Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is to open its first check-out free grocery store on Monday in Seattle, allowing customers to buy goods without queueing at the till.
The so-called Amazon Go store uses cameras and sensors to track what shoppers pick up from the shelves and what they put back.
Customers must scan an Amazon Go smartphone app and pass through a gated turnstile to begin shopping.
When a customer passes back through the gates with an item, their account is charged.
If the customer leaves without buying anything, the sensor will detect that an item has been put back on the shelf and it will be removed from the virtual shopping cart.
The concept could mark the beginning of a major upheaval of bricks-and-mortar retail, which has come under pressure from the rise of online shopping.
Time-poor consumers have been increasingly opting to shop online to avoid the busy queues at physical stores.
Amazon, which is seen as a threat to the grocery industry following its acquisition of Whole Foods market last year for US$13.7bn, did not say when it would add more Amazon Go locations. It has no plans to incorporate the technology to its Whole Foods stores as yet.
Amazon reportedly ran into a few hurdles when it opened the shop to its employees in December 2016 in a test phase.
Some of the problems identified in the trial included correctly identifying shoppers with similar body types and children causing havoc by moving items, a source told the Guardian.