This week Amazon opened its first checkout-less supermarket in Seattle. Terry Hunter, UK MD of Astound Commerce examines whether other supermarkets will follow Amazon’s example.
Amazon – which has already revolutionised digital commerce – has now taken a similar approach with its bricks-and-mortar venture. The checkout-less Amazon Go supermarket has reinvented the traditional retail store, integrating digital technology in order to achieve a similar level of convenience as shoppers have grown accustomed to online.
Many pure play online retailers are now making efforts to create instore experiences to further grow their brands. By creating this ‘in-store’ experience, Amazon has added tangibility to its grocery offering which did not exist before.
Will other supermarkets follow Amazon’s example? In the short term, this is unlikely. Amazon’s market-leading position and online businesses will provide a financial cushion to support its push into physical retail. The new approach will also take some getting used to by shoppers: the camera identification and tracking technology in use in the store has experienced teething problems, and many consumers will likely see the move as a surveillance step too far.
However, Amazon’s innovative move solves many of the issues which currently deter shoppers from going in-store, and drive them online instead. Not having to queue and being able to make purchases quickly will draw consumers to the Seattle store, with the frictionless experience – which Amazon is already known for – driving consumer loyalty. Most importantly, though, is the link the company has established between online and physical retail, with items automatically charged to shoppers’ Amazon accounts.
Most other retailers will not be in a position to follow Amazon’s move at present. However, it is vital that brands innovate across all of their channels, and as Amazon has done, use bricks-and-mortar as an integrated, digitalised part of a wider omnichannel strategy.”
By Terry Hunter
UK Managing Director
Astound Commerce