What Is the Amazon Go App?

To align with their expanding artificial intelligence footprint and foray into various leading businesses (cloud computing, advertising, and voice technology, for example), Amazon has created two brick-and-mortar grocery stores in their home base of Seattle that are the first of its kind — no lines, no checkout stands, and fully tailored to grab-and-go convenience.

Amazon describes Amazon Go as “a new kind of store with no checkout required. We created the world’s most advanced shopping technology so you never have to wait in line.” Through what the e-commerce leader has coined as “Just Walk Out Technology,” customers solely need to download the Amazon Go app before arriving and scan a QR code on the app for entry before they are free to explore the store. Interestingly enough, having an Amazon Prime account is not a requirement for store entry.

The company compares the technology used in the Amazon Go stores to the same kind used in self-driving cars — computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion. There are cameras mounted throughout the store that track customers’ movements from all angles. The combination of these elements allows for instant detection of when products are taken off or returned to the shelves. The AI technology monitors the items as if they were sitting in a virtual cart. When you have completed your shopping, you can just leave the store. After the fact, Amazon emails you the receipt from that transaction and charges your Amazon account.

In the future, Amazon plans to expand the cashier-less stores to Chicago and San Francisco. The two current Seattle stores feature a variety of ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options, as well as Amazon’s meal kits that can be prepared at home and take about 30 minutes to prepare. The app also lists prices for all of the items sold in the store, so you can decide ahead of time whether the price point of a specific item makes sense for you before making the trip to the store. To find out what one of the specific stores sells, customers can go to the Discover tab in the Amazon Go app.