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Source: Nopparat Khokthong, Shutterstock
Summary
- e-commerce giant Amazon opened its Amazon Fresh grocery store in Ealing, West London, without tills to support a contactless shopping experience for customers.
- It is the first-of-its-kind physical and grocery store outside the US and will operate under the Amazon Fresh brand in the UK.
- The online retailer has planned openings for several more such stores in London.
e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) opened its first grocery store in the UK on 4 March without tills. The just walk-out store, situated in Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre, West London, will be a contactless shopping experience for customers, thus making the online retailer a competitor of the existing traditional supermarkets and convenience stores.
It will be similar to 20 Amazon Go stores located in the US. However, this store will be the first Amazon physical and grocery store outside of the US and will operate under the Amazon Fresh brand.
Shopping experience
Customers will need to be signed into the Amazon app and scan a code on their phone before entering the shop. Once customers bag the items to shop, they can just walk out without having to checkout or make any physical payments. Shelves stocked with goods have sensors to detect when they are removed.
Moreover, cameras inside the store, deep learning algorithms and other artificial intelligence backed technology help track customer movements and the items chosen. The bill is automatically charged to the Amazon account linked to the customer once they leave the shop.
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While the customers will not require any interaction with store workers, the Amazon store will still employ about 30 people and five workers for handling queries, food preparations, and the restocking of shelves.
Matt Birch, head of Amazon Fresh Stores UK, said the company aims to make grocery shopping as convenient as possible and to make it an easy shopping experience for customers. The e-commerce giant also announced it had launched a range of its own brand products, By Amazon, for the stores. The store will also stock about 10,000 grocery products from brands such as Heinz, Kelloggs, Morrisons, Booths, Mindful Chef, and others.
Expansion plans
While the e-commerce major primarily operates online, it owns the Whole Foods Market business, which has seven UK stores. The company said the Ealing store is the first in a series of planned store openings in London.
The company is expected to open additional Amazon Fresh stores in 10 sites, with new outlets expected to open in the Greater London area. Clive Black, PE firm Shore Capital analyst, said the online retailer would want to open upto 30 juts walk out stores as part of the first phase of Amazon’s UK expansion plans. Recently, company CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he would step down as CEO.
Want to know more? Do watch: Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon’s CEO. | UK Market Update |
The company has also previously opened popup shops for fashion and non-food items and has been operating online grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh for several years. Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares closed at USD 2,977.57, down by 0.91 per cent as of 4 March.
