How Amazon solved people's biggest fear about shopping in its cashierless stores (AMZN)

pulse

January 22, 2018 4:21 PM

Consumers may worry about getting charged incorrectly when shopping at a store without cashiers. Amazon Go, though, has a way to ensure this doesn't happen.

Amazon Go, the retailers camera and sensor-filled cashierless store, opened on January 22.
The company says the store is "highly accurate" at being able to tell what you took off the shelf and charging you for it.
If the store does make a mistake, fixing it is easy.

Amazon has opened its new cashierless store, with no lines and no waiting.

Amazon Go's convenience is easy to understand, but concerns still arise. How will the store charge me correctly? And if it gets it wrong, is it easy to fix?

As the store was in beta for the last year, open only to Amazon employees, the company has had plenty of time to fine-tune its array of sensors, cameras, and other technology to ensure that customers will be charged correctly for what they took off the shelf in the store.

Gianna Puerini, head of Amazon's Go program, told the Seattle Times that the system is "highly accurate." If there's a question, a greeter standing near the entrance might ask you to show a receipt, though that only happens a "small fraction of the time.

For those times the system does not get right, you might walk out and notice that the system charged you for something you didn't take. Luckily, getting rid of the charge is as simple as swiping it away on the receipt in the app, according to Puerini.

Amazon Go's accuracy was reportedly a factor in delaying its opening from a year ago. The store was a lengthy beta test open only to Amazon employees since it opened in late 2016. Amazon said it had such an enthusiastic response from employees, it didn't need to open the beta to the public.

Since then, it used all kinds of methods to try and trick the system, including dressing three employees in identical bright yellow Pikachu costumes. The store successfully tracked all three of the dressed up characters, charging them accurately for what they took off the shelf.

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