A Startup Opens a Concept Store to Compete With Amazon in Ditching Checkout Lanes

Amazon.com Inc. may not have a lock on the concept of a checkout-free store. A San Francisco-based startup company called Zippin said on Monday it has opened a store that lets consumers walk in, pick up the items they want to buy, and simply walk out. Zippin’s technology tracks what they buy and charges the payment card embedded in the consumer’s app.

The concept store, which is open now by private invitation, will open to the public mid-September, Zippin says. Amazon’s Seattle store opened to employees in 2016 and to the public in January. The e-commerce giant plans to open two more Amazon Go convenience stores in Chicago and one in San Francisco.

To shop in the Zippin store, consumers download the Zippin app and load a payment card. The app generates a quick-response code the user scans to enter the store. Once inside, their movements are tracked by ceiling-mounted cameras, though without facial recognition, the company says, and shelf sensors register what they pick up. When they leave with their goods, the app generates a receipt on their phone.

As with Amazon Go, the idea is to reduce consumer frustration with long wait times inside physical stores, executives with the startup say. The company cites statistics indicating U.S. consumers “waste” 37 billion hours a year waiting in line, much of it standing at checkout.

“Consumer frustration with checkout lines is driving a tidal wave of demand among retailers and real-estate owners keen to provide a frictionless retail experience,” Krishna Motukuri, chief executive of Zippin, said in a statement. “With annual sales of grocery stores, convenience stores and quick-serve restaurants totaling nearly $1.6 trillion in the U.S. alone, we believe there is a sizeable market opportunity for us to pursue.”

Motokuri is a former Amazon executive, though he left the company in 2006. He cofounded Zippin in 2014.

The search for a way to relieve consumer congestion at checkout has inspired a number of approaches. In June, for example, a Boston-based company called Moltin launched a browser-based capability that lets consumers ring up their own goods.

With the Moltin technology, which relies on an application programming interface linking to the merchant’s servers, a shopper using a smart phone can find a short URL, scan the barcode attached to the products, and make payment with a digital card or with Apple Pay or Google Pay. In this way, consumers can avoid downloading an app to check out and can make an in-store purchase in much the same way they would in an e-commerce scenario, Moltin says.