Footy fans at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium will be able to grab pies, hot chips and beers without waiting for a cashier when the venue becomes the first in the southern hemisphere to use cashier-free technology from Amazon.
The AFL on Tuesday announced the venue will roll out the company’s “just walk out” technology, allowing people to use their digital wallet or bank card when they enter the store and skip the checkout queue. The technology detects the products chosen and charges them to customers’ cards when they leave.
The system will be introduced at two outlets at the stadium while the AFL season is still in the early rounds of the premiership season.
Prof Gary Mortimer, a retail expert at the Queensland University of Technology, said he expected “frictionless shopping” would become more common across Australia.
“The value is when you’re at a football match, you want to watch the action. You don’t want to have to line up to pay for your hot sausage roll or your meat pie,” he said.
“Shoppers are becoming more sensitive to time pressures and looking to expedite that transaction faster.”
In 2018 the supermarket giant Woolworths introduced scan-and-go technology, allowing shoppers to scan groceries with their smartphone and leave the supermarket without using checkouts.
Mortimer anticipated other sporting and concert stadiums across Australia would soon introduce Amazon’s technology.
“It’s so valuable for any event when you’re seated and want to be able to just grab it and go.”
The “walk-out technology” uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to determine which customer picked an item from the shelf. The accuracy of the system has been developed using artificial datasets that mimicked shopping scenarios. Initially, it was only available to Amazon customers and it is now in place in sports venues across the US.
Mortimer said the computer vision would detect customer’s clothing and the colours and brands of the items they selected to help track them through a store. Fans can use a digital wallet or credit or debit card to pay.
Mortimer said he imagined younger and tech-savvy consumers would be the target.
“Like all types of technology, if it saves you time, many people will adopt it,” he said.
Kylie Rogers, the AFL’s executive general manager of its customer and commercial division, said the system would help Marvel Stadium become the most technically advanced sports venue in the world.
“This is about the fans, bringing them a next-generation stadium experience so they can spend more time enjoying the footy,” she said in a statement.
Fans buying alcohol will be required to show ID to a store employee to confirm they are over 18.
The technology will be available at two outlets in the stadium – one drinks and one food stall.
