Amazon Go has recently registered its trademark in the UK. Experts say that it is more likely to be a hit with UK consumers than in the US.
The online retail store Amazon opened its first physical grocery store in Seatle this December. The store is being tested by Amazon employees and will be fully open to the public by next year.
Amazon Go is the newest physical retail store which uses advanced video sensor technology and allows customers to take items from shelves that automatically gets deducted using a smartphone app. The concept of a self-checkout retail store threatens the jobs of thousands of retail store employees as it no longer needs cashiers for checkout. However, experts say that this is not likely to happen any time soon.
According to Forbes, customers may not like the idea of a self-checkout. A recent study conducted showed a huge latency between picking up an item and for the product to show up in the app. The latency issue should be very minimal for Amazon Go to work.
Another reason it may not affect retail jobs is because retail stores take time and money to set up. Furthermore, opening a grocery store too soon is not a good strategy, says Vice President of Oracle's retail stores, Jeff Warren.
On the other hand, Nicla Di Palma believes that self-checkout stores would work more in the UK than in the US. He cited Tesco's unsuccessful venture in the US is due to its focus on self-checkout. Di Palma says, "For example, one of the reasons why Fresh & Easy - Tesco's business in the US - did not succeed was that they were focusing on self-checkout, whilst the American consumer likes service."
Only time will tell whether self-checkout systems will work or not. What's sure though is that Amazon Go's strategy is a game changer for physical retail stores in the future.
