In 2018, Amazon introduced a technology in a retail store that may eliminate the need for cashiers. This technology uses computer vision, deep learning and sensor fusion to determine who bought which products. For this to work, there are three problems that must be solved. Firstly, customers have to be identified and tracked throughout the store, such that the system is able to solve the “who” part of the who bought which products question. Secondly, the technology has to track when a product is taken. This can be done by cameras or sensors that monitor the weight of the shelf. Lastly, the data of where the customer is and when a product is taken must be combined in order to determine who buys which products.
As said before, this eliminates the need for cashiers and greatly increases the speed at which customers can do their groceries. This eliminates one of the largest pains from customers; waiting in line. There is another way this technology adds value for businesses. Since customers need an account to enter the store, the retailers can obtain detailed customer data. This enables businesses to offer more effective promotions and enhance their product offerings.
However, we need to take into account the social effect of this, and similar, technologies. In the US alone there are 3.29 million food retail cashiers (!). When this technology will be adopted by more and more stores, the need for cashiers disappears. While some of the workforce will be able to transition to other jobs, most have low or no education, reducing the chances that they are able to find suitable jobs in the future. This poses a large ethical decision for a food retail company (or any retail company where this technology can be implemented for that matter); do we implement the technology and increase business value and reduce costs, but lay of a large part of our workforce, or do we continue our current strategy?
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/17/17869294/amazon-go-store-chicago-cashier-less
I think we can already clearly see how supermarkets drastically reduce the amount of cashiers, implementing many self-checkout points in stores such as Spar or Albert Heijn. However, I think that we will always need in-store employees to some extent (probably not solely functioning as cashiers) for 1) the shopping experience of the customer and 2) to oversee the supermarket’s checkout technology. Also according to Accenture (2017), it then becomes more important for cashiers to support customers with the usage of technologies, requiring a new skill set form today’s customers.
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-63/accenture-new-skills-now-inclusion-in-the-digital.pdf
Hi, thank you for sharing this post! I like how you mentioned two different views on technology replacing cashiers in retail stores. I absolutely agree with both sides. It will cause serious social issues such as unemployment while improving customer experience through reduced waiting times. However, there might also be privacy issues since customers’ purchases and behaviour will be tracked once they enter the stores. Some customers might feel that they are monitored by cameras and this could rather negatively influence customer experience. How should the retail industry protect customers privacy while improving customer experience?
Nice read and definitely a relevant topic. Focused on this for the first assignment, and its actually an interesting topic to dive further into. I’m curious to see whether this (the technology used) will work if the AmazonGo stores are extremely full (as Spar can be on campus sometimes). And have you thought about how it would work for an employee who works in the store? Because although it will eliminate cashiers, it will definitely require one or two assistants in the store for technical errors, or customers who are not 100% comfortable with the idea yet. You have to check in and out with your Amazon account, but does it work if you walk in, don’t buy anything, try to play with the system (by tacking products off the shelves and putting them back) and then trying to walk out? Is it smart enough to recognize you didn’t buy anything? Worth considering