceries. From the user's perspective, the only non-traditional grocery store interaction they have to think about is scanning the QR code on their phone, which is nearly impossible to forget since you have to scan it to get inside. From that point on, it's just grab and go.
The flip side, however, is that preventing checkout problems or detecting and correcting errors with inventory and cart numbers could prove difficult for the system. What happens if a shopper doesn't have the funds in their Amazon account but has already walked far beyond the store's entrance? What about if a customer enters the store without scanning their phone? Or, if they do scan, what happens if a phone dies in the middle of shopping? Many such concerns have been raised, and only time will tell if the tech giant can overcome these challenges to create the simplest no-lines, no-checkout shopping experience the world has ever seen.
The company plans to open a single store in Seattle early next year with the ability to open up to an astounding 2,000 more stores in the next decade if things pan out.
Basically, Amazon Go grocery stores will be small markets with an electronic gateway system for customers to scan themselves into the store via QR code on their Amazon Go app. Once inside, picked-up items will automatically be added to the customer's virtual cart using a combination of sensors and computer vision. Gateways sense your phone passing through as you leave the store and automatically charge your Amazon account for the total cost of the items in your virtual cart.
The flip side, however, is that preventing checkout problems or detecting and correcting errors with inventory and cart numbers could prove difficult for the system. What happens if a shopper doesn't have the funds in their Amazon account but has already walked far beyond the store's entrance? What about if a customer enters the store without scanning their phone? Or, if they do scan, what happens if a phone dies in the middle of shopping? Many such concerns have been raised, and only time will tell if the tech giant can overcome these challenges to create the simplest no-lines, no-checkout shopping experience the world has ever seen.
The company plans to open a single store in Seattle early next year with the ability to open up to an astounding 2,000 more stores in the next decade if things pan out.
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