OPINION: Amazon Go sets the bar high for convenience retailers

It is amazing how many people have shared Amazon’s video of the checkout free bricks and mortar convenience store of the future.

The technology that supports this is called Just Walk Out. It looks fantastic.

But how did the shelves in the store get so neat? And do people really want a transaction-free local shopping service? For some people the answer may be yes, but do you really want to serve them?

Amazon’s mission is “one click away”. It aims to take friction out of the shopping experience – and this works. Once you have plugged your credit card into its solar system the company makes it painless for you to buy almost anything that you could want.

The scary thing about the Amazon video is it delivers what it promises. How can a company be that big and that good?

Unfortunately, that doesn’t extend to mobile phone contracts for a Christmas present.

Enter this world and it looks and feels like Amazon at the start. You find the best deal, enter your details and are promised delivery next day.

Then you get an email saying the network is going to check your status. Then you get an email saying the network has rejected you and if you sign up for a free credit check service you can find out why. But there is small print that reminds you that the service ceases to be free after 14 days and will cost £20 a month thereafter.

You sign up online to the credit check service and find you are scored excellent. You call the original company and say you’re still in the dark and the call handler says that you have to contact the network due to data protection.

You call the network and get through to a nice call handler who politely says she can only sell you a phone and there is an email address for the questions I want to ask. You write the email. You call the credit check service first thing Monday to cancel your membership. You receive a polite holding message from the network. We may have to investigate further, it advises. It is now five days later and you have made no progress.

Amazon has delivered all 11 items ordered on Saturday – eight of them on Sunday and three on Monday. It sends me an email asking me to rate its customer service.

The scary thing about the Amazon video is that it delivers what it promises. I don’t know how this can be possible. How can a company be that big and that good? Is it possible that in the future there will just be one retail company and everyone will buy everything from Amazon?

How can you tell? One way I think is to understand how shopping is changing.

My credit card company recently sent me a new card which has the swipe and pay facility. I did it for the first time on Sunday. It was like magic. Tap and pay. It was like having a wand. A small magical experience. Just Walk Out technology is scarily impressive.

That is what you see when you watch the Amazon video. The shopper is in control. That is the challenge all retailers will face in the future. A shopper who feels in control is a happier shopper, more likely to be loyal and more likely to be a repeat purchaser.

The profit is in the repeat purchase. Amazon is setting your customer service bar high for 2017 and beyond.