Amazon Go: Go on Now, Go, Just Walk Out That Door
It’s not that you’re not welcome anymore, but I will survive
Considering the competitive dynamics, it’s hard for me to hold these two thoughts in my head at the same time, but here they are: Amazon’s cashierless shopping offers a glimpse of an inevitable future, but it’s not the present.
In case you missed it, Amazon Go was the tech giant’s first stab at cashier-free shopping, from TechCrunch:
[In] Amazon Go convenience stores, shoppers first use the Amazon Go app to scan in as they enter the store, then shop as usual. Cameras and sensors track the items removed from the shelves which are then added to the shopper’s virtual cart. When the customer exits the store, their cart is checked out automatically using their payment card on file.
The concept was originally unleashed in Amazon’s own branded “Amazon Go” convenience stores, for which the first test location opened on the company’s Seattle campus in 2016 before expanding to 26 metro locations nationwide. Then, last week, Amazon announced plans to start licensing its technology, dubbed “Amazon Just Walk Out”, to unaffiliated convenience stores.
‘Amazon Go is great’, you might say. I might agree. But there are a couple of important considerations from the business-end…
