Innovation in Retail: Amazon's Cashless Stores

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
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2ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
Task 2:
As the context of the assignment is based on Innovation, one of the recent innovations by
the e-commerce giant Amazon Inc will be discussed based on the article published in Bloomberg
(refer to the reference list for the link of the article). This article focuses on the number of
cashless stores that the management of Amazon claim to open by 2021 (Soper, 2018). Amazon is
an organisation that is based on innovation; the company has set a record of investing the largest
sum of money in research and development department. Amazon has a plethora of services and
products which are all benchmarking in their own category. The company has gathered the
attention of the customers as well as other stakeholders along with media when they had
announced the “future of retail” with unveiling the concept of Amazon Go. This plan of going
cashless in the physical retail industry is like a disruptive innovation. An innovation is said to be
disruptive when it challenges the established concept or idea (Christensen et al., 2015). Amazon
Go is claimed by the company to be the most advanced shopping experience, where the
customers can walk in to the store, pick up the required goods and just walk out. This will minus
queuing up for bill payments, having cash ready etc. The company has used AI, computer vision
and other technologies to enable the customers to not waste time for billing etc.
The CEO of Amazon has established that the company is consumer based organisation
and the company focuses on the needs and requirements of the customers in order to develop the
products. Innovation being the most important part of the delivery process in providing the
customers with their requirements. Computer visions, deep learning algorithms, sensor fusions
and “just walk out technology” to develop this service (Amazon.com., 2018). With the help of
the Amazon Go mobile Application the billing is virtually made and the individual is charged