Amazon to open cashierless store in London

Amazon expands its cashierless convenience stores outside the US, starting with a single store in London. — REUTERS

Amazon.com Inc. is opening a cashierless convenience store in the UK, the first expansion of the company’s automated checkout technology outside the US.

The Seattle company said it will debut a 2,500-square foot Amazon Fresh-branded store in London on Thursday. The store, like its US counterparts, will use an array of cameras and other sensors to track shoppers as they pull items off the shelves, and charges a credit card on file after they exit.

The stores represent the retail and technology giant’s biggest effort to reshape physical retailing. Amazon is also offering to license the system, which it calls Just Walk Out technology, to other companies.

The shop, in the Ealing area of London, is the company’s first physical store outside the US Amazon has opened 26 cashierless convenience stores under the Amazon Go brand in its home country, and two larger versions called Go Grocery, according to its website.

An Amazon spokesperson said there were no plans to change the branding of the US stores. The company also operates a new line of US grocery stores with conventional checkout lines called Amazon Fresh.

As part of the launch, the company also introduced a new private label food brand in the UK, called "by Amazon,” to be sold in the store. – Bloomberg