Imagine the following scenario: The customer enters a supermarket, looks for his purchases and then leaves the store – without any tills. What sounds like fiction is now reality. At least in a first, large Amazon supermarket.
Amazon’s “just walk out” option is not really new . But now it is being used for the first time in a full-fledged, large supermarket with an area of just over 2,300 square meters. The store is located in Washington and opened on June 17, 2021. But how does the “just walk out” principle work exactly?
CASH REGISTERS NO LONGER NECESSARY
From the consumer’s point of view, the principle surrounding Amazon’s potential future technology is extremely simple: When entering the supermarket, buyers have to “register”. This can be done in three different ways, depending on your needs : First of all, you can simply display a QR code in the Amazon app that has to be scanned at the entrance. Alternatively, the innovative Amazon One identification process can be used. And finally, consumers can simply use a credit cardidentify. You also have to go through the selected procedure when leaving the supermarket – but that’s about it. Inside the shop everything goes as usual: you put selected products in a simple bag and then leave the shop. The purchase is billed to the Amazon account and the invoice is also shown in the account in a paper-free manner.
Technically, cameras, sensors and machine learning make the checkout-free shopping experience possible. It is unclear whether and how the procedure can be reconciled with the guidelines of the European General Data Protection Regulation. So far, Amazon has only announced that user data will be handled in accordance with the usual data protection policy.
CASHLESS SHOPPING: SOON IN YOUR AREA TOO?
Amazon has been testing the “just walk out” technology on a small scale for several years. There are even shops in the UK . Now Amazon has dared to take the next step, but the technology is still a long way from global introduction. According to Amazon, they want to first check whether the “just walk out” option appeals to consumers in the new supermarket. On the other hand, the company did not want to make a clear statement about what happens or could happen afterwards.
