Amazon’s Next Big Bet on Cashless Shopping Is a Smart Grocery Cart

Amazon openedits first cashless Go widget storein 2018 before survey that up with its firstfull - size cashless grocery storeearlier this yr . But for its next attempt to revolutionise brick - and - howitzer shopping , Amazon is betting on a smart shopping cart .

Amazon visit it theDash Cart , and it ’s designed to help traditional grocery stores go cashless by eliminating the need for the common coin bank of checkout time lane . However , alternatively of installing hundreds or thousands of tv camera in the cap of a storage like Amazon does in its Go stores , on the Dash Cart Amazon builds camera and sensing element into the handcart itself which tracks items as they are placed inside so that when you ’re done , you could chink out simply by pushing the cart through a designated Dash Cart lane .

Meanwhile , for point like yield or veg that do n’t have an easily scannable barcode , the Dash Cart has an integrated scale , which allows users to go into a PLU computer code for the item they require , while the pushcart automatically weighs the detail after it ’s placed at heart . Then , the only thing you want to do is sustain the weight of the item .

Photo: Amazon

For Amazon , the advantage of the Dash Cart are clear , as it allows Amazon to build or exchange traditional grocery stores into cashless stores without needing to add the expensive and complicated tv camera system it use in its Go stores . And while it is n’t usable in stores just quite yet , Amazon say the Dash Cart will make its official entry at the company ’s new Woodland Hills location in California , which is await to open sometime after this year .

As for its downside , one of the Dash Cart ’s biggest drawbacks is limited content , as it only has enough elbow room to reconcile two market bags . That means it ’s really only adept for lowly to intermediate size grocery trips and not your big hebdomadary family shopping draw . moreover , because the cameras and sensors mainly track what goes into the pushcart , Amazon will credibly need more human clerks to help keep track of inventory or help resolve any expert difficulty , which would seem to go against the Amazon ’s goals of automating as much of the shopping experience as possible .

That said , for masses who might be creeped out by the thousand of tv camera in a veritable Go store watching their every move , the Dash Cart could be a suitable compromise , but we wo n’t really know until multitude actually get to use them sometime later on this year .

Photo: Amazon