Can Amazon Go Solve More Problems than It Creates?

It's that time of year when every store you enter has a seemingly never-ending queue of people trying to contain their frustration as they wait to complete the checkout process. Customers now expect expediency and ease when shopping. For those retailers who fail to modify the “it is what it is” mentality, the dangers are mounting.

Amazon Go

Amazon has enjoyed fantastic success over the last ten years. Contrary to popular belief, Jeff Bezos doesn't have a virtual crystal ball that enables him to see into the future. But, his teams simply focus on removing friction from the buying process. Having already mastered the art of 1-Click ordering, it seems that Amazon is intent on eliminating pain points from physical stores too.

A retail utopia that doesn't have lines or checkouts could once again transform the retail industry.

A new service called Amazon Go will soon allow users to grab grocery essentials and meal kits from a physical store. This will be an experience designed for the 21st century. The announcement leaves you with more questions than answers, but there is no denying that Amazon is once again at the forefront of what could be a game-changing moment for retail.

Amazon Go uses 'walk out technology' that enables shoppers to enter the store, take the products they want, and go. The payment is automatically taken from your Amazon account shortly after leaving the store with no interaction required.

Consumers will soon be able to get in and out in record time. But, it's Amazon that could be the big winner by dramatically increasing the speed and volume of transactions in physical stores.

Could this innovation disrupt the shopping experience wholesale?

Near-Instantaneous Purchases

Technology is enabling Amazon to shorten the time between when someone wants an item to when they purchase it. But, this also rather craftily removes the time to reconsider a purchase. The impulse buy has a new friend.

Starbucks already has a mobile order app that encourages users to order items, pay for them and quickly collect to shorten wait times. Maybe we are much closer to cashless shopping experiences than we realize? The removal of checkouts from a brick-and-mortar store will also make the role of a cashier redundant. In this new calculus, the real price to pay will be the widespread loss of traditional job roles.

Although the concept of Amazon Go sounds incredibly exciting, sometimes we just want a friendly face, an expert or someone that knows our name when entering a store. There are increasing concerns surrounding jobs being outsourced overseas and traditional roles rapidly being replaced by technology.

Automation and Offshoring

A recent survey by Morning Consult revealed that even those that embrace change and love the convenience of Amazon Go would equally feel very uneasy about the hefty price that others would have to pay.

Anyone that has been unfortunate enough to encounter a customer service related problem with Amazon will tell you how it's almost impossible to find a real human being that can offer help and some good old fashioned empathy.

Ironically, consumer retail companies are investing heavily in technology that allows them to provide a human element to transactions along with a more personalized shopping experience. Plus, technology isn’t always as seamless as human-to-human interaction.

Self-service checkouts are often the source of frustration for shoppers who have to wait for a staff member to clear the pesky unexpected item from their touch screens. It will be interesting to see if Amazon can deliver a much-needed seamless experience with the satisfaction of customer service and free of tech niggles.

In Sum

The first Amazon Go store is located in Seattle, and the Beta program is only open to Amazon Employees. However, the new concept is expecting to go public in early 2017, and the retail behemoth doesn’t have a reputation for waiting around.

As we enter the final days of 2016, both journalists and analysts will be attempting to predict what future trends will dominate next year's headlines. This latest revelation about Amazon's intentions for our immediate future offer a very clear indication of what is to come.

Pretty soon, our physical shopping will be as fast and efficient as online shopping, possibly with just as little human interaction.

What are your thoughts on Amazon’s latest proof of concept endeavor? Will it be both efficient and profitable?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.