USA. Amazon is considering opening its futuristic checkout-free stores in airports, it has been reported.
The retail giant, which already operates its grocery subsidiary Amazon Go at seven sites in America, is said to have held talks with representatives from Los Angeles International, the second-busiest airport in the US, and San Jose International, also in California, according to Reuters.
Amazon Go stores lack cash registers and customers do not interact with staff. Instead, shoppers swipe their smartphones to enter past the turnstiles. The company then uses a combination of sophisticated sensors, “deep-learning algorithms”, computer vision and artificial intelligence to determine what goods have been selected. The customer’s Amazon account is billed automatically when they leave.
The airport rumours emphasise how a business that began as a modest online bookstore in 1995 and grew to become a titan of global retail is increasingly moving into bricks-and-mortar sites.
Yesterday Amazon was said to be eyeing up a 3,000sq ft to 5,000sq ft site in central London for Amazon Go, according to the Telegraph. It was reported in 2016 that Amazon intended to open up to 2,000 Amazon Go sites within a decade.
Analysts from UBS said on Monday that the high cost of technology in Go stores, coupled with fees to airport operators would make opening the stores expensive for Amazon.
Earlier this month, Amazon briefly became the world’s most valuable company, ahead of Apple and Microsoft, with a market capitalisation of US$802 billion. Jeff Bezos, its founder, is the world’s richest man, with a fortune of US$134.7 billion.
Amazon refused to comment.
