Skip to main content

Expect more cashier-free stores as Amazon starts selling its Go technology

At most stores, if you grab what you want and walk out, you’ll probably get arrested for shoplifting.

That’s why shoppers at a cashier-free Amazon Go find the experience a little weird at first. We’ve been so conditioned to performing some kind of transaction at the end of a store visit — whether with cash or card, or, more recently, smartphone or smartwatch — that taking something off the shelf and strolling right out still feels slightly illegal.

But if Amazon gets its way, you’ll soon be seeing a lot more cashier-free stores at shopping malls and the like, as the company is hoping to license its technology to other retailers.

If you didn’t already know, Amazon Go’s high-tech system tracks registered shoppers using an array of cameras and sensors placed around the store. When you have everything you need, you can simply walk right out, with the cost of your goods automatically charged to your Amazon account and a receipt sent by email.

The company better known for online shopping than brick-and-mortar outlets launched its first Go store in 2018, with 24 additional stores opening in four U.S. cities since then.

Now it’s keen to license its “Just Walk Out” technology to other retailers, telling Reuters this week that it has already inked deals with several businesses, though it declined to name any of them.

Amazon has launched a new website for potential customers explaining how they could utilize its Just Walk Out system for their own stores. The shopping experience would be the same as it is at Amazon Go except that people would enter the store by scanning a registered credit card instead of the Amazon Go app. Of course, the store would retain its own branding, with the only reference to Amazon popping up on a small display when you swipe your credit card at the entrance gate.

The technology would take several weeks to install, though the precise time period depends on whether it’s a new site or already in operation. Also, like Amazon Go, a store using the Just Walk Out technology wouldn’t be entirely free of workers, as retailers will still employ people to greet and answer shoppers’ questions, stock the shelves, check IDs for the purchasing of certain goods, and so on.

Amazon is continuing to grow its network of cashier-free stores. It’s also exploring new markets with the launch last month of its first-ever grocery store using the technology. The Seattle store, which Digital Trends recently visited, is far larger than its existing Go convenience stores, and therefore can offer a much broader range of items.

But as Reuters notes, Amazon isn’t the only player offering cashier-free technology, with companies such as Grabango, AiFi, Zippin, and Standard Cognition also offering similar systems to retailers.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Amazon may let airport stores and movie theaters use its cashier-free Go tech
amazon go store needs few staff thumb

Amazon may be about to explore yet another revenue stream, this time using the technology that powers its cashier-free Go stores.

The company is looking into the idea of licensing its technology to other retailers, and is already in talks with a number of businesses, according to a CNBC report on Tuesday, October 2.

Read more
Amazon Prime rolls out perks for gamers, starting with free PUBG Mobile items
amazon prime free pubg mobile items

Gamers who have signed up for Amazon Prime will be able to get even more value out of their subscription, as the premium membership program is now offering free mobile game content starting with PUBG Mobile.

https://twitter.com/PUBGMOBILE/status/1175130194790645760

Read more
Amazon juiced its search algorithm to sell its own products over competitors’
Amazon Basics

Amazon has reportedly been adjusting its search system so that products that are more profitable for the company appear higher in search results than those that it receives a smaller profit from.
The Wall Street Journal spoke to people who claimed they worked on optimizing Amazon’s secret algorithm so that search results displayed items that boosted profitability for the company over the most-relevant or best-selling product for a particular search term.
Amazon sales can often make or break a product, so the adjustment could have dramatically hurt businesses that had no way of beating the algorithm's suggestions.
In an emailed statement to the WSJ, Amazon denied the claims, stating that it had not tweaked its algorithm to rank search results based on profitability; however, it declined to discuss the inner workings of the algorithm. An Amazon spokesperson told Digital Trends that the company has not changed its search algorithm to boost more profitable products.
"We feature the products customers will want, regardless of whether they are our own brands or products offered by our selling partners," the spokesperson said in a statement. "As any store would do, we consider the profitability of the products we list and feature on the site, but it is just one metric and not in any way a key driver of what we show customers."
The people who claimed to work on the project said that they do not know how much the algorithm impacts Amazon’s sales. However, Amazon's private-label brand, known as AmazonBasics, asked to have improved listings in the search algorithm.
The news comes as some lawmakers are looking at rethinking antitrust laws specifically with technology companies in mind.
In July the Justice Department announced that it was opening a broad antitrust review into Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple regarding Big Tech's dominance in internet search, social media, and retail.
As part of that investigation, the government said it planned to look into “whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers.”
The news about Amazon comes just a week after a similar story regarding Apple’s App Store surfaced.
According to The New York Times, Apple favored its own apps in search over those made by third parties, a move that potentially led to download numbers for Apple-owned apps growing considerably higher than those made by other companies. In some cases, search terms would show as many as 14 Apple apps before showing one made by anyone else, with the exception of apps that had paid Apple for advertising.
Apple acknowledged the issue and said that it has tweaked its algorithm so that fewer Apple apps appear as top search results within the store

Read more