Amazon (AMZN) Set To Carve A Niche In U.K. Grocery Market

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN – Free Report) is gearing up to become a major retailer in the U.K. grocery market. The company has plans of opening checkout-free grocery store, Amazon Go, in the country.

Reportedly, the U.K. Intellectual Property Office has approved the e-commerce giant’s application to trademark the slogans, “No Lines, No Checkout. (No, Seriously.)”and “No Queue. No Checkout. (No, Seriously.)”. Also, the European Union’s equivalent agency is reviewing a corresponding application.

If everything falls into place, U.K. will be the second country after the U.S. where Amazon will be going the brick-and-mortar way. The company has also been making efforts to open a no-cashier convenience store in India.

Notably, the company’s first brick-and-mortar store, Amazon Go, was expected to open in Seattle by the end of March but things got delayed due to technical problems. In fact, it is still at a primary stage and Amazon might face more uncertainties related to its execution, which could further delay in the opening of the store.

Coming to the price performance, shares of Amazon underperformed the Zacks categorized Electronic Commerce industry in the last one year. While the industry gained 46.1%, the stock returned 37.8%.

What is Amazon Go?

Termed as Amazon Go, this no-queue-checkout-counter grocery store is going to be a boon for customers who are too worn-out to stand in long queues at physical cash counters or are baffled at complicated self-checking counters.

This convenience store will offer all kinds of perishable items and grocery essentials as well as drive-up destinations where subscribers can pick up their orders and have them delivered to their cars. All that’s required is the installation of the Amazon Go app on one’s cell phone.

This Just Walk Out technology uses machine learning and cameras to automatically detect products picked up. Once the shopping is done, one can simply leave the store. After a while, money will be charged online from the Amazon account of the customer.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Author: Travis Esquivel

Travis Esquivel is an engineer, passionate soccer player and full-time dad. He enjoys writing about innovation and technology from time to time.

Share This Post On

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *