Amazon Selling 'Just Walk Out' Frictionless Checkout Platform to Retailers

SEATTLE — Amazon Inc. is putting a price tag on the technology platform featured at its Amazon Go frictionless stores.

The e-retailer is now selling its Just Walk Out technology to enable other retailers to offer a cashierless shopping experience. The platform combines computer vision, sensor fusion and machine-learning algorithms, reported Convenience Store News sister publication Chain Store Age.

Unlike the Just Walk Out experience at Amazon Go convenience and grocery locations — where customers identify themselves by scanning an app — the licensed version will have customers announce themselves with a credit card.

According to Reuters, customers will insert a credit card into a gated turnstile marked with a "Just Walk Out technology by Amazon" logo.

The rest of the shopping experience will be the same as the Amazon Go location:

• Items that customers pick up are automatically added to a virtual shopping cart.
• If an item is returned to a shelf, it is removed from the virtual cart.
• Customers' credit cards will be billed for any items they take with them when they leave the store, without having to scan a barcode or wait in a checkout line. 
• To obtain a receipt, shoppers can enter their email address at a kiosk in the store and receive an email receipt. If they then use the same credit card at that or any other Just Walk Out-enabled store, they will automatically receive an email receipt.

Amazon will work with retailers to install hardware for the Just Walk Out platform, such as cameras and sensors, at existing stores while "minimizing impact" on operations, or to include it in construction plans for new and remodeled stores. According to the retailer, installation can take as little as a few weeks from when it gains access to a store.

Additionally, Amazon will offer all necessary technologies and a 24/7 customer support line. 

Amazon did not offer estimates of how many retailers might want to implement Just Walk Out at their own stores, or what the technology will cost, Chain Store Age reported.

Seattle-based Amazon Go opened its first convenience store in its hometown in January 2018. It currently operates 26 locations in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and New York City, as well as one Amazon Go Grocery store.

Convenience Store News and Chain Store Age are properties of EnsembleIQ.