In this year’s letter to Amazon shareholders, released earlier this week, CEO Jeff Bezos extolled the value of high expectations. “We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied,” he wrote. Among the products that Bezos summarized was the company’s new shopping concept, Amazon Go.
“Since opening, we’ve been thrilled to hear many customers refer to their shopping experience as ‘magical,’” Bezos wrote. “What makes the magic possible is a custom-built combination of computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning, which come together to create Just Walk Out shopping.”
Innovation is a tricky thing. Too much change too quickly, and consumers will shun the advancement. Microsoft knows this well, having unsuccessfully launched the Tablet PC nearly a decade before iPads hit shelves.
Going too far or arriving too early is just as bad as arriving late to an industry trend—your company’s expectations can’t overshoot the customer’s expectations. Bad timing leads to losses. To disrupt the marketplace, businesses must show consumers the obvious value of the innovation before they make them feel comfortable enough to try it.
Bezos is right: The new Amazon Go store absolutely nailed that execution. The cashier-less shopping experience is a (rather obvious) next step toward automation, but it’s not so shocking that customers feel uncomfortable with the experience.
The real innovation of Amazon Go, however, is not the lack of cashiers. Amazon’s true endgame is what comes next: the end of the traditional grocery store.
