Joshua Warren  0:00  
Oh I don't know, it brings up some interesting ethical questions. And also, though, on a more practical level, like, how many years is it until all stores just have cameras and sensors, whether they're using it for just walk out, or they're using it to get data? I mean, we've said for years that the exciting thing about e commerce is that we can track everything the consumer does, we can see how long you look at each product. And wow, wouldn't that be nice to have that in a retail store as well? Oh, hey, the technology is catching up with that.

Darin Newbold  0:40  
Good day, and welcome to another episode of Commerce today. My name is Darren and as always, I'm here with Josh to talk about different commerce, things that are happening today in the world. And this topic today. Well, this one's just kind of fun. I can even speak of this because I, I didn't take advantage of it. But I did witness it. Just when I was oh, dark 100 The other day, leaving Florida headed back to here. And there was one of the stores that we're going to talk about. And sure enough, it was a just walk out technology, which to me, is pretty much Hey, you can come in and steal our stuff. But you're gonna tell us Josh, how that's not how this is supposed to work? Oh, yeah, no, help us out with the, with the I guess Amazon's just walk out technology. Yeah, you

Joshua Warren  1:29  
call it just steal our stuff. I call it remember big Amazon is always watching you. Important Safety. Yeah. So this is a technology that Amazon, basically through AWS and other systems and approaches, they're starting to offer this to retailers where you can actually deploy this technology. And if you're not familiar with it, this started with some of Amazon's own retail stores, most of which now they have closed. But we won't talk about that started with those stores where they literally had test stores basically, where you go in, and you shop, and you pick things up off the shelf, and you put them in your cart, and then you just walk out and kind of in the name and they automatically charge charge your credit card. And the way this works is there are sensors and cameras everywhere. So it's watching you, it's figured out who you are. I've seen these in the airports kind of two different ways they do it one is based on your palm, it scans your palm links that to an Amazon account, or you have to have already linked it to an Amazon account once before. And that's how it knows who to charge and at another location, you just basically swipe your credit card. And it does this at a location where it basically holds you in the perfect place for the camera to scan your face know who you are. And then it tracks your every move throughout the store.

Darin Newbold  2:51  
Well, this is this is really interesting. And I know, I know even going back in time, just a little bit Apple kind of really set the stage with being able to come into the store, basically buy in the store, and you could just walk out with it. But that was through their app, and stuff. So this is really taking that whole idea to the to the next level. So my question is, is at least first up here, as we're going through this? Do you scan your palm as you're walking in? Or do you scan your palm as you're walking out? You actually scan everything as you're walking in, as you're walking. So what happens if you don't want to buy anything, you just want to check some stuff out while you've now told Amazon who you are and that you're in that store that day. Okay, then. So everything that I paused at and looked at for longer than a few seconds, I'm gonna get ads now in my Amazon app when I'm going and looking for my regular stuff.

Joshua Warren  3:39  
And now

Darin Newbold  3:40  
you see why Amazon is so excited about this. Oh, I love it. Well, I can only imagine as we as we continue on here, that there could be some privacy concerns here. What does that look like for for merchants or for the those that want to do this?

Joshua Warren  3:56  
You know, that's the interesting thing. Scary Thing. Questionable thing? To me, there's kind of two questions. First off, you know, who has this data is this? And depending on your opinions that this might change how you feel about it, no one has it all. But yeah, does Amazon have it all? Or does it just stay with the retailer. And I know that there are different ways they're licensing this technology. And supposedly, there's going to be an option where all the data stays with the retailer. And it's all basically the photos and the identities are all tied into something local that is just stored with that retailer, even just in that store. So in theory, if you trust the company that runs that store, then you don't worry about it as much. If you though, are a little more cynical, you may realize, hey, there's a good chance that Amazon also has a copy of this data. And I don't know it brings up some interesting ethical questions and also though, on a more practical level, like how many years is it until all stores just have cameras and sensors? Whether they're using it for just walk out, or they're using it to get data. I mean, we've said for years that the exciting thing about e commerce is that we can track everything the consumer does. We can see how long you look at each product. And wow, wouldn't that be nice to have that in a retail store as well? Well, hey, the technology is catching up with that idea. And you

Darin Newbold  5:17  
you triggered something there, Josh, and this will age me at least isn't there a movie line somewhere that someday all restaurants will be Taco Bell? Yes, there is there is. So someday all all shopping will be Amazon, I guess. Is that the new? Is that the new statement to go out?

Joshua Warren  5:35  
Yeah, yeah, as a very frequent Amazon purchaser, my

Darin Newbold  5:39  
wife jokes that there's an Amazon warehouse that I've sponsored, that has my name on it. I don't know if I love or hate that idea. So this is definitely technology that not that there's a lot we can say positive about COVID in that whole experience. But this is definitely technology that not that it wasn't going to come out. It was going to come out sooner or later. But this, this technology has really accelerated I believe, because of the COVID experience. And hey, don't touch anything and only touch the things that you are want to touch kind of thing. So kind of that touchless contactless type of shopping, right? Definitely. Yeah, it was accelerated by that. And I think we're gonna see retailers continue to kind of accelerate their adoption of things like this. Because, you know, in the post pandemic world, or whatever we

Joshua Warren  6:25  
want to call this hirings, challenging. And people have really reevaluated what type of jobs they want, what kind of pay they want for those jobs. And I know all of us have been in stores recently, where I was actually at a store the other day, where not only was there only a self checkout option, there was still a cashier, I walked up to the cashier, and they said, Wouldn't you rather use self checkout, and then walked me to the self checkout. So definitely gonna see more of a push towards self checkout. And this is kind of the ultimate and self checkout technology so that you don't, you don't need store associates. And that's kind of the thinking is, you know, we joked about the machines coming for our jobs. But this is definitely a way that technology is going to replace a lot of workers in the retail world.

