The End of the Line For Retail

Well it's finally happened. With the launch of Amazon Go, checkout-free shopping has jumped the geek chasm and hit mainstream. Consumers simply walk in and walk out with goods in hand. Apps invisibly itemize, tally, and track your purchases. Imagine the increased efficiencies. No checkout lines and bottlenecks, plus greatly reduced staffing and equipment – assuming we get past that whole 'people walking out with your inventory in their RFID-blocking pants' thing.

But I'm most intrigued by the disruption this will cause that opens up all kinds of other adjacent opportunities. A great friend and mentor, Jay Samit, cites a profound example during the PC boom, of a colleague who made a killing selling plastic PC covers! (And if you haven't read Jay's book yet on personal disruption, you must Disrupt You!)

When checkout lines disappear, so do the hundreds of checkout aisle impulse items, and the millions of retail dollars they earn annually for their vendors, and the retailer itself. What will replace this revenue, if anything?

Gone are the paper receipt machines, and their endless coupon promos. Sorry, CVS, I'm looking at you! Sell your thermoprinter company stock now! And take those obnoxious credit card terminals with the germ-ridden stylus with you.

Opportunities will abound in big data analysis of traffic-flow, consumer behavior, personalization, and cross-promotion. Digital products will sell alongside material goods. Retailers will add digital value to your purchases. Picture Trader Joes auto-providing digital recipes for the goods you buy. Now picture the industry to create all of these experiences.

Every disruption brings new opportunity in unexpected places.