IANS | 22 Jan, 2018
In
a move that could revolutionise the way we buy groceries, Amazon
opens its first supermarket without checkouts -- human or
self-service -- to shoppers on Monday.
Amazon Go, in
Seattle in the US, has been tested by staff for the past year, BBC
reported.
It uses an array of ceiling-mounted cameras to
identify each customer and track what items they select, eliminating
the need for billing.
Purchases are billed to customers'
credit cards when they leave the store.
Before entering,
shoppers must scan the Amazon Go smartphone app. Sensors on the
shelves add items to the bill as customers pick them up - and deletes
any they put back.
The store opened to employees of the
online retail giant in December 2016 and had been expected to allow
the public in more quickly.
But there were some teething
problems with correctly identifying shoppers of similar body types -
and children moving items to the wrong places on shelves, according
to an Amazon insider.
Gianna Puerini, head of Amazon Go,
said the store had operated well during the test phase: "This
technology didn't exist -- it was really advancing the state of the
art of computer vision and machine learning."
Amazon
has not said if it will be opening more Go stores, which are separate
from the Whole Foods chain that it bought last year for $13.7
billion.
As yet the company has no plans to introduce the
technology to the hundreds of Whole Foods stores.
However,
retailers know that the faster customers can make their purchases,
the more likely they are to return.
Making the dreaded
supermarket queue a thing of the past will give any retailer a huge
advantage over its competitors.
The Seattle store is not
Amazon's first foray into bricks and mortar retailing, however. In
2015 the firm opened its first physical bookshop, also in Seattle
where the company is based. There are now about 12 in the US --
including one in New York that opened last year -- as well as dozens
of temporary pop-up outlets.
In its third quarter results
in October, Amazon for the first time put a figure on the revenues
generated by its physical stores -- $1.28 billion. Yet almost all of
that was generated by Whole Foods.
While its stores may
not yet be moneyspinners, analysts have said Amazon is using them to
raise brand awareness and promote its Prime membership scheme. Prime
members pay online prices at its bookstores, for example, while
non-members are charged the cover price.
Brian Olsavsky,
Amazon chief financial officer, recently hinted that rivals should
expect more Amazon shops in the months and years ahead.
"You
will see more expansion from us - it's still early, so those plans
will develop over time," he said in October.