Amazon Just Walk Out tech not all it’s cracked up to be

Yesterday we reported that Amazon had opened the first Amazon Go Grocery store in its hometown of Seattle.

This features the e-commerce giant’s Just Walk Out technology, which enables customers with an app to enter the store, select their items and leave without stopping to pay. RTIH has labelled this game changing stuff. Not everyone is a fan, however.

Amazon has been linked with supplying the tech to third parties. But Jordan Fisher, Co-founder and CEO at US autonomous checkout system startup Standard Cognition says that the aforementioned store lacks key features that retailers are looking for in a frictionless solution.

“We have talked with nearly every major retailer in the US, Europe and Asia, and they all want solutions that can be retrofitted into existing stores,” he comments.

“Amazon’s technology is impressive, but ultimately is for ground-up buildouts of new stores. It’s not a plausible path for the majority of retailers, who have invested billions in their existing fleets.”

Retailers aren’t always happy at the thought of working with Amazon, Fisher argues. “Whenever it makes a big announcement like this, we are inundated with inbound requests from other retailers, looking for an alternative technology to help them better compete with Amazon. In a sense, Amazon has been our best marketing rep. They help bring awareness to an important technology need that only Standard can fulfil,” he says.

He adds that Standard’s solution requires only ceiling-mounted cameras to accurately detect what each shopper has when they leave the store, so they can be automatically charged. As a result, the up-front costs and maintenance costs are a fraction of Amazon’s. Its offering can also fit in any existing store layout, without major buildouts.

Amazon did not respond to our request for comment.