Amazon Announces Frictionless Brick-and-Mortar Grocery Store

ETA member-company Amazon announced this week its new frictionless grocery concept, Amazon GO.  This brick-and-mortar store allows shoppers to skip the check-out process all together, simply pulling items from the shelves, adding them to their basket, and walking out without ever waiting in line.

In its video introduction to Amazon GO, the company provides an overview of how check out and payment works: “We used computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion, much like you’d find in self-driving cars. We call it “Just Walk Out” technology. Once you’ve got everything you want, you can just go. When you leave, our “Just Walk Out” technology adds up your virtual cart and charges your Amazon account. Your receipt is sent straight to the app.”

Amazon hasn’t disclosed the specific technologies that enable the process, but GeekWire dives deeper into guessing exactly how it works though reviewing some of Amazon’s patent filings and presumes a “system that uses technology including RFID to detect when a shopper takes an item from the shelf, and then syncs the data to a handheld device.”

Currently, the 1,800-square-foot grocery, located in one of Amazon’s Seattle office buildings, is only open to Amazon employees, however the company plans to open the store to the public early next year.

Learn more about the new shopping and payments experience from Amazon here.