The Automated Future Of The Fashion Store: Where Self-Checkouts And Human Touch Collide

There was a media frenzy when Amazon Go was announced in December 2016. A grocery store based initially in Seattle, it enables shoppers to literally just walk out with whatever items they choose thanks to sensors recording what they pick up and charging back to their Amazon Prime accounts. Facilitated by first swiping the Amazon app on your smartphone, it nods to the automated future of retail, but more than that the growing potential ahead for the phone to control the entire commerce experience. A wake-up call to retail execs around the world, the question on many people's lips is whether that concept is equally applicable to other verticals? From a value proposition, not to mention strategic business perspective, it's something that makes a great deal of sense for grocery, where both the barrier to entry and level of associated risk, is low.