Scan, Grab, Exit, Repeat

Share this post

New technology is a strange beast. When it doesn’t exist, we dream of it and when it does exist, we cannot imagine what life was like without it. Sometimes it hits you in the face like a lightbulb moment, and in other situations it just creeps up on you and, in osmotic fashion, just creeps into your life without you even realising. However, when it does just appear and sparks the wow factor, it can create a game changing moment where you wonder how you ever coped in life before it existed. There are too many examples to mention as, over time, those moments have become more frequent, but the latest advancement is the stuff of fantasy courtesy of Amazon Fresh’s arrival here in the UK and the wider implications it has for the retail and payment industries.

Amazon Fresh is a supermarket like any other with a slight difference. There are no cashiers, no beeps, no scanners, no queues, no tills and it’s all powered by something called “Just Walk Out” technology. As you walk in, you simply open your Amazon app, go to the Fresh Section and generate your QR code. Scan the code over the entrance gate, in the same way you would a boarding pass at airport security. The gate opens and in you go. Every cynical inch of your mind is wondering how this whole thing works, but you just have to trust the process. Once you’ve picked up your items, you simply walk out. And that, as they say, is that. Soon after you leave, you receive an email with your receipt of what you spent and the card (linked to your Amazon account) from which the payment has been taken.  In 20 years time, you have to wonder if we’ll look back and laugh. “Remember the days where we had to scan every single item through a till and pay for it with a credit card,” just as we look back now and say remember when music was physical…

Now let’s try to understand the implications of this insofar as the retail and payment industries are concerned. Once again we find ourselves at another crossroads. How do we even begin to unravel just how important this type of technology is? The first question is whether this is deemed as a point-of-sale transaction, or an ecommerce ticket and what implications does that have around fraud and chargebacks? The customer is physically in store, yet the payment is in app. At present app and wallet-based payments in store still require a POS machine thus linking to a Cardholder present transaction. Amazon have of course disrupted everything as you’d expect by creating an ecommerce payment via an instore experience without the need for a POS machine thus reducing all forms of friction when it comes to the shopping experience.

See more: https://www.transact365.com/scan-grab-exit-repeat

Article by Transact365

More To Explore

Membership

Are you a member of The Payments Association?

Member benefits include free tickets, discounts to more tickets, elevated brand visibility and more. Sign in to book tickets and find out more.

Welcome

Log in to access complimentary passes or discounts and access exclusive content as part of your membership. An auto-login link will be sent directly to your email.

Having trouble signing?

We use an auto-login link to ensure optimum security for your members hub. Simply enter your professional work e-mail address into the input area and you’ll receive a link to directly access your account.

First things first

Have you set up your Member account yet? If not, click here to do so.

Still not receiving your auto-login link?

Instead of using passwords, we e-mail you a link to log in to the site. This allows us to automatically verify you and apply member benefits based on your e-mail domain name.

Please click the button below which relates to the issue you’re having.

I didn't receive an e-mail

Tip: Check your spam

Sometimes our e-mails end up in spam. Make sure to check your spam folder for e-mails from The Payments Association

Tip: Check “other” tabs

Most modern e-mail clients now separate e-mails into different tabs. For example, Outlook has an “Other” tab, and Gmail has tabs for different types of e-mails, such as promotional.

Tip: Click the link within 60 minutes

For security reasons the link will expire after 60 minutes. Try submitting the login form again and wait a few seconds for the e-mail to arrive.

Tip: Only click once

The link will only work one time – once it’s been clicked, the link won’t log you in again. Instead, you’ll need to go back to the login screen and generate a new link.

Tip: Delete old login e-mails

Make sure you’re clicking the link on the most recent e-mail that’s been sent to you. We recommend deleting the e-mail once you’ve clicked the link.

Tip: Check your security policies

Some security systems will automatically click on links in e-mails to check for phishing, malware, viruses and other malicious threats. If these have been clicked, it won’t work when you try to click on the link.

Need to change your e-mail address?

For security reasons, e-mail address changes can only be complete by your Member Engagement Manager. Please contact the team directly for further help.

Still got a question?