Milestone and life after groceries <\/p>\n
More than 36.7 million items have been sold in Amazon Just Walk Out technology enabled stores over the span of a year (June 2024 to May 2025).<\/p>\n
In 2024, we reported that Amazon was removing the tech from its grocery stores in the US. This was replaced by Dash Carts<\/a>, with Amazon continuing to offer JWO to third-party companies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve invested a lot of time redesigning a number of our Amazon Fresh stores over the last year, offering a better overall shopping experience with more value, convenience, and selection, and so far we\u2019ve seen positive results, with higher customer shopping satisfaction scores and increased purchasing,” said spokesperson Jessica Martin.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve also heard from customers that while they enjoyed the benefit of skipping the checkout line with Just Walk Out, they also wanted the ability to easily find nearby products and deals, view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they saved while shopping throughout the store.\u201d<\/p>\n To label the initiative a failure was naive at best and at worst a complete misunderstanding of tech creativity, argued Brand L. Elverston, Founder\/Principal at Elverston Consulting.<\/p>\n He commented: \u201cFor the pessimists, this is a colossal “I told you so.” For others, it is easily understood this is how iterative innovation evolves.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe idea, the whiteboard, the alpha, the beta, the limited test, adjustments, reworks, and refits – and learnings all the while. Collateral, unintended innovation often occurs when pursuing some completely different goal.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cPursuits such as these are exactly what sparks imagination and creativity. Not all are going to become resounding, earth shattering, take the world by storm events. In fact, few do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Amazon unveiled the first Amazon Go store in 2016\/17, it immediately caught the eyes of countless tech firms and retailers – how many others followed with their own solutions?\u201d <\/p>\n 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards<\/p>\n Autonomous stores will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.<\/p>\n Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC<\/a>\u00a0in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.<\/p>\n Check out our 2025 winners here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: \u201cThis is the awards\u2019 fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA\u2019s HQ in the West End.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You\u2019re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we\u2019ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis year\u2019s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n