Amazon has announced plans to more than double the number of small-format third-party stores with its Just Walk Out technology this year.
Writing in an official blog post, Dilip Kumar, Vice President, AWS Applications said the move has been driven by demand from “mission-driven” shoppers to make quick purchases of relatively few items and shop just like they would in any other store but wihhout having to stand in line to pay or scan items at self-checkout.
He said: “While a lot has changed in the 10 years since we started the journey to reimagine the physical shopping experience, one thing has remained constant: Shoppers still don’t like waiting in lines. That was the notion that originally led us to use computer vision, sensor fusion, and generative AI to invent checkout-free technologies like Just Walk Out, Amazon Dash Cart, and Amazon One.”
Just Walk Out technology works by detecting when a shopper’s hand interacts with a product on the shelf. When that happens, machine learning (ML) algorithms ensure the correct item is added to the shopper’s virtual cart. When a shopper enters a store, the technology links them with their payment method and assigns a temporary numeric code, which serves as the shopper’s unique digital signature for that shopping trip.
As Amazon points out, when the shopper exits, the code disappears disappears, and if they come back, they get a new code no specific knowledge is collected about the shopper. Among other benefits of Just Walk Out, the technology delivers increased throughput, optimises staffing and enables extended around-the-clock operating hours while it can even be unstaffed at night.
Kumar added: “While we’re growing the number of smaller format Just Walk Out stores, the team continues to invent the next generation of this technology to improve the checkout experience for large-format stores. We’re building edge compute and the associated algorithms to improve latency and accuracy for faster and more reliable receipts, a new set of algorithms for action recognition, and new sensors so retailers can offer customers even greater selection.”
