Amazon Go Lets Consumers Skip Checkout

Amazon Go, the latest brick-and-mortar venture from the online retailer, allows consumers to take products from the shelves and skip the checkout. Called the “Just Walk Out” shopping experience, Amazon Go is modeled after technology found in self-driving cars, like computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning.

As shoppers enter the store, they scan the Amazon Go app on their smartphones. While shopping, the app tracks the items shoppers choose, even knowing when they change their mind and put something back. When shoppers leave the store, their Amazon accounts are charged for the items they kept. Immediately following, they are emailed their receipt.

The first Amazon Go store is an 1,800-square-foot grocery store located in Seattle, Amazon’s headquarter city. The store offers shoppers ready-to-eat meals and snacks as well as grocery essentials, like milk and bread. Currently, the store is only open to Amazon employees. Yet, it is projected to open to the public in early 2017.

Buy online, pick up in store is becoming the expectation as consumers rely on their mobile devices for purchasing decisions. Stores and concepts like Amazon Go are attempting to achieve a seamless customer experience by eliminating the need to wait for a product.