Hello Amazon Go, Goodbye Checkout Lines. Maybe.
We’ve all felt the sense of relief that comes from turning past the last aisle of a crowded grocery store, checking off the last item on your list. You can practically hear your car door close in your head as you imagine making a break for home. Perhaps you even feel extra proud of making it past the ice cream aisle without stopping. Then you turn the corner and realize you’re just getting started.
Of the umpteen checkout aisles available only three are staffed and the line at each is daunting. You make a mental calculation about which will be more efficient. You look for telltale signs: the number of carts in each line; the number of items per cart; couponers; BYO baggers; screaming kids; etc.
You contemplate ditching your cart and coming back another time, then quickly shake your head, realizing you can’t be sure the lines will be shorter then. Resigned to your fate, you take comfort in the hope — seemingly always false — that you made the right choice.
Like it has with so many other moments in the retail experience, Amazon stands to virtually eliminate latency in the system of retail checkout with Amazon Go, its checkout-less checkout experience.
How It Works
It starts by downloading the Amazon Go app, available for Apple and Android devices. You log into the app using the same credentials you use to log into your Amazon account, which automatically ties Amazon Go purchases to the credit card you have on file with Amazon. A unique bar code/Key gives you access to the store through turnstiles.
An array of cameras and other sensors that Amazon describes as the same technologies used in self-driving cars track every item you pick up and put down. And it does so with incredible accuracy.
When you’re done selecting your items, you simply walk out of the store, just as the sign says. Minutes later, a receipt appears detailing your purchase.
Why It Will Be the Future of Retail
As I wrote previously, it’s hard to overestimate the value of easy. Latency in any system is rich fodder for digital transformation. Few moments in the retail shopping experience are as latency rich as the checkout aisle. Amazon is so acutely aware of the benefit of time recovered through the use of Amazon Go that it includes your trip time, down to the second, right at the top of your receipt.
For now, Amazon Go focuses on pre-packaged convenience items — grab-and-go meals, travel size toiletries, beverages, etc. It’s unclear how the technology would work in more high-touch grocery applications such as the deli aisle or fruits and vegetables sold by weight. But I, for one, am convinced of the reality that this is the future of retail checkout. The benefits for both customer and retailer are stark. On my last visit, the entire store was staffed by just one employee. And she was polishing the bar code scanner.
Hurdles Ahead
This is not to say that the path forward for Amazon Go will be straightforward or without consequences. In addition to yet another technology-driven disruption in the labor market, there are growing civil rights and privacy concerns with some of the technologies that make Amazon Go and others tick.
As originally reported by CBS and noted by The Verge in April, Amazon will start accepting cash in some of its stores to allay concerns over income discrimination. Amazon Go requires the use of a smartphone and a qualified credit or debit card account, requirements which critics say lower-income customers and the underbanked may not be able to meet.
Additionally, firms deploying artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and advanced personal tracking technologies are attracting heavy scrutiny from privacy advocates. The city of San Francisco recently banned the use of facial recognition technology by the police and other agencies out of fears of racial and other forms of bias. Others appear poised to follow.
Finally, for as massive and well-resourced as Amazon is, it is not without competition, at home and abroad. San Francisco-based Standard Cognition promises to achieve the same kind of checkout-less checkout as Amazon Go, but with far fewer cameras required. Their solution also allows a customer to check out at a kiosk using cash or a credit card. Lisbon-based Sensei, already working with three retailers in Europe, claims to be cheaper to deploy and easier to retrofit existing retail stores.
Who Else Can Benefit?
The easiest answer is any “grab-and-go” business that sells pre-packaged goods, particularly those operating under narrow margins can immediately benefit from adopting a similar checkout experience. In time, the technology will likely evolve to handle more complex goods like salad bars, fresh produce and the like.
That doesn’t mean that all retail businesses have to or should adapt similarly.
Consider Pret A Manger, the grab-and-go quick service restaurant chain. They solve similar checkout latency issues by throwing more people at it. As soon as a line gets two or three people deep, another clerk steps up to quickly to lighten the load. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than three minutes getting in and out of a Pret.
There are also qualitative elements to consider. Take the grocery chain Trader Joe’s, for example. Whatever spell they are casting seems to attract employees that actually like to work there. And it shows at checkout. Like Pret, they have found a way to burst checkout capacity to meet demand when needed. However, it’s the palpable enthusiasm and personality of their clerks that make all the difference. To replace them with barcode scanners and RFIDs would seem to run counter to the very DNA of the Trader Joe’s brand experience. After all, who’d be left to ring the bell?
