How Amazon helps shape the future of frictionless checkout
A visit to the Amazon “Just Walk Out” lab revealed the omnichannel giant’s visionary and open approach to its cashierless shopping platform.
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a press tour of the labs and offices where Amazon develops its "Just Walk Out" checkout-free shopping platform, which is both used by Amazon and licensed to third-party retailers.
While I have already covered the new multi-modal artificial intelligence foundation Amazon is using to support Just Walk Out (which itself is based on generative AI technology), in this week’s column I want to take a closer look at a few strategic elements underpinning Amazon’s growth-oriented technological approach to frictionless shopping.
[READ MORE: Amazon upgrades AI model for 'Just Walk Out']
Shopping for a value proposition
Amazon does not view Just Walk Out as a panacea to solve every issue in every traditional brick-and-mortar stores. As Jon Jenkins, VP Just Walk Out technology, Amazon, explained to press tour attendees, the company sees Just Walk Out as ideally suited to retail environments presenting at least one of the following five value cases:
- Long lines. Jenkins said a Just Walk Out-equipped store can move customers through a queue two to three times as fast as store with traditional checkout technology, making it a good fit for busy stores with long lines.
- 24-hour operations. Just Walk Out can also enable stores that operate around the clock, such as a convenience store or cafeteria located in a hospital, remain open during late-night and early-morning hours without being staffed, eliminating dependency on vending machines during off-peak times.
- Shrink reduction. “It’s not stealing when you take a candy bar off the shelf and stick it in your pocket in a Just Walk Out store,” said Jenkins.
- Labor optimization. While most stores have peak shopping periods that may last as little as 30 minutes, they typically must staff in four- to six-hour shifts. Just Walk Out can help retailers maintain steady store associate schedules and augment staff during peak times.
- Reduce retail space. Of particular value to settings such as stadiums and airports, a Just Walk Out-enabled store can handle three times the customer traffic in one-third the footprint of a traditional store.
RFID finds a concrete use case
RFID has been a hot topic in retail technology for 25 years. Although its usage has grown, some observers still see it as a solution that has not fully found its place in the industry.
Amazon is not among those observers. The company is moving ahead with development of its RFID-integrated version of Just Walk Out that so far has been used in softline merchandise stores in venues such as Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle (home of the Seattle Kraken NHL franchise).
All items for sale have a unique RFID tag. After the customer is done shopping, they leave the store through the designated exit gate by tapping their credit or debit card, or hovering their palm over an Amazon One palm payment terminal.
As they pass through the gate, the RFID tags are read by RFID readers and their payment card is automatically charged. Shortly after exiting the store, customers have access to their full receipt online by scanning a QR code on any RFID tag of a purchase item. The system even allows customers to wear their purchases out of the store.
This solution eliminates problems unique to apparel, such as items potentially having their shape changed by handling or being easily misplaced.
In addition, as it relies on a standard exit gate rather than placement of in-store cameras, it can easily scale to a store of any size, as well as pop-ups, and could be used in merchandise categories beyond apparel.
The future’s uncertain, the end is nowhere near
Amazon appears ready to let it roil when it comes to deploying the Just Walk Out model. Jenkins struck an optimistic tone when he discussed possible next steps for the technology.
“The better the Just Walk Out model gets, the more rapidly and efficiently it can reason about what's happening,” said Jenkins. “It's why you want to get to scale, because it just gets better and better.
"Most of our Just Walk Out stores now operate with a significant edge computing component. It’s faster if you can do it on site, and it also means you need less bandwidth in and out of the store if you don't have to ship videos around. We try to do as much as we can right there in the store to generate a receipt. This is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) service, so it's completely managed.
"We're constantly trying to drive down things like the camera count in a store," concluded Jenkins. "Newer models enable us to do more with less infrastructure. That's definitely a goal."
