The Future Of Checkout Technology In Retail

Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology demonstrates how AI, computer vision, and sensor fusion - similar to what you’d see in autonomous vehicles - can radically transform the way we shop. Instead of waiting in a checkout line, customers simply pick items off the shelf and leave, while the system automatically bills them. Yet with any shift toward automation, there’s the question of how it impacts employment and community economics. If fewer cashiers and clerks are needed, the ripple effects on the local job market can’t be ignored. Additionally, some consumers worry about privacy - advanced tracking systems gather a lot of data on purchasing behaviors, raising concerns over how, where, and for what purpose that data is used. Still, there’s no doubt this is just the beginning of technology-driven changes in retail. Beyond cashier-less shops, we might soon see: - Personalized In-Store Experiences: AI-driven recommendations could pop up on screens or apps as you walk through aisles, guiding you to products based on past purchases or dietary preferences. - Augmented Reality (AR) Fitting Rooms: Try on clothes virtually, see how furniture fits in your living room - without physically moving a thing. - Automated Inventory & Restocking: Shelves that monitor stock levels in real time and reorder items as needed, helping stores avoid both stockouts and over-ordering. - Drone & Robot Deliveries: As last-mile delivery becomes faster, we may see robots handling short-distance delivery or drones zipping packages straight to a customer’s doorstep. What do you think the next big change will be? Is it further automation, more personalization, or something else entirely? #innovation #technology #future #management #startups

Skating to where the puck is going has always been tough for brands & retailers. Humans are messy & we change our minds often.  Now, with the surge of AI tools like ChatGPT & Perplexity, building a consumer-obsessed business has become more challenging. In 2025, nearly 40% of consumers (and the majority of #GenZ) let AI agents decide what products they see and buy, flipping the script on traditional brand-owned shopping channels. Are you ready for the age when your customer belongs to the agent, not your website? We’ve entered the era of infinite channels and the always-on shopper. Commerce is being driven by a moshpit of AI agents that mediate many customer journeys—from product search to purchase—largely outside brands’ direct control. Most retailers are still building for the past, optimizing search tools that only matter when shoppers find their way to your digital properties (.com, app, etc.). But that traffic is evaporating. The old model is dying fast, replaced by a new reality where AI agents decide what customers see, buy, and from whom. This is your wake-up call. AI is rapidly rewriting the rules of commerce. Traditional traffic pipelines have dried up. “Traffic” today is made up of both humans and agents, flowing through an infinite number of channels. If your products aren’t ready to be discovered, chosen, and purchased by AI agents—are you even trying? 😁 For Brands and Retailers: ➡️ Owning the customer journey is tougher than ever. Your fight for site clicks is obsolete. Products must now be surfaced in AI-powered results and agentic checkout experiences on 3rd-party platforms. ➡️ SEO is losing relevance. Optimize for AI discovery: create solution-focused and rich product data (not just keywords) optimized for AI agents, not just search engines. ➡️ Personalization is table stakes. AI agents understand customer context and needs better than ever, offering hyper-targeted product suggestions and streamlining the shopping experience more effectively than traditional tools. Brands that adapt to AI-driven shopping will see higher conversion rates & be positioned to capture this increase in sales volume. Data Points: 1️⃣ 39% of shoppers (and over 50% of #GenZ) already use AI agents (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Amazon’s Buy for Me, Google AI Mode) for product discovery. (🙏🏼 Salesforce)  2️⃣ Nearly 3 in 5 consumers have replaced traditional search engines with gen AI for product recommendations, led by Millennials & Gen Z. (🙏🏼 Capgemini) The race is on to build the future! I’m thrilled to see Cimulate AI led by my buddy John Andrews, Profound led by my future buddies Dylan Babbs & James Cadwallader, & Scot Wingo led by ReFiBuy.ai tackling this head on. For my brand & retailer community, talk to me: Are your products ready to be chosen by the customer of the future - a moshpit of AI agents?

