After more than a year of testing with an employee-only focus group, Amazon Go opened to the public on Monday last week in downtown Seattle, putting to the test the online retailer’s technology that lets shoppers grab what they want and leave without paying a cashier.
Amazon Go’s product range caters to health-conscious, affluent millennials. You won’t find a squeaking hot dog rotisserie in Amazon.com Inc.’s cashierless convenience store. Instead, you’ll see Mediterranean lamb sandwiches, fresh salads and to-go containers of cubed pineapple and melon.
Amazon hopes the cashier-less technology will help it stand out from the nation’s 150,000 convenience stores where traffic jams can form at the checkout counter. It’s all part of the company’s larger brick-and-mortar ambitions, which include a push into groceries with the Whole Foods Market acquisition as well as the opening of about a dozen book stores in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Photo: AP
照片：美聯社
To enter the Amazon Go store, customers download a smartphone app and scan a QR code to open a glass turnstile. From there, machines take over, watching the items plucked from shelves and adding them to a shopping cart. Shoppers are billed once they leave and if there are any mistakes or the customer isn’t happy with an item, you push a “refund” button on the app to have that item removed from the bill. Shoppers don’t have to return an unwanted item to the store to get a refund.
The system is designed around the honor system with an understanding that those looking to trick the system and steal things are in the minority. “The system is very accurate,” says Dilip Kumar, Amazon Go’s technology vice president.
However, according to Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the US National Association of Convenience Stores, the experiment will only succeed if Amazon delivers quality food at good prices.
Photo: Bloomberg
照片： 彭博社
“The coolness of the technology will undoubtedly get people to check it out,” he said. “But the quality is what will get them to come back.”
(BLOOMBERG)
經過僅由旗下員工組成的焦點團體進行超過一年的測試後，開在西雅圖市中心的亞馬遜無人實體商店Amazon Go於上週一正式對外揭幕。消費者無須向收銀員付款，只要拿著自己想要的東西就能離開，考驗著這間網路零售商的技術。
Amazon Go販售的商品種類迎合那些注重健康又花錢不手軟的千禧世代品味。在這間亞馬遜的無收銀員便利商店裡面，你不會找到慢火串烤到油嫩欲滴的熱狗，取而代之的是地中海風味的羊肉三明治、新鮮的沙拉，以及方便帶在路上吃的盒裝切塊鳳梨與甜瓜。
亞馬遜希望這項無收銀員的技術能讓他們從美國多達十五萬間的便利商店中脫穎而出，讓顧客不再需要排隊等候結帳，或在收銀櫃檯前面大塞車，這也是亞馬遜規模更大的實體商店化計畫其中的一個環節。日前，亞馬遜收購了全美最大的天然有機食品連鎖零售商「全食超市」，推動公司佈局食品雜貨販售，另外也在包括洛杉磯、芝加哥，以及紐約等城市開設十數家的實體書店。
在走進Amazon Go前，消費者需要用智慧型手機下載一款應用程式，然後藉由掃描一組QR碼來開啟玻璃閘門。進到店裡以後，一切都由機器掌控：它們看著商品從貨架上被挑下來，然後被放進購物車裡。一旦離開店裡，顧客就會被扣款。如果過程有任何差錯，或是消費者不滿意，只要在應用程式中按下「退款」鍵，商品就會直接從帳單中剔除。消費者不用再把不想要的商品親自拿回店裡退款。
這個系統的設計理念接近於所謂的「信任制度」，或是所謂的「防君子不防小人」，預設企圖想要欺騙這個付款機制的人只佔少數。Amazon Go的技術副總裁狄立普‧庫瑪指出：「這個系統其實非常準確。」
不過，美國全國便利商店協會發言人傑夫‧雷納德表示，這個實驗性店鋪的成功取決於亞馬遜能否以合理的價格提供品質優良的食物。
「技術層面上的酷炫感無疑會吸引人前來看看，但是商品的品質才是決定顧客是否會再度上門光顧的關鍵。」
(彭博社／台北時報章厚明譯)
Follow Up
課後練習
1. With the opening of Amazon Go, can Amazon still be thought of as purely an online retailer?
2. Why do you think Amazon is now opening physical stores since, to date, its business model of disrupting the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry has been so successful?
3. Is using an employee-only focus group to determine the product range a good idea?
4. Do you think the honor system will work? Would a similar system work in Taiwan?
(Edward Jones, Taipei Times)
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