Tag: Amazon Go

  • Amazon-go to open more stores in the airports

    Amazon-go to open more stores in the airports

    Online giant Amazon is looking to expand the reach of its automated bricks-and-mortar Amazon Go offer by opening stores in airports, according to a report by Reuters. The retailer’s Go stores utilise myriad cameras which are able to identify customers as they enter, see what they pick up and leave with, and subsequently charge the customer’s Amazon account without the need for any staff interaction – a natural fit for customers needing to get from gate to gate in a short amount of time.

    According to emails obtained by Reuters, Amazon requested a meeting with staff from several airports, including Los Angeles International and San Jose International, referencing Amazon Go as “one of many possibilities we can discuss”.

    Beyond the meetings, which took place in June, officials from both airports confirmed they have had no further correspondence with the business, and that it would need to undergo a competitive bid process in order to acquire the locations necessary.

    The move would put Amazon in front of the more than 350 million people who boarded flights from the country’s top 12 airports last year, according to data from the US Department of Transportation.

    Amazon has been slowly expanding its physical retail offering through numerous Whole Foods, seven Amazon Go stores, and three reviews-driven Amazon 4-star stores, spread across the US, though efforts to bring these offers internationally are reportedly heating up.

    Telegraph UK has learned that Amazon is planning to open an Amazon Go store near Oxford Circus in London, with the location serving as a flagship store for the UK.

  • Amazon joins Apple in trillionaire’s club

    Amazon joins Apple in trillionaire’s club

    Amazon briefly became the second US company to join the trillionaires club overnight.

    Like Apple just one month ago, Amazon’s market capitalisation has exceeded US$1 trillion.

    Neil Saunders, MD of GlobalData Retail, described the achieved as “extraordinary” after just 24 years in business.

    “That Amazon has achieved this demonstrates its dramatic advancement in both the retail and technology sectors, as well as the influence it now wields over large parts of the consumer landscape. Amazon is a very customer-centric retailer that has earned and deserves its success.”

    The e-commerce behemoth posted losses for many years when it launched in the relative infancy of the online shopping industry. But in recent times its growth has been stellar, based on creating a subscription platform (Amazon Prime), developing smart devices like the Alexa and acquiring and opening retail businesses to expand its reach offline, including upmarket grocer Whole Foods and its cashierless Amazon Go format currently in trial phase.

    Saunders said the valuation reflects the forward potential of the company. “Despite its size and scale, there is still something young about Amazon. It might be mature in a sector like books and media, but in categories like grocery and home furnishings, Amazon is really only just getting started. The same applies to geographic expansion – there are many global pockets of demand that Amazon has yet to fully tap into.”

    Saunders has no doubt Amazon will make the most of all of those opportunities.

    “We also believe it will move more heavily into new areas like pharmacy and healthcare. Its future success will be predicated on the same basis as its past victories: finding innovative ways of delivering on customer’s needs and identifying unique ways of solving their problems.”

    Apple was not the world’s first trillionaires club member: Chinese government-controlled company PetroChina briefly reached a stock market value of about $1.1 trillion in 2007, however it is now worth only about $200 million.

  • Hyundai teamed up with Amazon to plan new retail model

    Hyundai teamed up with Amazon to plan new retail model

    Hyundai and Amazon plan to develop a “next-generation” retail model amid South Korean retailers’ push to adopt the latest technology to their online and offline platforms.

    Under the strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Service (AWS) Korea signed on Friday, Hyundai Department Store Group said it will also establish a system to analyse customer activity and expand the partnership between its information technology arm and AWS, the US retail giant’s cloud-computing platform.

    Their joint research will focus on developing the Korean version of Amazon Go – the US e-commerce firm’s checkout-free offline mall – as well as using drones to deliver food and beverages, and applying artificial intelligence technology for automated concierge service, according to Hyundai.

    The Korean retailer’s aim is to implement Amazon’s cutting-edge technologies to its department store set to open in Yeouido, Seoul’s financial district, in 2020.

    “We will partner with Amazon to find a medium- and long-term roadmap to provide a new shopping experience to our customers,” a company official said.

    The deal was made as South Korean retailers are moving to secure competitiveness through the use of new technologies.

    Last Friday, E-Mart Everyday, another major South Korean retailer and Shinsegae’s supermarket-chain operator, opened a “cashier-less” store in Seoul where customers can pay via the firm’s mobile payment service app without going through a checkout counter.

    The 212sqm Gangnam store is expected to increase the company’s competitiveness in the market, allowing customers to use Shinsegae’s SSG Pay mobile payment system to make their purchases. It is the latest in a series of technological advances made by the company, including electronic price labeling and the use of robotic concierges and autonomous shopping carts.

    The new store will include a self-checkout counter as an alternative to using the app, and a cashier for age-verification sales of alcohol and tobacco products.