Seattle based Amazon’s latest venture, Amazon Go is a partially automated grocery store where buyers can purchase items without using a cashier or checkout station.
Amazon Go is designed using latest technologies such as computer vision, algorithms, sensor fusion to automate the purchase, checkout, and payment steps associated with a retail transaction. This store is completely based on smartphone app of Amazon Go, where customers are charged on the shopped goods as soon as they step out of the store.
Owing to this technology driven advancements, a global race has begun to launch digitalized retail stores worldwide. Â New small start-up companies active in the retail market are focusing on these upgraded versions of hassle free stores. Increasing labor wages, irritated customers and large queues of customers can be avoided.
Gianna Puerini, Vice President, Amazon Go commented, “You have to establish a sustainable business model. What it really comes down to is who’s your customer, what can you do that adds value to their life, and what are you uniquely positioned to offer them and if you’re not uniquely positioned to offer it to them, are you willing to build it or buy it or find some other route.”
Amazon Go & Amazon Books Vice President, Dilip Kumar added, “It’s spectacular to be able to invent on behalf of customers. If you do it often enough and if you do it well, that’s what we draw our energy from and how big it gets or how popular it gets, customers get to decide that. So whether it becomes ubiquitous or not, customers are the one who will eventually decide.”
Long before the introduction of Amazon Go, retail sellers like Kroger were using sensors and predictive analytics tools to speculate the requirement of more cashiers. However, the launch of Amazon Go has added distress in the global retail markets.
New companies and other retail stores are finding ways to overtake Amazon Go venture by developing their own digitally operated stores.
