Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Amazon is expanding Amazon Go, its brick-and-mortar store concept that uses video cameras and mobile devices to eliminate the need for cashiers.
The e-commerce retailer has been investing heavily in physical stores, buying the Whole Foods grocery chain for nearly $14 billion in 2017 and opening 15 bookstores in recent years.
The company first piloted Amazon Go, a technology-monitored grocery store model, in a Seattle location that opened in January, The Seattle Times reports.
Recently, Amazon advertised job openings on its website for Amazon Go store managers in Chicago and San Francisco, The Seattle Times reports.
The company confirmed it “was planning to open stores in each city, but didn’t specify when,” The Seattle Times says.
The Seattle Amazon Go location is 1,800 square feet, allows shoppers to scan their Amazon apps to enter the store and uses video technology to monitor when products are moved, Entrepreneur reports.
The retailer charges customers’ Amazon accounts for the products they carry out of the store, eliminating the need for store employees to stand at cash registers, the Entrepreneur article says.
“We asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout?” Amazon says on its website. “Could we push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning to create a store where customers could simply take what they want and go? Our answer to those questions is Amazon Go and Just Walk Out Shopping.”
Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go, says product selection will differ by location, according to an article by Yahoo Finance.
“Here in Seattle, we have a lot of things from local bakeries and local food purveyors, and that will vary in every city,” Puerini tells Yahoo Finance. “Some things won’t. We’ll have Coke in all the stores and things like that. But I think the biggest difference that we focus on as we get ready for that is what local selection will delight customers the most.”
