Amazon is reaching a major milestone in the development of its Amazon Fresh high-tech grocery store concept.
The retail giant has opened its 40th Amazon Fresh store, in Thousand Oaks, California. Amazon Fresh stores are designed from the ground up to offer a seamless shopping experience, with extra features for members of the Amazon Prime paid loyalty program.
The approximately 33,000sq ft store is the 17th Amazon Fresh location in California. Its opening came a couple of weeks after the launch of new Amazon Fresh stores in Paramus, New Jersey, and Encino, California.
The Thousand Oaks site offers Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” frictionless, cashierless shopping technology. Customers who opt for Just Walk Out shopping can enter the store by scanning the in-store QR code in their Amazon app, using the Amazon One proprietary palm payment solution, or inserting a credit or debit card linked to their Amazon account to open the Just Walk Out gates.
Just Walk Out leverages a combination of computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning that enables shoppers to shop the store, pick out what they want and skip the checkout when they’re done. Anyone shopping at the new Amazon Fresh store can utilise the cashierless technology, which connects to their Amazon account or credit card.
Once inside the store, customers can shop like normal. Anything they take off the shelf is automatically added to their virtual cart, and anything they put back on the shelf comes out of their virtual cart. At the end of their trip, customers scan their QR code or insert their payment card again to exit. Traditional shopping and checkout are also available.
