Convenient, easy, practical, fun. That is how I describe AMAZON GO. The news was a “boom” in the market and if you didn’t see it before, you must watch the video bellow to really feel the impact of what I’m talking about:
People who said the brick-and-mortar stores were coming to an end with the empowerment of e-commerce platforms, must be now hiding from their claims. NO, PHYSICAL STORES WON’T END…they will be transformed!
At the end of 2016, AMAZON gave one of the biggest steps toward the metamorphosis of retail we are about to witness in 2017 and challenged retailers worldwide with a brilliant concept, totally shopper focused. It demonstrateS how multichannel strategies should work for real – it is not just about selling online & offline, is about combining the key factor of each platform in order to offer better solutions.
We’ve been talking for a couple of years (and posts), about how retailers should come up with integrated systems and diverse options to fulfill shopping experience. Concepts like “Click and Collect”, “Customized Grocery lists”, “Info Scanning in the Store”, “Customized campaigns and loyalty programs”, “Payment methods – Paypal, Bitcoin, Mobile, Fingerprint”, etc, are some of the diverse possibilities we have achieved with the advent of technology and its tools. Cross-channel strategies are already a reality for smart businesses.
But while offline retailers are trying to understand how work online (and vice-verse) and learning how to manage the technological tools, Amazon went disruptive: AMAZON GO trusts its clients and let them free inside the store. The largest e-commerce platform went to the opposite direction of the market and launched an innovative physical store, with a brand-new business model, with no competitors in the market.
3 steps – and you are done!
It is simple like that:
- Scan your personal QR code from your Amazon App – use one of the scanners placed on the entrance of the store.
- Start purchasing – make choices normally, as if you were on a common physical store. Pick up a product, change SKUs or simply return them back. Everything is automatically added to a virtual cart.
- When you are done, just walk out the store with your groceries. Your “virtual cart” will be added to your Amazon account and the receipt will be send straight to the app
The hidden technologies
Amazon calls the whole system JUST WALK OUT TECHNOLOGY and it contemplates:
- Computer Vision
- Deep Learning Algorithms
- Sensor Vision
Can you imagine having this facility wherever you go: supermarkets, department stores, pet shops, gas station, toy stores, restaurants, books stores? All connected in one big and powerful system?
No lines. No checkout. No, seriously.
What would you do with your extra-time?
Written by Fernanda Accorsi
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