Amazon has unveiled an ‘Amazon Dash Cart’, a smart shopping cart that tracks items as shoppers add them and automatically charges them when grocery bags are removed from the cart, allowing shoppers to skip the checkout line. The cart has a screen that allows customers to access their Alexa Shopping List, scan coupons and view their current subtotal. The cart will first be made available at the Amazon grocery store opening in Woodland Hills, California later this year.
With this move, Amazon continues to expand its cashierless technology beyond its Go convenience stores. After opening its first full-size cashierless grocery store, called Amazon Go Grocery, earlier this year, the ecommerce giant announced plans to sell its ‘Just Walk Out’ technology to other retailers. Amazon may consider similar plans for its smart cart, once the technology is tested and enhanced.
With shoppers increasingly valuing convenience as well as lower levels of contact amid COVID-19, retailers will be rolling out more frictionless checkout solutions. These solutions will require impulse merchandising to be rethought by CPGs - with new adjacencies, digital marketing, branding and packaging needed to drive alternative impulse opportunities and ensure products stand out in this more frictionless store environment.
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