Amazon reveals its high street trump card: Go, its solution to in-store queues and check-out
Amazon has upped its offensive on bricks and mortar with perhaps its most disruptive shopping solution yet completely eliminating the need for queues and check-out.
The Amazon Go app
Amazon Go is an app that keeps track of the goods shoppers leave an Amazon store with through a feature called ‘Just Walk Out Shopping,’ a move touted to evolve the commerce experience.
A trial will be launched in Seattle at an 1,800 foot store, currently open to employees of the company, although it’s expected to embrace the public as early as 2017.
It will stock ready-meals and other food options, clearly envisioned as a city-based solution to on-the-go food purchases. It claims: “We offer delicious ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options made fresh every day by our on-site chefs and favorite local kitchens and bakeries.
"Our selection of grocery essentials ranges from staples like bread and milk to artisan cheeses and locally made chocolates. You’ll find well-known brands we love, plus special finds we’re excited to introduce to customers. For a quick home-cooked dinner, pick up one of our chef-designed Amazon Meal Kits, with all the ingredients you need to make a meal for two in about 30 minutes."
Although little information has been released documenting the nuts and bolts of the operation, users will have to open the app to enter and exit the store. An exit gate will be utilised to log which products are taken from the shelves by each user.
The company claims to have used “the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning” to create the feature.
The Drum has contacted Amazon for more information on the process.