Amazon is reportedly planning to open as many as 3,000 cashierless stores across the United States in the next two years.
According to reports, Amazon is now considering the possibility of launching around 3,000 cashierless stores by 2021. While Amazon has not given any official statement or comment about the news, people familiar with the matter confirmed the plan.
At the moment, the world’s largest e-commerce site owned by Jeff Bezos has three physical stores – known as Amazon Go – in Seattle where the company is headquartered. Earlier this week, another store was launched in Chicago.
Amazon Go stores are automated. There are no cashiers or any form of payment counters and the staff are only ever seen when restocking the grocery supplies of the stores. Amazon Go was launched by Besoz to give “on the go” people a more convenient shopping experience.
The “no lines, no checkouts, no registers” promise of Amazon ensures that busy individuals can get anything they want from the store as quickly as possible.
All customers have to do is scan the Amazon Go mobile app to enter the store, pick out the food or grocery product that they need, and walk out without paying anything. This is because everything that has been taken by customers will be charged automatically to their Amazon accounts.
Further reports claim that Amazon is planning to open 10 Amazon Go stores before the year ends. Furthermore, another 50 shops are expected to be opened in major metro areas like San Francisco and New York by 2019.
The news about the ambitious plans of Amazon already affected the shares of the company’s major competitions. For instance, Walmart’s shares plummeted 0.6 percent on Wednesday while Target’s dropped about 1.5 percent.
However, one major hurdle that might stall the plan is the expensive cost of the expansion. While the real state may not pose any problem, the cost associated with the construction of the stores and the technology needed to operate them would. In fact, the first Amazon Go opened in downtown Seattle last January reportedly costs around $1 million USD in hardware.
Modern retail experience e-commerce was born. It looks like it works pretty well. On the contrary, how comfortable do people feel shopping with all those cameras on them?