Five years after opening its first Just Walk Out store, Amazon is finally bringing its checkout-free technology to clothing and other softlines, thanks to help from Avery Dennison.
Piloted at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena earlier this year, the RFID-enabled technology expanded to Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, for the 2023-24 NFL season, Amazon revealed Tuesday.
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Previously, Amazon’s Just Walk Out stores have relied on cameras, shelf sensors, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence technologies like computer vision and generative AI to sell a range of products, including food, beverages and home goods. Until now, these computer vision-based stores would have required clothing to be packaged in bags or boxes, preventing customers from seeing, feeling and trying on the goods.
To get around this problem, Amazon turned to a technology retailers already use to track and manage inventory: radio-frequency identification, or RFID. In Amazon’s application, the retailer attaches to each item a unique RFID tag resembling a standard apparel tag. Customers enter the store, pick up what they like—they can wear the item out of the store if they choose—and leave through an exit gate by using their credit or debit card, or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device. Upon exiting, the RFID readers sense the tags on the selected goods and charge the card or Amazon One profile used to exit. “Shortly” after exiting, customers can find their receipt on Just Walk Out’s website, Amazon said.
Amazon worked with Avery Dennison, a materials science and manufacturing company that specializes in the design and manufacture of labeling and functional materials, to develop its new RFID-enabled stores.
“Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology is an exciting example of how RFID technology is disrupting traditional retail models,” Bill Toney, vice president of global RFID and digital market development at Avery Dennison, said in a statement. “Avery Dennison has been working closely with Amazon from the beginning of this initiative to enable the use of high-quality, advanced RFID sensor technology to establish a fast and reliable automated checkout process. No queues or scanning products ultimately means an improved, differentiated, and frictionless customer shopping experience.”
Amazon piloted its RFID Just Walk Out technology at Climate Pledge Arena for a few games at the end of the Seattle Kraken’s NHL season earlier this year. The venue is also home to the Seattle Storm of the WNBA, the Seattle University Redhawks men’s basketball team and the Rat City Roller Derby league.
Following “positive feedback from Kraken fans and arena officials,” Amazon launched the technology at the Seahawks’ home stadium this season—one year after installing its first computer vision-based Just Walk Out store. During the 2022 season, the shop saw a 60 percent increase in customer throughput and total transactions per game doubled compared to the concession stand that previously occupied the same location, Amazon said. By the end of the season, transactions per game in that location had grown 85 percent and total sales per game had risen 112 percent. Lumen Field has since added eight more Just Walk Out stores in the arena, including the RFID store.
“Eight of our concessions locations are already using Just Walk Out technology and seeing great results,” Zach Hensley, Seahawks vice president of operations and general manager of Lumen Field, said in a statement. “Now, we are excited to be the first NFL stadium with an RFID-enabled Just Walk Out technology store so fans can grab their favorite hats, jerseys and more, and simply walk out. We are seeing great traction for this new store, and our fans are enjoying the experience.”
More than 70 Amazon-owned stores and more than 85 third-party retailers—including travel retailers, sports stadiums, entertainment venues, conference centers, theme parks, convenience stores and college campuses—operate Just Walk Out stores across the U.S., U.K. and Australia.