Amazon is going to sell its cashless store technology to other retailers. To this end, the American e-commerce giant has already established a new division.
Widely applicable
Amazon has already sealed several deals for licenses for its Just Walk Out technology. The retailer did not want to mention names, Reuters reports. The new division, however, reflects Amazon’s strategy to develop facilities, such as warehouses and cloud technology, for its own use first and then convert them into lucrative contracts with third parties.
Dilip Kumar, vice president of physical retail, did not want to estimate the potential market value of the Go technology, but said it will be the customers who will determine how big the industry can become. “Do customers like standing in lines? This has pretty broad applicability across store sizes, across industries, because it fundamentally tackles a problem of how do you get convenience in physical locations, especially when people are hard-pressed for time”, as Reuters quotes him.
However, it remains to be seen whether many major retailers will accept Amazon’s offer. Not only are there other companies (such as Grabango and AiFi) that sell similar solutions, but many retailers have also not been inclined to do business with Amazon in the past, as they see the e-commerce giant as the biggest threat to their business model.
