Amazon steps up checkout-free shopping in Australia, despite US retreat

The retail giant has pulled its checkout-free tech from Fresh stores in the US, but it is just getting started in Australia thanks in stadiums and education institutions.

Carlton player Charlie Curnow uses Amazon's Just Walk Out Technology at Marvel Stadium.

Amazon it’s just getting started with offering customers checkout free shopping in Australia, despite ditching its “Just Walk Out” technology from its Fresh stores in the US.

The tech behemoth has partnered with financial infrastructure platform Stripe to introduce Just Walk Out in Australia, launching it at Marvel Stadium and Canberra Institute of Technology last year.

The technology dispenses the need for checkouts. Instead, a customer taps their smartphone, using a digital wallet payment method, or a bank card upon entry to the store, takes what they want and walks out, having been charged automatically.

It is a complex system involving artificial intelligence, shelf sensors and myriad cameras to track people and store items.

Stripe managing director for Australia and New Zealand Karl Durrance said he attempted to “break” or trick the system while trialling it near Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle.

“I tried. I really tried. It was a lot of fun,” he said.

“It’s one thing if you’re taking the risk yourself on things you are building. It’s an entirely different proposition when you’re taking that to market. So all those trial runs have actually helped the tech out.

“It doesn’t feel like there’s cameras everywhere, it feels very natural.”

Mr Durrance said it was designed to increase transaction volumes for retailers by increasing customer throughput and avoiding congestion during peak periods – like lining up for a pie and chips during halftime at a football game. At one stadium in Seattle, he said it had increased throughput by 70 per cent.

But if the technology attracts more customers through the doors, why did Amazon withdraw it from its Fresh stores?

It comes down to format. Customers wanted to be able to see a tally of exactly what they were buying at grocery stores, given most buy groceries by the trolley load. Instead, Amazon will use Dash Carts, that allow customers to scan items while shopping at Fresh stores without interacting with a cashier.

Just Walk Out will continue to be used at stadiums and smaller Amazon Go convenience stores. This is a market that is expected to grow in Australia, according to Durrance.

“We’re going to see more of that, in these kind of stadium scenarios. We know based on what they’ve seen in some of that more grocery, small convenience, it certainly works there as well. We haven’t got any specific use case for this part of the world yet, because Marvel stadium is the first in the southern hemisphere to deploy the technology for Amazon.

“But I guess trying to predict the future, it’s certainly a very low friction experience for consumers. That right now proves to increase business growth for merchants. And so when you put those two things together, you could suggest that we’re going to see more of it.”

Another challenge is the technology is designed to work as a standalone checkout system – not alongside traditional or self-serve checkouts.

“It does tend to be an all or nothing proposition. So if you are going to fit it out, it’s going to be a Just Walk Out experience,” Durrance said.

“It tends to be a greenfield, but they are also retrofitting existing stores as well, but there’s a whole bunch of physical kit.”