More convenient shopping

Amazon relies on smart shopping carts in the USA

Items can be scanned directly from the shopping cart.(Bild: Amazon)

Amazon is scaling back plans for its supermarket technology, which allows shoppers to simply grab items from the shelves and leave the store. In the future, the networked shopping cart with cameras will be used in Amazon Fresh supermarkets in the USA instead, said Tony Hoggett, the top manager responsible.

Hoggett told the website "The Information" that this had been found to be more popular when shopping in larger store areas. Among other things, customers wanted to have a better overview of how expensive the purchase would be for them. Amazon's trolleys show the price of the goods and the total value of the purchase on a display. The items have to be held in front of the shopping cart's camera. At the end of the purchase, the customer can leave the store past the tills and the amount will be debited from their Amazon account. For people who don't want to use this, there are also traditional checkouts.

Amazon has been trying to find the right strategy for bricks-and-mortar retail for years. The company wants to set itself apart by making shopping more convenient. One central idea is to make checkouts superfluous. The technology, which automatically recognizes which items shoppers pick from the shelves, has been used by the Group for years in its "Amazon Go" stores, which are significantly smaller than conventional supermarkets.

It will continue to be used there, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. It will also remain in the smaller "Fresh" stores in the UK. The Group also offers the technology to other retailers. It is considered to be rather complex with the installation of many cameras and sensors on the shelves, among other things.

The world's largest online retailer also bought the US grocery chain Whole Foods in 2017, where there has been little experimentation to date. Whole Foods is considered rather expensive in the US, while the more than 40 Amazon Fresh stores to date are at a similar price level to other supermarkets.