E-commerce giant Amazon is offering its Just Walk Out till-free technology to its rival retailers, after launching its Go Grocery chain over two years ago.
Using the Amazon Just Walk Out till-free technology, rival retailers can allow its customers to register a payment card on entry and be automatically billed as they leave.
At Go Grocery stores, shoppers scan a smartphone app as they arrive, allowing them to pay via their main Amazon accounts but with other retailers, users' Amazon accounts will not be involved.
The company assured that information collected about consumers will only be used to support the retailers it has partnered with. On its website, Amazon said: We only collect the data needed to provide shoppers with an accurate receipt. Shoppers can think of this as similar to typical security camera footage."
In order to implement the Just Walk Out technology, retailers must fit their shop with hundreds of cameras and depth-sensors, whose data is then remotely analyzed on Amazon's computer servers.
The software has the ability to determine whether a customer has picked up and kept a product for purchase or if they have only looked at an item before returning it on a shelf. Amazon claims it can install the required equipment in "as little as a few weeks".
According to NBK Retail consultancy founder Natalie Berg, Amazon's decision was expected. She said: "It's far more lucrative for Amazon to license the technology to other retailers than to just use it in its own grocery stores."
"What Amazon does very well is cut out friction and of course the biggest source or friction in the grocery stores and supermarkets is the checkout. But there will still be opportunities for other vendors [with rival solutions] because you're never going to see Walmart implement Amazon's checkout-free tech," Berg pointed out.
