Bringing checkout-free technology into your in-store retail environment

Embedding technology in your brick-and-mortar store can be intimidating, but the payoff in enhanced consumer experience and better operational performance can be significant. Here are three things you should consider before you embrace checkout-free technology.

Today, delivering a positive customer experience is more important than ever before. This is one of the key takeaways of a 2022 survey by Salesforce of over 13,000 consumers, in which 88 percent of customers said that the experience a company provides is just as important as its products or services—up 8 percent from 2020.

Retailers, for example, are rapidly realizing that delivering an innovative in-store consumer experience can be one of the best ways to increase market share. Many are now looking at adopting tech-driven innovations from Amazon to make the shopping experience faster and more convenient. It’s no surprise that since the launch of Amazon Go—checkout-free stores powered by Just Walk Out technology—a growing number of retailers have expressed an interest in creating similar experiences for shoppers in their own stores.

Just Walk Out technology uses the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars, including computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. Shoppers simply enter the store with their credit or debit card, take what they want, and leave. The technology helps retailers remove their checkout lines, giving consumers a faster, frictionless shopping experience.

If you’re a retailer looking to use checkout-free technology to enhance the shopping experience and boost operational performance, here are three things you should consider before making the move.

1. Innovate based on your customers’ needs

Amazon’s success has been driven by “Working Backwards” from the customer. That means building an in-depth profile of your customers, allowing you to gain important insights into the kind of experiences that would be most valuable to them.

Identifying the needs of your customers and how they shop will help you understand how the technology would be best integrated into your stores. While adding new technology into existing operations is often straightforward, it will likely require you to reevaluate the customer experience on a broader level.

In some cases, this could mean layering technology onto an existing store format. In other cases, it could mean completely rethinking and redesigning the retail-customer environment. Just Walk Out technology can support both models, but this is a great opportunity to take a step back, evaluate your business objectives, and then apply the right approach.

2. Vet prospective technology partners

Before choosing a checkout-free vendor, spend time evaluating the maturity of the different solutions and their track records of success in the market. You must be confident that their solution will work in the real world with real shoppers across multiple use cases. The operational experience of solution providers can give you critical insights into their troubleshooting and customer service capabilities and their overall dependability.

Retailers have been successfully operating Just Walk Out technology for several years and rely on Amazon’s extensive experience in customer service and retail technology. Amazon tested and refined the technology extensively within its own stores before offering Just Walk Out technology to other retailers. Amazon is out there using it and delighting customers every single day.

3. Manage your investment in modernization

Evaluating new solutions can be difficult. There are multiple opportunities to embrace new approaches, support new retailer integration models, and elevate the shopping experience. Will your solution have the ability to proactively adapt and innovate to meet evolving consumer expectations?

Amazon takes a long-term approach to its relationships with retailers with the goal of helping you fully use the possibilities of technology. When there are significant opportunities for growth and innovation—such as Just Walk Out technology—Amazon is prepared to invest in your business for the long haul to make it happen.

Interested in bringing checkout-free shopping to your store? Contact us to learn how.