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Amazon will equip supermarkets with smart carts
Online retailer Amazon is testing another way to break into physical retail, this time using Dash Carts, which automatically recognize items placed in them and deduct money from a bank card at the exit, CNBC . reports The company will test this scheme in the new Amazon store, which will open in Los Angeles in 2020.
Dash Carts is an evolution of the Just Walk Out technology already used in Amazon Go stores (multiple camera tracking of purchases). But unlike these stores, the new ones will be extremely similar to ordinary supermarkets, and carts will be equipped with cameras.
To use Dash Cart, the customer must have an Amazon account with a linked card and a smartphone. At the entrance to the store in the Amazon application, he scans a QR code, with which his account is linked to the cart, and the shopping list from the virtual assistant Alexa is loaded into its memory.
Cart cameras scan products, built-in scales weigh products like vegetables and greens, and a built-in scanner scans discount coupons. The list of purchases put in the basket and prices are displayed on the display. Funds from the bank card are withdrawn at the exit from the store, the check is sent to the post office. You don't need to go to the checkout.
Despite the convenience of Dash Carts for the user, for the development company, the technology is not at all simple. Amazon's store catalog is huge, making it harder to add and track products, Dilip Kumar, Amazon's vice president of retail and technology, told CNBC. However, Kumar notes that the company tries to hide these complexities from customers so that they do not have to change their shopping behavior. “Once you're logged in, you can put your smartphone away altogether and shop as usual,” explains Kumar.
The project has a natural synergy with Whole Foods, bought by Amazon back in 2017. But the company traditionally does not disclose further plans.
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