Amazon Go Stores now in the UK
Amazon’s first Go Store has opened today in Ealing in West London, offering the company’s checkout-less experience to shoppers in the UK for the first time.
The shop, smaller than a standard supermarket, will be selling pre-prepared meals, some groceries and Amazon products. It will also provide a point to collect and return Amazon purchases.
The stores is in a former Monsoon opposite Morrison’s supermarket in Ealing Broadway, which already partners with Amazon for online grocery delivery in the UK.
The move to open in the UK comes after the retailer has gained significant experience of running checkout-less stores in 18 sites across the US. Driven by the pandemic and the changing shopping habits of consumers, the company has brought forward to launch of its store in the UK to tap into the need for contactless shopping.
Shopping at the store could well be the safest way to shop for food outside of having groceries delivered and could inspire other physical retailers to look again at how they run their stores.
In fact, back in May 2020, Amazon announced that it had set up a business division to sell the technology behind Amazon Go to other retailers. According to Reuters, the uber-retailer said it has "several" signed deals with customers it would not name. A new website is set to go live later this week that will invite retailers to inquire about the service, dubbed Just Walk Out technology by Amazon.
Other retailers are already on it. The Mail on Sunday, which broke the news of the UK Go store, reports Amazon has plans for 30 more stores across the country. However, Amazon is not the only retailer to see the benefits of contactless shopping. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Co-Op have been trialling ways to eliminate the shopping queue.
For example, the Co-op’s Pay in Aisle App was launched in 2018 and Sainsbury’s trialled a cashierless store in London’s Holborn Circus in 2019. For more information on cashierless trials in the UK and other retail initiatives such as paperless receipts.
Commenting, ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks MILT, adds: “Amazon has a long-standing relationship with UK supermarket chain Morrisons, which supplies the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service. It is highly likely that Morrisons will be key to the stocking and logistics behind the new Go store. Amazon also owns the grocery chain Whole Foods. Its Richmond branch is just five miles from Ealing, so there are likely to be ongoing potential synergies.”
via https://AiUpNow.com March 4, 2021 at 03:54AM by Paul Skeldon, Khareem Sudlow,
