One of London’s most iconic music and events venues has welcomed the future of retail with the opening of a new store equipped with Amazon Just Walk Out technology.
Located inside the O2 Arena, shoppers can simply tap their payment card on entry, collect their purchases and walk out – no waiting in queues required.
The store, which was shown off to TechRadar Pro at a recent media event, will offer a wide selection of snacks, drinks and even alcoholic beverages that can be quickly picked up and added to a virtual basket, with users being charged when they leave the store so they don’t miss out on the show.
Just walk out
First rolled out in Amazon Fresh stores and now expanding to third parties globally, the Just Walk Out technology initially required shoppers to have a linked Amazon account to access it, but now allows them to scan any payment card on entry.
Amazon says it partnered with Adyen and Levi to ensure the payment technology is reliable and secure. Inventory is monitored by a comprehensive network of sensors and cameras that can detect exactly which items have been removed from shelves. AI-generated images and video clips of the store are also generated and analyzed to track shoppers around the store and can also distinguish between individual and groups of shoppers.
(Image courtesy of AWS)
While there is still some human interaction from staff, such as verifying ages and removing bottle caps before drinking alcohol, technology has definitely played a role here.
“This technology is extremely portable, versatile, and is growing and gaining momentum,” said Steve Gurney, worldwide head of retail at AWS.
“It’s still early days, but it’s growing really fast.”
“We saw the Just Walk Out technology in the US a few years ago and immediately wanted to bring it to the UK, and specifically to O2,” said Adam Pearson, commercial director at O2.
“This is really just to eliminate the queues and take away the huge pain of coming to the arena and waiting in line. It removes the need for queuing and allows us to serve people incredibly quickly compared to traditional transactions.”
Pearson estimates that with the O2’s capacity being around 16,000 for 200-220 shows per year, the venue could cater for “several thousand people” on any given show night.
Following the first opening, O2 hopes to open a second, larger self-serve outlet in October 2024, alongside dozens of staffed bars across the venue, with Pearson saying the plan is to have “multiple” outlets across the arena in future.
