Amazon.com Inc. is expanding its brick-and-mortar retail presence with the launch of Amazon Go, a small convenience store in downtown Seattle that will allow customers to simply take items off the shelf and walk out, no checkout needed.

Together with a smartphone app and various in-store technology, Amazon will be able to track the items you are taking off the shelf in a virtual cart and then charge your Amazon account when you leave.

“Four years ago we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout?” says Amazon on the official Go site. To make the 1,800-square-foot store work, Amazon will rely on a combination of the same technology used in self-driving cars.

While the company hasn’t said exactly how the store will work, it says the “Just Walk Out” technology will use computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that tries to emulate how the brain learns, to monitor your purchases and charge you once you leave the store.

This isn’t Amazon’s first experimentation with brick-and-mortar stores. It opened its first physical bookstore over a year ago in Seattle, this was then followed by stores in San Diego and Portland, Ore. The company also has plans to open bookstores in both Chicago and Boston.  

Amazon is also reportedly working on another drive-up grocery store concept, currently being constructed in Seattle, that would allow customers to order online and pick up their items at the store. Items can be delivered to the customer’s car or they can go into the store to collect it.

Although the Amazon Go concept will allow customers to save time and retailers will be able to save money on labor costs, there are also some unanswered questions. These include how Amazon Go will handle shoplifters and whether hackers will be able to target the mobile app. Will there be staff in store to handle questions from customers or deal with checking identification cards for alcohol purchases?

Also, how good will the technology be? Will it be able to spot someone eating something in the store and putting the empty container back on the shelf? Will it be able to correctly record someone taking multiple items off the shelf? Nobody knows the answers yet, or at least Amazon hasn’t revealed them. 

Based on the success of the Amazon Go concept, the company has ambitions of opening more than 2,000 brick-and-mortar grocery stores under its name, according to people familiar with the matter. Amazon Go, which is located on the ground floor of one of Amazon’s new office towers, is currently open only to Amazon employees during a beta program, but the company says it will open to the public early next year.

The items on sale in Amazon Go focus predominantly on meals and will include ready-to-eat meals and snacks prepared onsite, as well as Amazon Meal Kits, which includes all the ingredients to make a meal for two in 30 minutes. Amazon Go will also include staples like bread and milk.

How to get started when it launches

To shop at Amazon Go you will need to have the free Amazon Go mobile app, a supported smartphone and an Amazon account.

At the Amazon Go store, you will scan the mobile app at the entry gate. You will then shop for items as normal, Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology will detect when you remove an item from a shelf or return it. Once your shopping is complete you can walk out of the store, no lines, no checkout.

Your Amazon account will be charged shortly after leaving the Go store and you will be sent a receipt for your purchase.  

Amazon Go will launch to the public in early 2017. The store is located at 2131 7th Ave. in Seattle. You can sign up for notifications on the official Amazon Go site to be alerted when the store opens to the public.

Here’s how Amazon is pitching the Go shopping experience:

Image via Amazon