Yahoo Finance Microsoft working on till-free shop tech to rival Amazon Go
Microsoft is working on technology that would eliminate cashiers and checkout lines from stores in a challenge to Amazon’s automated shop, according to reports.
The software giant is developing a system to track what shoppers add to their baskets and is in talks with Asda-owner Walmart about a possible collaboration, insiders told Reuters.
According to the sources. Microsoft has tasked a team of 15 to design shopping tech that is cheap enough to attract retailers that are already squeezing their margins.
The automated checkout market could be worth $50bn (£37.5bn) in the US alone, venture capital firm Loup Ventures estimated. The profit opportunity has not been lost on Microsoft's rival Amazon, which has already opened a till-free shop in Seattle which allows customers to walk in, pick up an item and leave the shop, all without having to get their wallet out.
Customers enter by scanning their smartphones and the shop tracks what they purchase using sensors and cameras that identify what is removed from the shelves. No physical transactions are necessary as the bill is deducted from the credit or debit cards associated with the shopper's Amazon account.
Amazon Go will open in Chicago and San Francisco and last year Amazon trademarked related slogans in the UK and Europe.
It hopes to eliminate one of supermarkets’ biggest costs: staff. The company already runs several highly automated warehouses around the world, which are crucial to package and ship parcels for its customers.
The company has come up with ways to improve productivity using technology, including a design for wristbands that track workers’ movements as they make their way around the warehouse. A recent patent filed by the company describes an ultrasonic bracelet that alerts a worker to a shelf where a package for the order they are completing is, before sending it out for delivery.