Darin Newbold  7:10  
Yeah, this really takes the the kiosk idea and to the whole new level, because it's beyond what you have to throw into a mechanical kiosk. Now you can have a a store, now it's still going to require, it's still going to require someone to stock it to restock. It could be robots, obviously, or automation of some variety. Who's the target for this? Because cuz Hudson is the airport chain. And that's the one that I saw when I was flying back from Florida, in the in the airport. But what are other some others out there or who, who would be kind of the candidate for wanting some something like this, or wanting wanting to at least explore the idea.

Joshua Warren  7:47  
So this is still very early on, Amazon has five or six marquee customers, Hudson being the biggest one. But now pretty much all the sports venues in Seattle are deploying this technology. And if you think about that, you think about the rush of people that want to buy some apparel to support their team before after the game. This is a great way to move a lot more people through store really quickly. So yeah, it's not not a huge audience for it yet. But one of the reasons I wanted to still feature it on our podcast is because I do think this is a good indicator to retailers that if you have a store, this is the kind of experience your customers are going to be expecting. I mean, they they wish they had it now, but they're going to definitely expect it from you in the next four or five years. So if you're still catching up on some of the omni channel basics, you better hurry.

Darin Newbold  8:37  
So all right. You and I are at least beyond our teenage years, for sure. Hello, and I'm even a little bit more even then there might even be a teenagers link between us. Shut up.

Darin Newbold  8:51  
I didn't I didn't. That was that it was a message that was not approved by the sponsors of this program. Anyway. But what I was going to say is that having had some experience close experience with Apple, and their retail stores, one of the things that was very important to them was customer experience in that customer journey. And being able to take a person through that customer journey. And it was again it was trained. And it was it was literally the mantra of how a person was to experience an Apple Store. So based on that, this is the end, almost the antithesis the opposite of taking away all customer experience. Now it is only the experience of that person, the customer itself is walking in buying their stuff. Is this a and the reason I brought up the age and stuff? Is this a generational thing? Is this a? Is this really the direction that the Gen Z Gen. I don't know what happens after Gen Z but but you know, what is it what does it look like?

Joshua Warren  9:52  
So this is where we're definitely we're stretching beyond Commerce today. But as you're asking that I have this kind of Gary kind of encouraging mental image Let me paint a picture for you. Alright, so say we're gonna know in Amazon two years in the future, but could be 510 years in the future. You walk into a store, you're wearing your Echo frames, which are their glasses that they already have that have an echo device built in. You're wearing your Echo earbuds you walk in and says, Hey, Darren, welcome to Kroger's. Hey, I see that you know, you're low on milk. Hey, the milks right over here, because my refrigerator has already told Amazon that I'm low on milk. Exactly. And as you're walking down the aisles, you hear Hey, you know, you tried this coffee a couple of weeks ago, what do you think about it? Was this was this good? Can we recommend a better coffee for you? And you're not it's not a person, it is a voice assistant. It's a machine learning model. It's an artificial intelligence, providing a personalized experience just for you, without a person ever been involved in it? Wow. So

Darin Newbold  10:49  
there is a movie on this Minority Report is one of them. One of the many that reminds me of this, there's probably others. Okay. It's, it's just not that darn funny anymore, as they say, What else? I guess let's kind of as we kind of wrap this up and put a put a bow on it. What else? From a back to Commerce today standpoint? What do merchants ought to know about this? How can how can they either be ready. And you talked about them having understand that this is potential the the experience that they're wanting to do? In the meantime, they may have very nice person, you know, Sally, Johnny, whoever that does a great job customer service wise in their stores that is important to them? How do they track with this? How do they? What do they do?

Joshua Warren  11:35  
You know, the best example I've seen of this, there's a retailer that I've worked with that realized they had a lot of knowledge in their store associates. And they might have a great store associate at one location that knows a lot about one product line, but not at another location. So they started equipping those store associates, their the tablets, or the phones that they would walk around with to scan things in the store. They equipped that with an option to start, you could scan an item and you could actually share some of what you learn there. You could either record a video, you could record audio, or you could just write it down. And then they started pulling that content and on their website. I think eventually that content is going to appear in their app as well. And that way, you know, no, you probably aren't ready as a retailer to deploy just walk out technology. But what about a companion app, you know, I've seen a few stores lately that I walk into their store and their app has an actual store mode, you hit store mode, and it's surfacing some of that knowledge from associates and it's even helping me build out a cart and be able to check out faster at least and I think that's the kind of things to start looking at is this is all just about making it as quick and easy to get in and out of a store as you as the customer wants. And so meeting the customer you know as best you can with today's technology, I think is going to probably be more beneficial in the short term then something kind of wild and crazy is just walk out. Gotcha. So

Darin Newbold  12:54  
creating a seamless shopping experience is really, really the process that frictionless experience well that is fantastic. Well, best wishes to do all of those listeners on on their walk out technology and what you found out today we of course always love it if you if you like our podcast and with that until next time we look forward to chatting with you again soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai