Amazon launched a controversial convenience store known as Amazon Go, where customers are designed to just walk-in, shop and walk out without the need of much work. It is set to open in 2017.
The convenience shop is the store of the future, according to Tech Times. It is made to change the mechanisms of a retail store with two important components: a modern convenience store and an application. Amazon Go was created to work without a cashier, a cash register, line and check out counter.
"Our Just Walk Out technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart," Amazon wrote on its official website. "When you're done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we'll charge your Amazon account and send you a receipt."
The idea of the Amazon Go store is to cut the time when shopping, making it stress and hassle-free. The Washington-based e-commerce giant makes use of the powerful combination of technologies, including computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion, which are also used in self-driving cars.
When customers enter the store, they first need to access the Amazon Go application. A digital shopping cart adds every item that the customers takes. When finished, the Amazon app computes all the items and charge the owner's account in the app.
The "just walk out tech" application automatically detects if the person returned an item so it will not be billed to the shopper. To keep track of what customers shopped, Amazon sends out a receipt to the customers.
Amazon Go is planning to sell anything found in the grocery from bread, milk, butter to commercial desserts, snacks, chocolates and other items. Since it is marketed as a convenience store, the shop is designed to sell a wide variety of products that customers are usually looking for.
Located at 2131 7th Avenue on the corner of Blanchard Street and 7th Avenue in Seattle, the store is still on trial. It is not yet open for the public, and only Amazon employees can visit and shop.
The company is planning to set up a total of 2,000 Amazon Go stores nationwide if the project succeeds. Amazon's first store is set to open for public in January 2017.
Check out the Amazon's first convenience store: