Amazon’s Day 1 Turns into Amazon One

 The customer is dynamic not static according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Regular readers of this blog have heard that refrain often.  Hanging in the main lobby at Amazons Seattle Headquarters is a big sign that reads Day One.  It’s the goal for the Day 1 sign to remind every employee to think as if ‘today’ is day one and you can do anything.

As it turns out that mission vision Day 1, may very well make grocery shopping, or any instore retail experience much faster and safer.  That is something that is top of mind today as the pandemic seems endless, and the cold / flu season is about to become center stage.

The new Amazon One, is a device that connects your amazon account and payment card to your palm for contactless shopping.  Ok, still wondering?  The device contains a scanner that records a user's palm 'signature' -- a unique identifier in humans. Users insert their payment card, hover their palm over the Amazon One, and after the Amazon One scans their palm, they are enrolled. The entire process is claimed to take less than a minute to complete and either an Amazon account or phone number can be used during signup.

Dilip Kumar, VP of physical retail and technology for Amazon Kumar says that once this process is complete, “all customers need to do to enter an Amazon Go store is raise their palm.” That’s right no need to take out your iPhone / smartphone and scan a QR code.

So, here is what is happening underneath.  Custom algorithms and machine learning have been implemented to build a map of our palms through the device. However, images are not stored locally; rather, Amazon says that prints are encrypted and sent to a "highly-secure area we custom-built in the cloud where we create your palm signature."

Human palms have been chosen as biometric authenticators as they require an "intentional gesture" to trigger, Amazon says, and palms are also more private as identities can't be ascertained just based on a handprint.  If you wanted, users can also remove their biometric data directly by accessing their Amazon account or via an online customer portal. 

Thinking big once again consider that Amazon could work in your store.  That’s right. Kumar continued "In most retail environments, Amazon One could become an alternate payment or loyalty card option with a device at the checkout counter next to a traditional point of sale system,". "We built Amazon One to offer [...] a quick, reliable, and secure way for people to identify themselves or authorize a transaction while moving seamlessly through their day."

Think about this Amazon One will eventually be rolled out to other stores, and in addition, the company intends to offer the technology to third-parties including Airports, Hotels, retailers, stadiums, and offices. I would not be surprised if a unit could be installed into your front door.

In Seattle two Amazon Go locations launched Amazon One on Sept. 29, shoppers will still have the option to enter the stores using the Amazon Go app, Amazon app or with associate assistance if paying in cash is preferred. How fast is your company evolving?  It just may come down to this.  If you can’t beat them join them.  Save your customer time.  Consumers are dynamic not static.  Don’t sit back and simply watch others reduce cost, improve service.  Jump in or get left behind.

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company 253-759-7869.