Belfast's SSE Arena becomes first in Europe to introduce Amazon’s just-walk-out technology
Belfast's SSE Arena will tonight become the first indoor arena in Europe to introduce a checkout-free shopping experience.
Last updated 5th Apr 2024
Belfast's SSE Arena will tonight become the first indoor arena in Europe to introduce a checkout-free shopping experience.
The technology by Amazon, named Pay & Away, allows guests to enter their chosen contactless payment method at the gate of the shop. It detects what the customers take off or return to the shelves, creating a virtual shopping experience. When guests complete their shopping, they can leave without waiting in line, and their chosen payment method will be automatically charged.
Tonight, the shop will officially launch, for the Belfast Giants game in the Elite Ice Hockey League.
Claire Cosgrave, Associate Director of Experience at the Odyssey Trust, spoke to CoolFM/Downtown exclusively: “It’s extremely exciting, at the Arena we are delighted to introduce the Amazon walk out technology. We’ve trialled it over a couple of events and it’s been really, really well received.”
“We’re the first indoor arena in all of Europe to introduce this technology. We’re constantly looking for new ways to innovate and improve our customer experience, and when we saw this in action, we thought this was our next step.”
After being tested earlier in the week, at a darts event with 8,500 thousand people, the virtual shopping experience saw queues half in time.
Claire went onto say: “Any reservations we had on entry times, or the logistics of it, were totally blown away.”
The Stena Line Belfast Giants, who play all home games at Arena will be the only professional ice hockey team outside North America to offer the technology.