“Shoplifting without jail” – That’s how Jeff Bezos describes Amazon Go experience.
I recently had the opportunity to experience the shoplifting at one of the stores in San Francisco, and I’d have to say I’m “Amaz(on)ed” by the simplicity of pick-and-walkout experience.
Few product lessons I took from the whole experience (and I’m sure Amazon is working to resolve these):
1. You need a different app (Amazon Go app) to enter the store. It might have been easier if this can be integrated as a feature in the main Amazon app. Go app does have some elaborate features such as you can check the store catalog, but still I feel it would make more sense to just have one app.
2. You can’t see items getting added to your cart in real-time. You’ll only know what you purchased and the total amount once you checkout.
3. After walking-out, it takes about 5-10 mins for you to get your receipt, though not a big issue, it might be convenient to know it as soon as you checkout to make sure you haven’t picked-up something you didn’t intend to.
Overall, I’d say this is the future of retail stores and if we can get rid of some of these niggles, it’ll attract more consumers to the stores.
Get freshly brewed hot takes on Product and Investing directly to your inbox!
