Amazon announced a revolutionary customer shopping and checkout technology called “Amazon Go” saying that “we used computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion much like you would find in self driving cars” to create a completely self-service experience. A customer checks in when entering a store with a swipe of their mobile phone, and then remove items and are automatically added to cart. When a customer is done, they simply press the pay button on their mobile Amazon Go application.
Everyone has been asking about how Amazon will differentiate themselves in their grocery store business, and this is one of the answers. The customer wins with a speedier, friction-free completely self-service experience. Plus, because the cost structure is less, the customer wins with lower prices. Amazon wins with less store labor costs, with real-time inventory triggers, and better shopping analytics.
In The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Princples for Every Leader from the World’s Leading Internet of Things Strategies, I outline that improving customer experiences using IoT is one of the key opportunities for companies. Amazon Go is a major exclamation point to that principle.
Watch the Amazon Go video HERE. It’s really interesting!