個案總覽

Physical retailers of the future will deploy technology to achieve mass customization one customer at a time.

Amazon Go—grocery shopping without lineups and checkouts—is the latest in Amazon’s pursuit of new shopping experiences. Scheduled to open in 2017, Amazon Go will provide Seattle customers with the opportunity to shop for groceries without standing in line and then waiting while a clerk checks out groceries item by item. Instead, with a smartphone app and advanced technology, shoppers can take their items from the shelf and “Just Walk Out.” Amazon Go is a major step for the e-commerce giant, in both pursuing brick-and-mortar retail and creating an innovative shopping experience. The absence of checkout lanes and cashiers at these stores has captured media attention, but what’s more important for e-commerce merchants is understanding Amazon’s motives for opening a retail space, which are 1) to drive growth in new markets, 2) to tap into the common desire for in-store shopping (where 90 per cent of all retail sales still occur), and 3) to achieve more powerful technical innovation, such as through the use of beacons—in-store apps that connect with the customer’s smartphone to make fine-tuned suggestions—and hyperspecialization—understanding exactly what the customer is looking for, based on past purchases.