Amazon Go sets up views on larger stores

Amazon is testing the idea of ​​expanding its cashless payment technology into a larger store format, experimenting it in Seattle in a space that is formatted to be like a big store, reported the Wall Street newspaper.

The report, citing people familiar with the issue, reported that if the test proved to be effective, retailers would further notice that they need to increase the convenience factor. According to Wall Street newspaper the system being tested keeps track of what buyers collect from store shelves and charge them when they leave the store. While the technology worked well in a smaller store format, the paper reported that it is more difficult to achieve in larger spaces that carry more products and have higher ceilings. This could mean that it will take a while before Amazon can implement the technology in large stores. Furthermore, the document states that it is unclear whether the idea is to use technology in Whole Foods. People who are familiar with the matter have said to the Wall Street newspaper that Amazon executives think that checkout without checkouts at Whole Foods stores is the most likely place they can make it work. Amazon declined to comment, noted the WSJ.

Currently, the cashless technology is being used in seven Amazon Go stores located in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco, with the intention of adding more of these stores across the country. Each store has less than 2,500 square feet and sells drinks, groceries and other products. If Amazon were able to implement the larger Amazon Go stores, it would be another direct attack on food business operators, who have since bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $ 13.5 billion. It forced them to launch more technology, offer an hour delivery and a host of other services to compete with Whole Foods supported by Amazon. Spreading the technology in a Whole Foods store, which usually has 40,000 square feet of items and brings about 34,000 different products, would prove far more challenging. Tracing, for example, would be more difficult to do than smaller positions, the report noted.