Amazon.com Inc (NYSE:AMZN) has opened a physical store in London, its first outlet outside the United States.
The store, under the Amazon Fresh brand, is located in Ealing and it sells ready meals, groceries, and Amazon electronics. It also acts as a pick-up point for online orders.
Like Amazon’s stores in America, the store does not use traditional point-of-sale devices, instead consumers use their smartphones and a system that, using weight sensors, detects items being taken up for purchase.
Shoppers’ Amazon accounts are charged for the items they buy as they exit the store.
The ‘Just Walk Out’ technology uses "computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion", Amazon highlighted.
Amazon Fresh Stores UK is run by Matt Birch, formerly Sainsburys director of commercial operations.