Amazon to sell check-out free store tech to other retailers
Amazon has launched a new business to sell its check-out free store technology to other retailers.
The tech giant launched a website this morning inviting customers to inquire about the service. Amazon, which uses similar technology in its own chain of convenience stores, said it has already signed several deals.
The ‘Just Walk Out’ technology will involve shoppers inserting a credit card into a turnstile in order to enter the store, rather than downloading an app to scan products.
Items will be added to the consumer’s virtual shopping basket as they pick them up, and the retailer will charge the customer automatically when they leave the store.
The gates will feature Amazon branding, but all other aspects will be controlled by the retailer using the service.
Amazon’s vice president of physical retail and technology Dilip Kumar told Reuters: “This has pretty broad applicability across store sizes, across industries, because it fundamentally tackles a problem of how do you get convenience in physical locations, especially when people are hard pressed for time.”
On the newly launched Just Walk Out website Amazon said the technology will take a few weeks to install, and in existing stores it will work with retailers to minimise the impact on current operations.
The e-commerce giant insisted that retailers will still need to employ staff to work in-store to “greet and answer shoppers’ questions, stock the shelves, check IDs and more”.
“We built Just Walk Out technology leveraging the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning,” the company said.
“Since launching Amazon Go years ago, many retailers have expressed an interest in offering similar checkout-free shopping experiences to their customers. We’re excited to now offer the ability for retailers to leverage Just Walk Out technology from Amazon in their stores.”