What does the future hold for Amazon Go? Analysis and figures

Launched in 2018, Amazon Go promised to revolutionise the retail sector with its cashierless stores. Amazon Go was indeed the absolute pioneer (and remains the reference) in autonomous stores. But today, in 2025, the results are mixed. Between cascading closures and economic difficulties, what is really happening to the “Just Walk Out” technology on which Amazon Go is based and which was supposed to transform our shopping habits? Analysis of a model that is struggling to find its balance but which is rebounding in an unexpected way.

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Amazon Go facing economic reality

When Amazon opened its first Go store in Seattle, the enthusiasm was palpable. The idea seemed brilliant: enter, take your items and leave without going through the checkout (watch the video below and you will probably feel, like me, a lot of excitement). The Just Walk Out technology, based on artificial intelligence and hundreds of cameras, promised to eliminate queues forever.

Yet, 7 years later, reality is catching up with innovation. Out of the 30 Amazon Go stores created in total, only 17 remain in operation. Closures have accelerated: 8 in 2023, then 3 additional ones in New York in October 2024. These figures reveal a complex economic equation that even the American giant is struggling to solve.

The main challenge? Profitability. Each Amazon Go store requires considerable technological investment, with hundreds of cameras and sensors. Added to this are high rents for prime urban locations and a deliberately reduced assortment to 1,500 references. This combination makes it difficult to reach an acceptable profitability threshold.

Is this reality catching up only with Amazon? No, because other retailers who had launched into autonomous stores have also stopped their experiments. I had for example visited Carrefour Flash which quickly closed, and had echoed experiments at Albert Heijn in the Netherlands. These have also been stopped.

In short, the lack of profitability of autonomous stores is a reality for all retailers.

The lack of profitability of autonomous stores is a reality for all retailers.

The progressive abandonment of Amazon Fresh

The year 2025 marks a decisive turning point for Amazon with the announcement of the complete closure of the Amazon Fresh format equipped with Just Walk Out in the United Kingdom. On 23 September 2025, the Seattle firm confirmed the closure of 14 stores out of the 19 that the British network counted, the remaining 5 being converted to Whole Foods Market.

This decision echoes the previous withdrawal of the technology in the United States. As early as April 2023, Amazon had abandoned the deployment of Just Walk Out in its future Amazon Fresh convenience stores and removed the technology from 20 existing stores, preferring the Dash Cart, a less expensive smart trolley (see presentation video below).

These successive withdrawals highlight the limits of Just Walk Out in supermarket formats with large assortments. With tens of thousands of references, the number of cameras explodes and technological costs become, in Amazon’s terms, “pharaonic”. The company invokes an “evaluation of commercial operations” and “growth prospects deemed insufficient”, particularly in the face of online delivery competition.

An aspect that, I think, should not be neglected either, is the environmental footprint. Alongside technological costs, there are also energy costs to power all this technology: whether installed in stores (cameras, sensors) or remote (servers to store data). And justifying a technological footprint in a context of energy scarcity is becoming increasingly complicated.

A technology that is developing elsewhere

Paradoxically, while Amazon is reducing its own deployments, the Just Walk Out technology is experiencing a second wind with third-party partners. In 2024, it equips around 170 points of sale in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

These new environments have very different characteristics from traditional Amazon Go stores. Just Walk Out is mainly found in airports, stadiums, universities and hospitals. These locations share decisive advantages:

• smaller average baskets
• strong time constraint for customers
• greater tolerance for high prices
• high but irregular flows

Added to this is customer identification via bank card rather than via the Amazon app. This simplifies the customer experience and eliminates possible friction (beyond of course the aspects related to data ownership: how could a third-party store indeed accept that its data passes through the Amazon app?).

This evolution reveals a pragmatic adaptation of the technology. Rather than targeting traditional retail, Amazon is now betting on niches where the added value of time saving justifies technological surcosts. The example of Flunch that I develop in the following paragraph illustrates this perfectly.

Flunch “Faim”: an autonomous store

France is not left behind in this experiment. On 15 September 2025, Flunch inaugurated in Lille its first Faim point of sale, rue Pierre Mauroy, between the two stations. This 45 m² take-away catering store marks the arrival of Just Walk Out in France, but with a different approach.

