Amazon Fresh store opens in Hoxton, London, powered by Just Walk Out tech
Amazon has today opened an Amazon Fresh checkout-free store in Hoxton, London, its 18th such location in the UK.
Amazon customers (no Prime membership needed) use the e-commerce giant’s app to enter, put their phone away and shop for what they need. At the end of their trip, they can just walk out.
The product offering includes the private food brand ‘by Amazon’ which covers hot food throughout the day, and on-the-go meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Customers can also pick up items purchased on Amazon UK at the Amazon Hub in-store, and return items without needing to package the product or print a shipping label.
Powered by Just Walk Out technology, the store can be found at Unit 10, 3A Rosewood Building, Shoreditch Exchange, 97-137 Hackney Road, E2 8GY.
Spotlight on Sevenoaks
In May, it was announced that Sevenoaks in Kent will host the UK’s first Amazon Fresh location outside of London.
This will be situated in the former Baby Gap outlet in Bligh's Meadow.
An Amazon spokesperson told RTIH: “We’re delighted to serve customers in the Sevenoaks area and look forward to opening more stores in the future.”
No launch date was mentioned. But, based on the aforementioned London openings, expect it to be in the very near future.
Retail Technology Show
Retailers are starting to redesign their entire store format now they do not need to include checkout tills due to the Just Walk Out offering, an executive at Amazon has claimed.
Speaking recently at Retail Technology Show in London, Max Gill, Amazon Physical Retail Technologies, Just Walk Out, EMEA Lead, said the company’s tech is allowing retailers to “play with space and formats” within their shops.
“We are trying to reinvent the physical store”, Gill commented, adding that Amazon's own research has shown that queues are often the biggest source of friction and annoyance for customers at shops.
“We have been trying to bring the mentality and ease of online checkouts at Amazon into the physical store.”
In addition to Fresh stores in the UK, Amazon also offers its technology to other retailers, such as Sainsbury’s and WHSmith.
Gill said this was allowing retailers to look at opening smaller stores or placing them in locations that may not otherwise be possible such as the thoroughfare of an airport.
“When you take checkouts out of stores, customers are getting more space, so there is space for more products or a different form factor,” he stated.
“Lots of companies are looking at launching whole new store formats with us, because they don’t need to have a checkout within the store. For the retailer it allows them to play with space and with formats.
Just Walk Out sensors also allow retailers to reduce waste.
For example, if a customer takes a product out of a chilled cabinet and then puts it on another shelf elsewhere in the store, the tech can notify store workers about the item and also let them know how long it has been out of the fridge.
Similarly, the “black box” of information the sensors and cameras provide to retailers means businesses can gain insights such as where people are congregating in a store or what they are picking up or putting back frequently.
Businesses will also be able to use their staff to upsell other products to customers as they are not having to man the tills.
“They can spend more time with customers and can elevate sales figures by focusing on the customer experience,” Gill said.
Amazon is trying to encourage different types of retailers to embrace its technology, such as cafes, sports arenas, resorts and airports.
It has been used by the US airport retailer Hudson, as well as Starbucks, Resorts World in Las Vegas, and stadiums such as UBS Arena in New York and the Houstons Astros’ Minute Maid Park.
Other retailers have gone head to head with the company by launching their own version of checkout-free technology, however.
In the UK, Tesco went live in High Holborn, London, in August last year, with technology powered by Trigo, while Aldi opened a similar type of store in Greenwich, south east London, in January.
