A bit of background, Amazon is not the only company that has this idea. What a surprise! China has its own development of similar store. In fact, about the time Amazon bought Whole Food last year, a company in China has tested a store where you could enter and pay by scanning the bar code. Not much of a progress, right? Other Chinese store use RFID (the small tag that can send signal) for their cashier-less stores. These stores have an advantage of cheap set up thus they can expand very fast.
What's about Amazon Go? Of course it uses the latest technologies that you can imagine: AI, high-sensitive cameras, and some "weighing technology". There is no RFID tag on any of the products in an Amazon Go store as we would suspect; in fact, the technology behind the store is not fully revealed.
People can see a ceiling of cameras when they walk in as you can see in this picture.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10069875/AmazonGocameras.jpg) |
| Source: redcode.net |
Amazon also use AI, well, let's call it machine learning, to record and predict shopping behavior of a customer. Finally, it uses some "weighing technology" to identify what products are picked up. Again, all the articles I found can only make some educated guesses about these technologies and how they were used. So here is some food for thought:
1. Do you have your own guess/explanation on how Amazon Go store operate at such accuracy?
2. Would you come in to buy stuffs here knowing you are being scanned from head to toe? Do you care about privacy issue? (not facial recognition here)
3. Do you think this business model a good one? Would Amazon be able to expand it? Why or why not?
Related articles:
https://www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-go-works-technology-behind-online-retailers-groundbreaking-new-grocery-store/
https://www.recode.net/2018/1/21/16914188/amazon-go-grocery-convenience-store-opening-seattle-dilip-kumar
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/01/22/inside-amazon-go-the-camera-filled-convenience-store-that-watches-you-back/
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610006/amazons-checkout-free-grocery-store-is-opening-to-the-public/
https://qz.com/1185081/amazon-go-china-is-both-ahead-of-and-behind-amazon-in-cashier-less-stores/
Great article! Interestingly, this business model also ties into the D2L discussion on the Economy of Trust. Namely, no matter how advanced the technology in these stores, people can always find some ways to cheat the system. Despite all the QR and person tracking cameras, people have already found ways to get products for free from Amazon Go. For instance, on the link below, Linus "steals" tampons from the Amazon Go store by simply buying it and then - once he exists the store - clicking on the return/refund button. It the system's current form, the return/refund button returns you the money you paid, and trusts you to return the product to the store. However, Linus opts to keep the product despite getting the monetary return. Thus, it's clear that despite all the amazing technology in the store, such business models do require a high reliance on trusting strangers.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link I talked about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vorkmWa7He8
DeleteI actually saw that video, too. I would say Amazon has similar problem when you return some cheap items they just told you to keep it and refund you the money. I would suspect that these cases are part of the calculated risks for which a contingency have already been factored into the price.
DeleteHey Kevin,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting blog post about Amazon GO. I believe that there is a combination of elements that contribute to Amazon GO being so accurate. I think that it is a combination of combining the benefits of different scanning devices and consumers prior purchases. Interestingly, I originally thought Amazon GO used RFID, but by reading your post, they actually do not use that technology. It does not bother that I would be scanned when I enter an Amazon GO store. Grocery stores already get similar data when you enter in your frequent shopper number. I do have a question for you, do you think major grocery retailers will adopt this method of shopping and when do you think they will adopt it? To me, this is a controversial issue, I would think that incorporating this style of shopping would produce cheaper costs for the consumer, but at the expense of cashiers jobs. Again, great job on the post.
I mentioned the ability to expand depending on the cost of the technology behind it. I think major retailers would not invest that much money in revolutionizing their stores but may choose to go "the Chinese way" of letting customer scan and pay the items with their phones. It seems to be a more reasonable step to take.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this article and I think this idea can be implemented on a wide spread basis if it proves to be successful. I also hope it does as I will be moving to Chicago after graduation where grocery stores downtown are relatively scarce and lines are usually very long. However, this may take awhile for all the kinks to get worked out. Additionally, I personally would not have a problem with the scanning technology they use, but others may which could hurt their potential customer base. Overall, I think this concept will grow on a wide scale level eventually but will take some advances in how the tracking software communicates with each other if more customers are walking through the stores.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the max number of clients. I think the number of clients should not be a problem for the technology (unless people really make a coordinated effort to mess up everything) but there is a limit imposed by the fire department for safety purpose. For the one in Seattle, you can only have about 90 people in the store.
DeleteI feel as if this is such a good business model because I would spend so much more than I do normally, since I don't have as much time to think about it, and I can just walk out when I'm done. I would personally be fine, to answer your second question, being scanned head to toe for this store. How is it any different than airline security?
ReplyDeleteI would say the airline security is just an on-the-spot check and there is no storing of the result (as far as I know :) ). For this store they scan you to track your movement in the store and also to study your shopping behavior, so it's pretty creepy when you think about it. Me personally I wouldn't mind though.
DeleteHi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteInteresting concept. I worked in investment banking last summer in the Consumer and Retail space, so we really studied this deal when Amazon bought Whole Foods. The biggest thing that came to my mind then, and still does, is privacy. Although the technology behind this store is not revealed, in order for it to function properly, customers are submitted much of their information to Amazon. Whereas this normally wouldn't be a huge deal, if this store was hacked, I believe there is a much larger potential for danger because of the video tracking involved. It would make me a tad uncomfortable to know that a computer system can track where I am walking, what I am picking up, etc. I know there is not facial recognition yet but that is the next step in my opinion. Privacy should be monitored much closer than I believe this store allows.
Hi Kendra,
DeleteI totally agree with you about the risk of the system being hacked. Kind of relating to this topic, I read a while ago that a group of hackers successfully hacked a "smart" car by sending signal to its sensors and then got control of the system. Some hackers might be able to compromise the Amazon Go system in a similar way.
I also agree with you about facial recognition. I'm ok for it as it is now, facial recognition is just too much. They might run into some trouble legally though, I don't have enough knowledge in this matter but its feels like it's too much for a company can use facial recognition tech in its business to identify customers without any regulation. Saying so, we all know how fast congress learns about and reacts to new technologies...
I think this is a very interesting article since it paves way for future advancements in user and store interaction. Ironically this eliminates the need for interaction between people. I think there is a huge concern for privacy since it does provide body scanning. I know that Japan has recently provided facial scanning in airports for foreign visitors. I think that Amazon is breaching customer privacy like Japanese airports. I think the customer should be put first in this situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you facial recognition is a bit too much. In the case of Japanese airports, they now only use it to match the face of the departing foreigners with their passport photos. So one can argue that it actually is just for a faster process. I'm not really against this use of facial recognition though because I don't see any additional information they can get from that specific facial scan right before these people leave the country. If they use the technology to track people going around then it's a whole different issue.
ReplyDelete