Unlike American Amazon Go stores, entry is free, without app or prior identification. Identification only takes place at the exit, by presenting the bank card on a terminal. This simplification of the process could seduce French customers sometimes reluctant to new technologies.

The total investment of 400,000 euros for this pilot site is based on around a hundred cameras. Flunch is targeting forecast revenue of 650,000 euros and plans two other locations in the Lille metropolis to test the concept on different customer flows.

This French initiative perfectly illustrates the new strategy: reduced surfaces, specialised offer (fast food) and positioning in high-traffic urban areas.

I think it should also be emphasised that the Just Walk Out technology is implemented in a more reasonable way than in Amazon Go. The autonomous store is therefore not completely dead, and this is what I will try to show in the rest of this article.

Carrefour Flash was an autonomous store of the Carrefour group. Unfortunately, it could not anchor itself in the French retail landscape and was closed. That said, the autonomous store is reborn today in other forms.

The lessons of a model in mutation

The analysis of the different Amazon Go experiences is revealing of the future of autonomous commerce. The Just Walk Out technology works perfectly on the operational level. But in retail, which operates with tight margins, economic reality prevails. If a format is not profitable, it disappears. This is what is happening to Amazon Go but what has already happened to Carrefour Flash (see photo above) and to others around the world.

The model requires massive deployment of cameras, sensors and analysis infrastructures, generating high installation and maintenance costs. These constraints become particularly heavy in supermarket formats with large assortments or in areas with high rents, where average baskets remain limited.

Conversely, the technology seems perfectly adapted to reduced surfaces, restricted offers and locations where time saving constitutes a key benefit for the customer. Very busy city centres, airports or fast food points thus offer an ideal playground.

This evolution suggests that the future of autonomous commerce will not go through a generalised revolution, but rather through intelligent specialisation on promising niches. Amazon’s mistake was therefore to want to convert too early, too quickly, all retail to its new model. As often in life, reality is more nuanced than what we imagine.

Towards a more targeted future

What to remember from this analysis? Amazon Go, in its original version of urban convenience store, seems to have reached its limits. Successive closures and the abandonment of the Amazon Fresh format testify to the difficulties in making a costly model profitable in the face of slowly evolving consumption habits.

However, the Just Walk Out technology is finding a second youth in more targeted applications. The current 170 third-party points of sale and the arrival in France with Flunch show that a strategic repositioning is underway.

The future of autonomous commerce is probably taking shape in this direction:

• specialised formats
• reduced surfaces
• environments with high flows
• an offer that responds to a time constraint for the user

It is on condition of respecting these conditions that the technology behind autonomous stores will have a chance to redevelop. A pragmatic evolution that could ultimately prove more sustainable than Amazon’s initial ambitions.

Frequently asked questions

How many Amazon Go stores are still open?

There are currently 17 Amazon Go stores in operation in the United States. This figure results from several waves of closures: 8 in 2023 and 3 additional ones in New York in October 2024. Out of the 30 stores created in total since the launch of the concept, nearly half have therefore closed their doors.

Why is Amazon closing its Go stores?

The main reason invoked by Amazon concerns profitability. Technological costs are very high: each store requires hundreds of cameras and sensors, plus sophisticated analysis infrastructures. Added to high rents for urban locations and a reduced assortment (1,500 references), these factors make it difficult to reach an acceptable profitability threshold.

Does the Just Walk Out technology exist in France?

Yes, since September 2025. Flunch opened its first Faim point of sale in Lille, equipped with Just Walk Out technology. This 45 m² take-away catering store works differently from American Amazon Go stores: entry is free and identification only takes place at the exit by bank card.

How exactly does Just Walk Out work?

The technology relies on hundreds of cameras and sensors that track customer movements and identify items taken or put back. An artificial intelligence system analyses this data in real time to build a virtual basket. Payment is made automatically at the exit, either via a mobile app (Amazon Go), or by bank card (Flunch model).

What is the future of autonomous commerce?

The future seems to be taking shape towards more targeted applications than traditional retail. The Just Walk Out technology finds its economic balance in specific environments: airports, stadiums, universities, hospitals, or fast food points. These locations combine reduced average baskets, strong time constraint and tolerance for high prices, justifying technological investment.