🚀 Revolutionizing Grocery Shopping with Insta-Cart's Caper Cart at Kroger! 🚀 As an innovation enthusiast, I'm always on the lookout for groundbreaking technologies that transform everyday experiences. Recently, I had the chance to test Instacart-Cart's Caper Cart, founded by Lindon Gao, York Yang, and Ahmed Beshry at my local Kroger in Westerville, Ohio – not far from our first Wendy's FreshAi pilot location. I'm excited to share my experience and some thoughts on the future of this amazing technology. Why the Caper Cart Stands Out Caper Cart is an AI-powered smart shopping cart designed to make grocery shopping faster, easier, and more interactive. With features like real-time cost tracking, easy coupon management, and the ability to skip the checkout line, it's poised to revolutionize the grocery industry. Key Takeaways from My Experience - Cost Awareness: Real-time spend tracking helps customers manage budgets effectively. - Coupon Management: Simplifies saving on purchases. - Skip the Line: Scan as you shop and avoid checkout queues. - Interactive Feedback: Audio and visual cues ensure items are correctly added. Opportunities for Improvement - Barcode Visibility: Clearer instructions for scanning barcodes. - UI Clarity: More prominent prompts for non-technical users. - Learning Curve: Intuitive tutorials to ease the transition for first-time users. The Future of Grocery Shopping Using the Caper Cart sparked my imagination about its potential. Here are some exciting possibilities: 🔍 Wayfinding Assistance: Guide customers to specific aisles or items, making shopping more efficient. 💊 Prescription Alerts: Notify customers when their prescriptions are ready for pickup, saving extra trips. 🌟 Personalized Recommendations: Offer product suggestions based on location and shopping history. 🍎 Nutritional Info & Suggestions: Provide real-time nutritional information and healthier alternatives. 💸 Dynamic Pricing & Promotions: Implement dynamic pricing strategies for perishable items to reduce waste and offer great deals. 📋 Enhanced Shopping List Integration: Sync with digital shopping lists for a seamless experience. 🎙️ GenAI Voice Shopping Companion: Imagine a voice-activated assistant that helps customers find products, answers questions about inventory, and suggests recipes based on cart items. The Caper Cart has immense potential to revolutionize the grocery shopping experience, and I'm excited to see where the team takes it next. To the Insta-Cart and Caper Cart product teams, I hope my insights spark new ideas and contribute to the evolution of this fantastic technology. #innovation #foodtech #AI #QSR Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Wendy's Company or its affiliates. While I am employed by The Wendy's Company, this article reflects my personal research and interests.

Biometric payments might be the future of payments (in fact, it's already here.) Major companies are working on this: → US - Amazon's pushing palm payments in 500+ Whole Foods stores - Face payments are gaining traction, with PopID partnering with JPMorgan Chase - CaliExpress in Pasadena launched a robot-run burger joint where you can pay with your face - Steak 'N Shake is installing facial recognition kiosks in 300 locations for faster check-ins → Europe - Mastercard's backing PayEye, a Polish startup using iris and facial recognition - They're piloting at 5 Empik stores (a major book and media retailer in Poland) - The pilot is part of Mastercard's global Biometric Checkout Program - 4 out of 5 Polish respondents have used biometric technology, with nearly 100% adoption among 18-25 year-olds → Globally - Juniper Research predicts 100% market growth for biometric payments between 2024 and 2028 - By 2025, they forecast $3 trillion in mobile, biometric-secured payments - Mastercard's pilot in Brazil showed 76% of participants would recommend face-based payments - In China, biometric payments are already common, with systems like AliPay offering the tech since 2015 This technology could revolutionize checkout experiences. It's another step in the evolution of payments. (cash → cards → phones → biometrics) But there are challenges: People are worried about their biometric data being collected and stored. We're seeing lawsuits against big players like Target, Amazon, and T-Mobile over biometric data collection Security of biometric data The future of payments is exciting, but it's also complex. That's why, at Yuno, we're always adapting our solutions to stay ahead of the curve while prioritizing security and user trust.

🛍️ Fresh from #NRF2025, I can’t stop thinking about another kind of "walk out" that’s quietly redefining retail... 🎯 Plot twist: Remember when it seemed like #Amazon was stepping away from its Amazon Go stores? The reality is quite different—and fascinating. 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Those convenient grab-and-go stores at airports or on university campuses? Chances are, they’re powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. From Hudson News to college convenience stores, Amazon's tech is quietly reshaping retail, even without the Amazon branding. 2️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐞: ⚡ 8 seconds: Average time to grab a drink at stadium stores. 🏪 300+ third-party stores are using this technology. 🎓 100+ university campuses have implemented the solution. 🔍 𝐌𝐲 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡: I was part of the first wave of testers at Amazon Go stores in San Francisco. I tried everything to outsmart the system—grabbing extra items, moving products around—just to see how it worked. Those early iterations weren’t perfect (shoutout to the offshore validation teams! 😅), but they laid the groundwork for something extraordinary. 💡𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: What seemed like a failure was actually Amazon's massive real-world beta test. Fast forward to now—#GenAI and advanced sensors have transformed this into a scalable, game-changing solution. 🎮 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥: As highlighted at NRF2025—and emphasized by Doug Herrington, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Stores—AI is revolutionizing retail in ways we haven’t seen since the internet boom. Just Walk Out is positioned perfectly to lead this AI-driven transformation. 🤔 What’s next? Could this tech expand into clothing stores or beauty retailers? I’d love to hear your thoughts! #RetailInnovation #FutureOfRetail #RetailTech #Innovation Ted Levine Lindsey Mazza Tim Bridges Kees Jacobs Bridget Blaize Renata Melnyk Kevin McCurdy Heidi Bonjean Aparna Galiasso

