Amazon wants to bring its cashierless Go technology to other places, like airport stores and movie theaters, in a bid to expand its reach and potentially win more cloud customers, according to CNBC. There are already 16 Go stores in the country, where customers can scan an app for entry and walk out with the items they want, which they’re charged for via the company’s smart technology.
The eCommerce giant has been talking to OTG’s CIBO Express stores at airports and Cineworld’s Regal Theatres. It’s also looking into the potential to add the technology to concession stands at baseball games. Amazon wants the technology to be installed at the start of next year, and have hundreds of stores using it by the end of the year. The upgrade process timeline goal is about two weeks.
The business model is still evolving. Amazon has considered taking a percentage of sales from goods, charging retailers up front or even collecting a monthly fee.
Amazon opened its first Go store in January 2018 in Seattle on its main campus, and there are two more on the way. Last year, it was reported that Amazon wanted to open 3,000 stores by 2021. Not all of the locations are profitable, though, and the concept is constantly changing as Amazon tries to decide the best way to utilize the technology.
The move could also help Amazon attract more customers to its cloud computing service, Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company especially wants to compete with Microsoft’s iteration of cloud services, Azure, which has booked clients like Walmart and Walgreens. Microsoft also said it was going to work with supermarket chain Albertsons to get rid of checkout lines.
Target said it wanted to stop using Amazon’s cloud services in 2017, and moved on to using Google. Levi’s and Chai Point are among the companies that still use AWS.
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