EXCLUSIVE Q&A: Amazon expands features, deployment of Just Walk Out
Amazon continues extending the functionality and install base of its Just Walk Out frictionless shopping platform.
Anthony Leggett, director, business development, Just Walk Out, Amazon Web Services recently sat down with Chain Store Age to discuss the latest developments with its Just Walk Out frictionless shopping platform.
Based on generative AI technology, solution enables customers to take what they want without having to stop to check out, with the experience made possible by computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning technology that detects what customers take from or return to the shelves.
What is driving the rapid growth in deployment of Amazon Just Walk Out technology?
Amazon Web Services has scaled Just Walk Out to more than 300 third-party locations across our five core markets of the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and France. Growth is really anchored on the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the technology.
Just Walk Out deployment costs have drop by more than 50% in the last 18 months by the optimization of our AI algorithms and deep focus on simplifying our installation requirements.
For example, previously low ceiling heights may have been a challenge, but now we are launching Just Walk Out implementations with ceiling heights as low as seven feet. Or a site has an inconsistent ceiling or sloped floors, the model can adjust and adapt to it and enable seamless installation.
Amazon Web Services is also focusing on our retrofitting capabilities so that it's no longer required to have a new build to implement Just Walk Out. We can now go into almost any existing space.
Has Amazon Web Services added or expanded any new Just Walk Out technological capabilities in the last year?
In the payment processing area, a few years ago we only had our in-house, fully integrated option. Now we have delegated models that connect into the user's payment systems.
We have partnerships with payment processing providers such as Freedom Pay and Stripe that allow users to not make significant changes when operating a Just Walk Out store and have the data flow into their existing system.
And one thing that sets us apart in the frictionless shopping landscape is that we offer a fully managed SaaS solution where we handle maintenance, repairs, and hardware refreshes with 24/7 monitoring at no additional cost. As customers have started to advance to the point in the autonomous lifespan where refreshes may be possible, they're realizing this is a key differentiator for Amazon.
This has allowed us to have several situations where we are now not just winning new locations but starting to expand and take over existing autonomous locations such as the home arenas of the Denver Broncos or the Indiana Pacers.
[READ MORE: Stadiums, colleges continue deploying Amazon ‘Just Walk Out’ platform]
Is anything new happening with the RFID integration into Just Walk Out that enables it for softline sales?
We have seen significant success with it at the pro shops in several sports teams’ stadiums and arenas. We are also starting to adopt RFID-enabled Just Walk Out to make it more movable, so it is starting to appear at some dates of the Amazon Music concert series and some other concert tours. That's an area we are really investing in for 2026.
What advice would you give a retailer that was considering implementing Just Walk Out?
The biggest advice is to locate your biggest problems, whether that be throughput or labor efficiency or shrink, and place Just Walk Out there. I would also encourage them to not just dip a toe in the water, but go all in. There's a lot of cost benefits when you launch multiple stores at once. Because not only solves more problems quickly but ends up adding some additional benefits to total cost of ownership for that customer.
What other plans does Amazon have for Just Walk Out in 2026?
We want to determine what other verticals would benefit from Just Walk Out and how to apply the technology to some of those additional verticals. One vertical where we are seeing traction is warehouses.
A lot of workers can operate within a warehouse, and it poses the same problems you have in a sports arena. Mid-shift, everyone is trying to get in the employee store and get some food.
Amazon has launched Just Walk Out in approximately 40 stores in its own fulfillment centers, and that's something that we're going to be expanding on significantly. When Amazon uses its technology to solve its own internal retail challenges and the company benefits and employees reap that satisfaction, it will start to scale across the warehouse vertical.