Are long checkout lines and frustrating self-scan kiosks driving you away from brick-and-mortar stores? Smart shopping carts have the potential to revolutionize the retail experience in 2025, making grocery runs smoother, faster, and more enjoyable than ever before. Smart carts are transforming the checkout process in several innovative ways: 👉 Seamless Scanning: Equipped with advanced sensors and cameras, these carts automatically detect and log items as shoppers place them in the cart, eliminating the need for manual scanning. 👉 In-Cart Payment: Shoppers can complete their transactions directly through the cart's interface, bypassing traditional checkout lines entirely. 👉 Weight Verification: Integrated scales ensure accurate pricing for produce and bulk items, reducing errors and disputes. 👉 Real-Time Totals: The cart's display keeps a running total of purchases, helping shoppers stay within budget. 👉 Personalized Recommendations: AI-powered systems can suggest complementary products based on items already in the cart, enhancing the shopping experience. These features combine to create a frictionless shopping journey, significantly reducing wait times and labor costs for retailers while improving customer satisfaction. As we embrace this technology, it's crucial to consider its wider implications. How will smart carts impact retail employment? What measures are in place to ensure data privacy? And how can smaller retailers compete with this technology? Have you used a smart shopping cart? What is your take? #RetailInnovation #SmartShopping #TechTrends #AIinRetail #FrictionlessShopping

From the department-of-mythbusting: our Just Walk Out technology is not going anywhere but to even more locations worldwide. Let's walk through what's really going on here... If you want to optimize any experience, a great place to start is with the biggest, most egregious, inefficient part of that experience. For physical shopping - you don't have to look much further than waiting in line for a checkout. It's boring, and it's a waste of time for both the shopper, and the store. So when we started to look at how to improve physical shopping - we started with the question: how do we take out the line? This is a hard problem - but it led to inventions like Just Walk Out (an AI and sensor fusion system for checkout-free shopping), Amazon Dash Cart (where you scan items as you place them into your cart), and Amazon One (our palm-based payments and identity). These technologies are complementary, and serve a very different purpose depending on these store and shopping task: 🚶 Just Walk Out is great for really quick, "mission driven" shopping - like small-format convenience stores for snacks, drinks, and so on. You know what you want, and you don't want a lot. Enter. Grab. Just walk out. Even with relatively few items sold per visit, we have already sold over 18 million items in Just Walk Out stores, and there are now more than 140 third-party locations with Just Walk Out technology in the U.S., UK, Australia, and Canada. The response from shoppers to Just Walk Out in small-format stores has been so strong that we will launch more small-format third-party Just Walk Out stores in 2024 than any year prior, more than doubling the number of third-party stores with the technology this year. 🛒 In larger grocery stores, where customers are making a big weekly trip and buy a greater number of items, customers so far prefer Amazon Dash Cart. Dash Cart serves as a shopping companion that travels through the store with a customer, helping them locate items with an on-cart screen featuring maps and navigation, and receive personalized shopping experiences, all while tracking their savings and spending in real time. ✋ Regardless of the size or format of the store, shoppers tell us they like the security and convenience of Amazon One. Amazon One is in 500+ Whole Foods stores, other Amazon stores, and 150 third-party locations like stadiums, airports, fitness centers, and more. Just Walk Out, Dash Cart, and Amazon One - together - let us remove these pesky lines in more places than we could in isolation. They are complements to one another - like The Beatles. Stronger than the sum of their parts. So don't believe the headlines. Just Walk Out isn't going anywhere, except into more locations, in more countries, to help more shoppers, and more businesses. Now back to your regular scheduled programming... :)