AMAZON GO: A NEW WAY TO SHOP, FASTER AND WITHOUT QUEUES
Amazon has started to get serious. With the official opening of its first large supermarket in Seattle , the US company has decided to enter the world of large retailers with a straight leg, with a concept of "smart shopping" that had already been introduced with the opening of the first Amazon Go .
The project seems to have passed its embryonic stage and the
new opening, with a store of almost a thousand square meters, certifies the
maturity of a technology ready to work perfectly even in large contexts,
supermarkets where everyone can buy what they want. Will Amazon Go Grocery ,
this is the name of the new store, just the first in a long series of new
openings in the United States and around the world?
The new opening
On February 24 last was the date of inauguration of the new
Amazon Grocery Go to Seattle. It is a fully-fledged supermarket, very different
from the 25 Amazon Go stores already present in the United States: it has in
fact gone from stores always between 100 and 120 square meters to a room of 996
square meters , a large supermarket where you will find any type of product and
which, in the company's objectives, aims to offer the customer a service in
which to make a large and complete shopping in comfort and speed.
The basic principle is the same as the other small Amazon
Go's, but compared to a much larger scale: customers will be able to buy their
products in total autonomy, without having to stop at the cash desk to pay;
once you have finished your shopping you can leave the store with your items,
without any kind of control by the staff.
The Amazon employees will be present, but they will take care
of the supply of goods and customer support, nothing more. Users will only need
a smartphone, an Amazon account and a special app: the powerful technology
studied by the company in recent years will take care of everything else.
Cutting-edge technology
The various openings of the last two years and the tests
carried out on its employees have helped Amazon to take the plunge in the
Seattle Grocery. The technology inside is the same as in smaller shops
including cameras, sensors, readers of various kinds , but with some tricks to
be able to track more precisely the picking of products that are difficult to
identify such as bulk ones. Artificial intelligence and advanced computer
vision technologies will do the rest: the user will be artificially followed by
the cameras for the entire duration of his tour and it will be these
technologies that will understand with absolute precision what has been taken,
what has been placed in the cart. and what is put back on the shelf.
The user just needs to open the app to register their
access. Then the mobile phone can be put back in its place and the user can do
the shopping as he wishes. When you leave the store safely, you will then see
all the items withdrawn charged to your account and will see your receipt on
the app. No checks at the exit, no passage to the cash desks to pay, all in
total autonomy .
A real supermarket
The technological concept, already avant-garde in itself,
surprises even more when compared to the size of the new premises and the
variety of what this grocery offers. The quantity and quality of the product
offered will be out of scale compared to what Amazon has accustomed us until
now: you can buy everything that is usually found in large supermarkets
including meat, fish, ready meals, fresh fruit and vegetables and organic
products. A variety that will essentially allow everyone to shop as varied and
complete as possible.
The suppliers will be the same as those of the Whole Foods
market chain, purchased by Amazon three years ago precisely in anticipation of
this big step in the world of large retailers. What Bezos and his associates
wanted to achieve is a goal that was unthinkable until recently: to allow
families to shop completely independently and with the same products found in
traditional supermarkets, something that was impossible for the smaller Amazon
Go. total absence of food and fresh products. Inside there is also an alcohol
section, accessible only to adults, and a vast assortment of the most important
brands, offered at prices that seem competitive and able to keep up with those
offered by other chains, but with the added convenience. to do everything with
maximum autonomy and speed.
Cameras and sensors
In terms of habits, the user will have to behave as he
always does inside a large supermarket , but entering into the perspective that
his path and all his movements will be tracked with absolute accuracy and with
an impressive number of cameras. This is a fundamental condition to ensure that
everything works perfectly. The products taken from the shelves are identified
by weight sensors , whose measurements are then coupled with the videos taken
by the cameras and traced back to the user's account, activated with the login
via the app made at the entrance.
The information is processed and the artificial
intelligence, in total autonomy, manages to associate the user with all the
products he has picked up and put in his bag. A few minutes after the exit,
purchases are charged and the receipt uploaded to your application. Apparently
impossible to deceive the system given the presence of weight sensors that
automatically understand when a product has been picked up and, vice versa,
when it is put back in place.
The system also automatically understands when a customer
changes his mind and puts the purchase back in its place. Errors should be
reduced to zero. The stress test carried out in recent years have shown how
wrong does not seem contemplated by the system, therefore it is impossible to
exchange in person, even when dealing with many customers present at the same
time or with people of similar appearance or build.
Future projects
What are the next steps for Amazon? Seattle's small Go and
Grocery Street portends big investments for the future. Some time ago there was
talk of Amazon's intention to open small stores also in Europe , with London
likely a candidate to host the first on the list. The absence of payment boxes
will allow the company to open smaller stores but still full of merchandise,
not as huge as the 1,000 square meters of the Seattle store but not as small as
the 100 square meters in the United States; we are talking about medium-sized
premises, between 400 and 500 square meters .
The variations to the basic formula can be numerous: in a
New York store, in fact, Amazon offers the possibility to pay in cash inside
it, an additional option that also allows those who do not have an account to
make purchases. Hence a series of infinite possibilities and combinations that
will lead in the not so distant future to other openings and a more than likely
future presence in airports or shopping centers .
Big goals
The "final" goal of the company is to expand its
business by applying its technologies to traditional purchasing methods.
Occupying physical space and creating real activities is a clear signal of a
strategy that will see Amazon enter into direct competition with physical
stores and large-scale distribution chains, trying in its own way to
revolutionize a sector that would be given a considerable competitive shock. ,
capable of changing it as in its time Amazon itself managed to do with the
world of e-commerce.
If Amazon Go proves to be a success, all the other companies
should start to straighten the antennas: the elements for the project to work
are all there. For now we are still in the experimental phase, but compared to
the small shops we were used to, the birth of a store of this size takes the
challenge to a higher level, demonstrating that the company, if it was not
understood, is starting to get serious.
