It seems that Amazon Go is onto something big with their frictionless shopping experience. A new survey from MuleSoft found that more than half (60%) of customers around the world are keen to give ‘just walk out’ shopping a try, according to Internet Retailing.
Why frictionless shopping is going big
The service that allows customers to simply pick up items and leave, using cameras, sensors and computer vision algorithms to charge the customer’s bank account.
The first Amazon convenience store using the technology launched in Seattle in January, and the firm is going for rapid expansion with the recent announcement of new stores in San Francisco and Chicago, according to an article on The Verge.
And that’s not all – other tech giants are joining Amazon in the space. Microsoft is said to be exploring ways to deliver a frictionless shopping experience by mounting cameras on shopping carts to track items. Microsoft’s cloud partners are also using the platform to build automated checkouts
Frictionless is about more than just checkouts
Cashierless stores are another iteration of a common theme in retail: customer service expectations are rising. Shoppers want the best possible experience for the least possible effort, and who can blame them?
The survey spoke to over 8,000 shoppers in the UK, US, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore and Australia. A majority (51%) were interested in frictionless communication using messaging services such as WhatsApp, iMessage ad Facebook Messenger.
Gen X and Z were most interested in frictionless checkout and communication, with 77% of these age groups describing themselves as ‘especially interested’ in Amazon Go style stores and 61% saying they want to use messaging apps.
Raising the bar for seamless shopping
David Chao, head of industry solutions at MuleSoft said: “As consumer demands on the retail industry at large increase, some retailers are beginning to deploy IoT, VR and AI to enhance shopping experiences. The launch of Amazon Go this year, for example, raised the bar for seamless retail experiences.”
Chao continued: “To meet rising consumer demands for new, frictionless experiences, retailers will need to ensure these new technologies are deployed and integrated effectively with existing systems across their ecosystem.”
Are you ready for your next challenge?
River Island never stops looking for the next ground-breaking technology to enhance our offering to customers. If you have any bright ideas about how to deliver the frictionless experience shoppers want, why not look at our current D&T vacancies?