Amazon Go stores are known for their “walk in, walk out” checkout-free experiences, and the tech giant is also acting as a vendor for its cashier-free technology toolset. Amazon, however, faces competition from well-funded competitors, including San Francisco-Standard Cognition, which just raised $150M in Series C funding, and Santa Clara, Calif.-based AiFi, which has raised a total of $29.5M. Both companies, and a range of others, are going after legacy and upstart retailers.

Why should we care?
Coronavirus fears have amplified the rationale to get rid of checkouts at stores, and cashier-free checkout vendors are thriving. Technology from Standard Cognition offers retailers cameras and software to track consumer activity, automatically charging them as they leave stories. The technology is going live this week in an Arizona-based Circle K convenience store, and integrations with more Circle K stores – a chain owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard – will follow. Meanwhile, AiFi, a startup which offers a similar set of tools, announced it’s partnering with Wundermart, a company that creates unmanned, data-driven retail marketplaces across three European markets. AiFi’s technology will be integrated with 20 of Wundermart’s autonomous convenience stores in the first quarter of this year. “The pandemic has caused everything in our lives to shift, including how we shop. This shift made innovation a requirement, which is why we are pleased to partner with Wundermart to make its unmanned marketplaces entirely contactless," said Steve Gu, co-founder and CEO of AiFi. AiFi also works with global retailers Carrefour, Albert Heijn, and Zabka.