To use the new outlet, customers have to download an app and then scan a QR code before an electronic gate swings open and allows them to browse a range of Amazon-brand products.
Amazon launched its first ’just walk out shopping’ outlet outside the US, as the online retail giant steps up its competition with traditional supermarkets and other retailers.
LONDON: Amazon on March 4 launched its first “just walk out shopping” outlet outside the United States, as the online retail giant steps up its competition with traditional supermarkets and other retailers.
Customers at Amazon Fresh in Ealing Broadway shopping centre in west London queued outside the black and green storefront under social distancing measures to be first to use the convenience store which has no checkouts.
The outlet, according to Amazon, is the “first convenience grocery store to offer just walk out shopping in the UK” and its “first physical shop and grocery store outside of the US”.
To use the new outlet, customers have to download an app and then scan a QR code before an electronic gate swings open and allows them to browse a range of Amazon-brand products.
You just walk right out But apparently there are cameras watching me. And then you just walk out! It didn t seem right but I was assured it was okay! she added.
Amazon has said the store, which is similar to 20 Amazon Go outlets in the United States, uses deep learning algorithms - technology which allows machines to learn by themselves - with cameras and sensors to tell what customers have picked up. It automatically knows what you ve got in your basket and when you leave the shop it charges you and bills you automatically into the account you have set up, said Erica Ely, a 57-year-old local resident, holding her purchases on the street outside the shop.