Amazon Brings Just Walk Out Tech to Pop-Up Stores

Amazon says it is bringing its “Just Walk Out” checkout technology to temporary retail locations.

The company on Tuesday (Jan. 13) announced the debut of the latest iteration of its radio frequency identification (RFID) lanes, designed for things like pop-up shops and festivals.

“This builds on the RFID technology we pioneered in 2023 for merchandise: walk-through lanes that use RFID tags to automatically detect what customers are carrying, so they can simply grab items and walk out by tapping their card to pay,” Amazon said on its blog.

The new lanes feature enhancements designed to speed checkout, such as in-lane screens “with an intuitive user interface guide shoppers through the checkout process while displaying cart totals.”

They also feature motorized gates that automatically open and close to help the flow of traffic, along with “dynamic pre-authorization gives customers greater cart visibility” so they know what they’re spending before finishing their purchase.

Amazon also cites the impact Just Walk Out has had for its corporate users. For example, Lumen Field in Seattle increased total sales per game by 47%, while BayCare’s St. Joseph’s Hospital in Florida shrank wait times from 25 minutes down to 3 minutes.

The technology also helped UC San Diego in California serve 11% more students while reducing retail theft by 83%.

In addition to third-party retail locations such as stadiums, Amazon said it is also adding Just Walk Out technology to its own operations, including more than 40 Just Walk Out-enabled stores at Amazon fulfillment centers, with more slated to go live this year.

“This internal deployment demonstrates our confidence in the technology while creating additional opportunities for innovation and scale,” the company said.

In other Amazon news, PYMNTS wrote on Tuesday about the company’s rivalry with Walmart at a time when “retail is being stretched by two different and increasingly incompatible forces that shape consumer behavior, capital allocation and competitive advantage … Call them essential gravity and discretionary gravity.”

Amazon, that report said, has found its strength is not any one category, but the ability to absorb demand as it appears. Search, recommendations, reviews, Prime membership and fulfillment all come together to ease friction at the moment of intent.

“Still, discretionary gravity is riskier. It is exposed to consumer sentiment, macro cycles and promotional intensity,” that report said. “But it is also where growth lives. When consumers feel confident, discretionary spending expands rapidly. When new categories emerge, platforms, and not stores, can capture the upside first.”

The question before retailers now, PYMNTS added, is not whether they can compete with giants on price or scale. It is whether they grasp which gravity they serve, and whether they are willing to commit fully to it.