Amazon Go has been hailed as the "future" of retail, but questions have been raised about its viability - technologically, financially and ethically. This article will consider whether Amazon Go is going to be the future of shopping and what issues might prevent it meeting its ambitious expectations as a disruptor of the traditional supermarket. Amazon Go is the brainchild of Amazon, and their first foray into the market for check-out free shopping. It is a completely cashless system, meaning that customers enter and do their shopping, then leave, all without "checking out" their purchases using the traditional "human shop assistant" method. Instead, a combination of automation, robotics and technology allows for a completely cashless experience that needs little human intervention or supervision. Cameras scan and recognize products on sale and customers buy them using a cashless method of payment (your credit card is scanned and charged as you exit the building). An app in your phone, which you must install before you are allowed to enter the Amazon Go premises provides a receipt for the purchase. After you enter the building, you must scan a personalized barcode at a turnstile and then go about doing your shop. Amazon Go cameras then rely on sophisticated image recognition software to ensure that the correct product is always identified, with several 3 dimensional cameras constantly scanning what is placed in baskets so that it can be correctly identified. The system is supposed to be one where customers never have queue again, and don't even have to open their wallet. The idea behind this is that automation reduces the money that the retailer must spend on human shop assistants, and this in turn reduces the overall operational costs of the store. Further, the high level of automation reduces waste, error and theft from the store. The risk of armed robberies is reduced to virtually zero as there is no cash in the store at any given time, as such there are no costs associated with recording, securing or moving cash. This appeal towards store safety have suggested that there are plans for another 3000 similar shops before 2021 (by 2024 there are only a total of 42 stores in the USA and the UK). Hot on their heels are competitors like Walmart who are working with Microsoft to devise their own system of checkout free shopping. Amid this positive outlook, many have expressed doubt as to the ability of Amazon Go stores to really disrupt the traditional supermarket. With approximately 1000 products in each Amazon Go store as it stands, it is hard to see how the technology can be scaled up to cope with the 1000s of products that large supermarkets have in their stores. Supermarkets typically have 80,000300,000 SKUs (stock-keeping unit is an identification code depicted as a machine-readable bar code for a store to keep up with stock demand, tackle loss prevention, and ultimately support its sales) in any given location, so the capacity of Amazon Go's technology to manage such a large inventory is in doubt. The technology Amazon Go stores use to monitor purchasing relies on bulky cameras, currently located in the ceilings of Amazon Go stores. These provide a 3-dimensional perspective and a picture of each item is taken before the Al system identifies it and applies the correct charge. However, this system may find it difficult to tell nearly identical products apart, which could indicate problems scaling up the system, especially to one that oversees larger inventories. Furthermore, the sheer volume that the Al system required to manage an inventory of 1000 items takes up has caused some concern. Located in the roof of the Amazon Go stores, hundreds of cameras are operating as people enter and leave the store. Maintenance costs for these cameras are likely to be high, and there is always the risk of fire and overheating as the technology is used over longer periods of time. Others have raised concerns about the level of adaption a building might need to have to accommodate a bulky system of hundreds of cameras installed. Cynics and critics suggest that whereas the Amazon Go model can be praised for economizing retail space since it does not need human-manned checkout stations, that additional space is surely used up again to accommodate the IT systems. Furthermore, as it stands, human supervisors are required to manage error in the existing camera systems, so all of these costs and risks have to be factored into the debate as to whether Amazon Go stores are going to be the future of shopping. Explain Amazon Go using the system view and identify the different categories of information systems, as well as IT infrastructures that are required at every component of its system.
Amazon Go has been hailed as the "future" of retail, but questions have been raised about its viability - technologically, financially and ethically. This article will consider whether Amazon Go is going to be the future of shopping and what issues might prevent it meeting its ambitious expectations as a disruptor of the traditional supermarket.
Amazon Go is the brainchild of Amazon, and their first foray into the market for check-out free shopping. It is a completely cashless system, meaning that customers enter and do their shopping, then leave, all without "checking out" their purchases using the traditional "human shop assistant" method. Instead, a combination of automation, robotics and technology allows for a completely cashless experience that needs little human intervention or supervision.
Cameras scan and recognize products on sale and customers buy them using a cashless method of payment (your credit card is scanned and charged as you exit the building). An app in your phone, which you must install before you are allowed to enter the Amazon Go premises provides a receipt for the purchase. After you enter the building, you must scan a personalized barcode at a turnstile and then go about doing your shop.
Amazon Go cameras then rely on sophisticated image recognition software to ensure that the correct product is always identified, with several 3 dimensional cameras constantly scanning what is placed in baskets so that it can be correctly identified. The system is supposed to be one where customers never have queue again, and don't even have to open their wallet.
The idea behind this is that automation reduces the money that the retailer must spend on human shop assistants, and this in turn reduces the overall operational costs of the store. Further, the high level of automation reduces waste, error and theft from the store. The risk of armed robberies is reduced to virtually zero as there is no cash in the store at any given time, as such there are no costs associated with recording, securing or moving cash. This appeal towards store safety have suggested that there are plans for another 3000 similar shops before 2021 (by 2024 there are only a total of 42 stores in the USA and the UK). Hot on their heels are competitors like Walmart who are working with Microsoft to devise their own system of checkout free shopping.
Amid this positive outlook, many have expressed doubt as to the ability of Amazon Go stores to really disrupt the traditional supermarket. With approximately 1000 products in each Amazon Go store as it stands, it is hard to see how the technology can be scaled up to cope with the 1000s of products that large supermarkets have in their stores. Supermarkets typically have 80,000300,000 SKUs (stock-keeping unit is an identification code depicted as a machine-readable bar code for a store to keep up with stock demand, tackle loss prevention, and ultimately support its sales) in any given location, so the capacity of Amazon Go's technology to manage such a large inventory is in doubt.
The technology Amazon Go stores use to monitor purchasing relies on bulky cameras, currently located in the ceilings of Amazon Go stores. These provide a 3-dimensional perspective and a picture of each item is taken before the Al system identifies it and applies the correct charge. However, this system may find it difficult to tell nearly identical products apart, which could indicate problems scaling up the system, especially to one that oversees larger inventories.
Furthermore, the sheer volume that the Al system required to manage an inventory of 1000 items takes up has caused some concern. Located in the roof of the Amazon Go stores, hundreds of cameras are operating as people enter and leave the store. Maintenance costs for these cameras are likely to be high, and there is always the risk of fire and overheating as the technology is used over longer periods of time.
Others have raised concerns about the level of adaption a building might need to have to accommodate a bulky system of hundreds of cameras installed. Cynics and critics suggest that whereas the Amazon Go model can be praised for economizing retail space since it does not need human-manned checkout stations, that additional space is surely used up again to accommodate the IT systems. Furthermore, as it stands, human supervisors are required to manage error in the existing camera systems, so all of these costs and risks have to be factored into the debate as to whether Amazon Go stores are going to be the future of shopping.
Explain Amazon Go using the system view and identify the different categories of information systems, as well as IT infrastructures that are required at every component of its system.
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