Is Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ Technology the Future of Retail?
Last week, Amazon opened their first Amazon Go store in Seattle, which uses ‘Just Walk Out’ Technology. All Amazon Go customers need is the Amazon Go app to enter the store and they can select what they want and leave. No checkout required!
Amazon Go uses the same technology as self-driving cars- computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning- to detect when products have been taken from or returned to shelves. The items the customer has chosen are added to a virtual basket and once they have left the store, they are charged for the items via their amazon account.
Would this technology work for all types of retailers?
The new store has had some issues with identifying shoppers with similar body types and children moving items to the wrong shelves. So it may have over charged some customers and under charged others. The Amazon Go store sells grocery essentials such as bread, milk, cheese and chocolate. So if the technology was to fail and a customer was to walk out without paying, the loss to Amazon isn’t huge. But would this technology work for retailers selling expensive goods? In theory, the technology would work for any type of retailer but if the technology failed to pick up a customer walking out with an expensive item, the loss to the retailer would be larger. So would the retailer want to take that risk?
For fashion retailers, it would be too complicated to use this technology. If a customer was to try an item on in the changing room and decide they don’t want it, the item wouldn’t go back to the shop floor straight away so the technology may think that the customer has bought the item when it is in fact still sitting on the fitting room rail. Also, fashion is so rapidly changing; retailers change the layout of their stores on a regular basis and get new stock in regularly so it may be difficult for the technology to update quick enough.
Does the new technology provide a threat to cashier’s jobs?
There has been much discussion over recent years about which jobs are at risk of being automated in years to come. In 2017, The Guardian reported that there is a 97% risk of automation for cashiers. So is the ‘Just Walk Out’ technology an example of automation taking over cashier’s jobs? While the new stores don’t need cashiers, they still have people working there to stock the shelves, prepare food and help customers. So people working in retail may not be described as a ‘cashier’ for much longer, but there are still jobs for people even with this new technology.
Is this technology the future of retail?
While the ‘Just Walk Out’ technology works for convenience stores, it wouldn’t work for all retailers. When you’re going to buy a pint of milk or a loaf of bread, you want the process to be as quick as possible. So no checkout and minimal human interaction works. However, humans are social creatures and value human interaction, particularly when shopping for more expensive items, like technology or clothing. So, you won’t ‘Just Walk Out’ of Apple with your next iPhone.
Therefore, we may see similar stores to the Amazon Go store popping up in the future, but this new technology isn’t going to replace traditional retail completely.
What are your thoughts on Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ technology? Let us know in the comments!
