Amazon have just opened a supermarket without checkouts in Seattle, Amazon’s Hometown. Amazon are pushing out into the physical world in interesting ways, they already own around 500 Whole Food stores across the US but the company have decided to expand on their efforts with Groceries.
There was a prediction on the rise of grocery, according to Edge by Ascential’s Trends for 2020 Omnichannel shopping will continue to rise and grocery will be one of the main contenders in this growth through its huge potential. Interestingly Amazon have taken physical and digital to a whole new level through its cashierless grocery store.
The supermarket is a lot bigger than the typical Amazon Go stores, and is around 10,400 square feet in size. Their typical convince stores catered greatly to business people getting a bite to eat for lunch but now Amazon want to offer a bigger and better option for those who want to shop on the weekends or after work.
“Customers on their way home, customers by their home, what they want is groceries,”
“They want what’s for dinner tonight.”
– Cameron Janes, Vice president of physical stores, Amazon
Amazon have lot’s of plans for their physical stores in the US including supermarkets that offer a wider range of products including health and beauty. This implementation of a physical Amazon will give consumers more pick up points making it even easier for customers to get items online delivered conveniently to a safe place. It also gives Amazon more data on consumer patterns, giving them the upper hand with online advertisement whilst running a physical store. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon start implementing their hand scanner payment options to collect this intel.
Retail convenience is just another area Amazon are focusing in on, it seems that if you’re an online store heading to the physical realm of retail you can offer some interesting solutions for convenience.
