Shopping without cash registers
Amazon AI needs support from thousands of Indians
April 3, 2024, 11:49 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Amazon is pulling the ripcord on its supposedly revolutionary supermarket technology. In addition to AI, more than 1,000 manual checkers in India are said to have enabled checkout-free shopping. The group is now relying on networked shopping carts as an alternative.
The promise sounded tempting: shopping without the hassle of queuing and unpacking and putting things away at the checkout. According to the retail giant Amazon, this should have enabled sophisticated technology in its US supermarkets. At the time of the introduction, the group spoke of the “world’s most advanced purchasing technology”. Cameras and other sensors such as scales on the shelves register who has taken which goods. The price is subsequently debited via the app – at least in theory.
But shopping in an Amazon supermarket is not entirely automated. According to The Information, in addition to artificial intelligence, more than 1,000 people in India were hired to view the recordings and process the purchases manually. As a result, there were already cashiers – just not on site in the respective supermarkets. According to information from the portal, around 700 out of 1,000 purchases had to be monitored in this way in 2022 because the system was overwhelmed by the rush. This is far below the group’s self-proclaimed goal of only wanting to check 50 out of 100 enemas. Amazon rejected these figures to the blog “Gizmodo”. However, “a small minority” of employees would only validate purchases if the AI could not determine them.
According to media reports, over the years of developing the technology, it was a challenge for Amazon to work with larger numbers of customers. The first shops were also rather small and had a manageable range of goods.
In the future, a networked shopping cart with cameras will be used in the in-house “Amazon Fresh” supermarkets in the USA, said the responsible manager Tony Hoggett “The Information”. It has been found that this is better received when shopping in larger retail spaces, he explained. Among other things, customers wanted to have a better overview of how expensive the purchase would be for them.
Amazon’s carts show the price of the goods and the total value of the purchase on a display. To do this, you have to hold the items in front of the shopping cart camera. At the end of the purchase, the customer can leave the store past the checkouts and the amount will be deducted from their Amazon account. For people who don’t want to use this, there are also traditional cash registers.
Amazon has been trying to find the right strategy for brick-and-mortar retail for years. The group wants to stand out with more convenience when shopping. A central idea is to make cash registers unnecessary.