Even though the new Amazon Go store is dependent on surveillance and data collection for its cashier-free store, some say it doesn't necessarily push the boundaries of retailers' current data collection practices, The Washington Post reports. John Verdi, vice president of policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, said the process does not exceed data collection carried out now via loyalty programs and credit cards. While the store uses cameras, sensors and machine-learning algorithms to keep track of a person's order, the company states it does not employ facial-recognition software. But Alvaro Bedoya, executive director at Georgetown University's Center on Privacy & Technology, says the methods behind the store are different from other grocery stores since Amazon has the ability to analyze the shopping experience, " … Are they really only tracking you when you lift the item off a shelf? Or are they tracking where you move throughout the store, what you're looking at, what sections you're dwelling in?" (Registration may be required to access this story.)

SAN FRANCISCO – After missing the critical holiday shopping season, Apple Inc. has jumped into the voice speaker wars with the HomePod smart speaker, a device that will use its Siri voice assistant and compete against offerings from Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. Apple said on Tuesday it will start taking online orders for its HomePod smart speaker on Friday in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, just over a month later than initially planned. The $349 voice-controlled speaker, introduced in June and originally scheduled for a December release, can make music suggestions and adjust home temperatures. The speaker also will be able to send messages and play news updates from National Public Radio and CNN, Apple said in a release. Analysts have debated the impact of the shipping delay on the HomePod's eventual success.

Amazon has launched its AI-powered checkout-free supermarket today after more than a year of testing, prompting confusion and humor in the Twitterverse. The'Amazon Go' supermarket has no checkouts and instead works by tracking what users buy with AI-powered cameras and weight sensors, but has lead to some users accidentally shoplifting. The grocery store on the bottom floor of the company's Seattle headquarters allows shoppers to scan their smartphone with the Amazon Go app at a turnstile, pick out the items they want and leave. The tech mega-company still has some kinks to work out. A CNBC tech reporter accidentally shoplifted a yogurt when the cameras failed to notice it, but the company responded'it's on us' with a winking emoji.

I open the Amazon Go app on my phone, scan a QR code on top of the white turnstile and watch as electronic arms open to let me in. Glancing around the convenience store, which is bustling with Amazon employees shopping for lunch items, I head left to the cold drinks section, grab a can of Diet Pepsi and exit through the barrier. Not once did I pull out my wallet or tap my phone anywhere to make a payment. I'm getting a preview of the Amazon Go automated store within the internet giant's headquarters in Seattle.

Steeped in the language of digital commerce, today's shoppers have developed a new standard of behaviors, preferences and expectations for all of their retail experiences. Responsible with meeting these elevated needs, retailers need to overcome the hurdles of legacy technology and captivate each of their customers on a 1:1 basis. In the past, consumer value expectations were centered on three variables: cost, choice and convenience. With instant gratification available at the push of the button, customers are looking to have more control of their purchase journey and are seeking out personalized shopping experiences. Real-Time Engagement Accustomed to the instant access of e-commerce shopping, customers are looking for opportunities to skip the line and have direct communication channels to ask, troubleshoot and, of course, shop.

Amazon Go, a brick-and-mortar convenience store featuring automatic checkout, opened to the public in Seattle on Monday. Today for lunch, I stopped by a newly opened convenience store at the north end of Seattle's downtown. I grabbed a tuna wrap from the refrigerated display, shoved it into my pocket and made straight for the exit as casually as I could. On my way out, a store employee stopped me. I paused for a long second.

Back in 2015 the firm opened a physical bookshop in Seattle and it's promised to open a further 400 more in the next few years. Seattle, the home of Amazon's current headquarters, is also the testing ground for its first physical grocery store (if you discount those Whole Foods stores it purchased last year). On January 22, Amazon Go will open for business. There are some packaged sandwiches, ready-meals and booze spread across the shop's 1,800 square feet of floorspace. But unlike other stores it has no checkouts or human cashiers.

In 1969, William H. "Holly" Whyte decided to analyze, and eventually decode, New York City's rambunctious street life. A famed author, Whyte, along with a handful of collaborators, was recruited by the city's planning commission to set up cameras and surreptitiously track human activity. Whyte and his team spent countless afternoons filming parks, plazas, and crosswalks, and even more time counting, crossing out, analyzing, and quantifying footage. Notations were made for how people met and shook hands. Pedestrian movement was mapped on pads of graph paper. To get accurate assessments of activity at a street corner, Whyte's researchers manually screened people caught waiting for lights to change. Imagine how much time it took to figure out that at the garden of St. Bartholomew's Church, the average density at lunch time is 12 to 14 people per 1,000 square feet.

SEATTLE – No cashiers, no registers and no cash -- this is how Amazon sees the future of store shopping. The online retailer opened its Amazon Go concept to the public Monday in Seattle, which lets shoppers take milk, potato chips or ready-to-eat salads off its shelves and just walk out. Amazon's technology charges customers after they leave. "It's such a weird experience, because you feel like you're stealing when you go out the door," said Lisa Doyle, who visited the shop. Amazon employees have been testing the store, on the bottom floor of the company's Seattle headquarters, for about a year.

One of the most exciting features from the newest release of Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning on SAS Viya is the ability to perform Market Basket Analysis on large amounts of transactional data. Market Basket Analysis allows companies to analyze large transactional files to identify significant relationships between items. While most commonly used by retailers, this technique can be used by any company that has transactional data. For this example, we will be looking at customer supermarket purchases over the past month. Customer is the Transaction ID; Time is the time of purchase; and Product is the item purchased.