Dive Brief:

• Amazon is incorporating its Just Walk Out frictionless checkout technology into 10 university campus convenience stores, the company announced Tuesday.
• This will bring the worldwide total of campus convenience stores that use the retail titan’s Just Walk Out tech to more than 30 across three countries. Customers can scan a credit card when they walk in, select items and leave. Their account will be charged and a receipt emailed to them.
• The expansion comes as Amazon updates its checkout technology. Last month, it revealed an upgrade to its artificial intelligence model that allows it to more accurately determine what customers are picking up and putting back on shelves.

Dive Insight:

While interest in frictionless checkout has yet to take off in the broader convenience store space, it is increasingly finding traction on campuses, where automated stores can sell to students 24 hours a day. 

The first Just Walk Out-powered campus c-store in the U.S. opened at Marymount University in Virginia, in March 2023.

The new U.S. schools joining Amazon’s Just Walk Out ecosystem are Emory University; University of Maine; Loyola University Maryland – Sellinger School of Business and Management; Endicott University; Lindenwood University; Ursinus College; Texas Christian University; and the University of Virginia. 

Two more schools will be announced in coming months, according to an Amazon spokesperson. 

Several of these stores also incorporate Amazon One palm-based biometric payments, according to information from the company. 

While Amazon hasn’t released throughput data from its campus stores, its stadium-based sites have performed well. The first Just Walk Out site at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team, saw a 60% increase in customer throughput during the 2022 season, and more than double the total transactions, compared to a traditional concession stand that had been used previously, the company said.

Sports arenas have been one of the largest avenues for growth of automated checkout technology as customers look to grab snacks without missing any of the action.

Lumen Field is opening five new Just Walk Out concession stands and one radio frequency identification-based merchandise store for the coming NFL season. The Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium will open its first such store this season, while Commanders Field outside of Washington, D.C., is debuting seven.

Counting these new stores, Just Walk Out technology is available in more than 80 sports stadiums and over 180 total third-party locations in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada, the company said. Much of that growth has come this year.

“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 year-over-year,” said Jon Jenkins,vice president of Just Walk Out technology, in an email.