Amazon’s cashierless store super-tech relies on a thousand Indians to follow shoppers
3 April 2024 14:09
Amazon will gradually abandon its “Just Walk Out” technology, which allows customers to simply walk out of the store with their groceries without going to the cash register. As it turned out, in addition to cameras and sensors, the sales process is supported by more than a thousand remote workers who monitor goods and customers. Gizmodo writes about it, Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports.
Just over half of Amazon Fresh grocery stores are equipped with Just Walk Out technology. It allows customers to skip the checkout altogether by scanning their QR code when they enter the store. At the exit of the store, the system uses sensors and video cameras to read the items that customers have put in their carts and withdraws the appropriate amount of money from the customer’s card.
However, it turned out that more than a thousand remote workers from India are part of this system, watching video from cameras in stores and sending goods to customers’ electronic baskets in case the automation does not work.
Amazon expected that the help of these employees would be needed in 50 cases out of a thousand, or 5% of cases. In fact, they have to be involved in 700 cases out of a thousand, or 70% of cases. This creates inconveniences and queues, but not at the checkout, but at the exit of the store, while customers are waiting for their receipts. In other cases, customers can receive their receipts a few hours after the purchase, when Amazon has finally counted everything.
Just Walk Out was introduced in 2016 as Amazon’s boldest and most expensive innovation in grocery stores. Now, Amazon plans to move on to Dash Carts, a scanner and screen built into the shopping cart that allows you to pay while you shop.
