Now open: Inside Amazon’s no-checkout store

The future of shopping arrives today, with the opening of the first Amazon Go store in Seattle.

Billed as the first retail outlet in the world with no checkouts or registers, the store uses new technology and your smartphone to allow you to walk into the store, choose your items and then walk straight out again.

The items in your bag are automatically charged to your account when you exit the store.

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At less than 170sqm, the store is a bite-sized foray into the new world of automated shopping, but it points to a future where checkouts and queues are things of the past.

So how does Amazon Go work?

It all starts as you enter the store, where there are a row of public transport-style computerised gates that require you to activate the Amazon Go app and tap your phone, letting the system know that you’re in the store.

From there, you simply choose your items and put them in a bag (there are no baskets or trolleys) and then walk out. Once you exit, the cost of those products will be charged to your account, and you’re on your way. A receipt will be sent to you a few minutes later.

The Amazon Go store in Seattle.

Amazon won’t say exactly how it manages to keep track of who’s taken what – other than using big words like “fusion sensors” and “deep learning algorithms” – but essentially the store makes use of hundreds of small cameras that are able to identify every product and the person who’s taken them.

If you change your mind about a product and pull it out of your bag to put it back on the shelf, the system recognises it, and takes the item out of your virtual cart.

The retail giant is yet to outline its plans for further Amazon Go stores, or where else it might use the technology, but it’s likely to find its way into other retail outlets sooner, rather than later.