Dive Brief:

• About 44% of Amazon Go shoppers already have visited the cashierless store more than once, and shoppers average about 27 minutes in the store per shopping trip, according to a 60-day analysis of the first five Amazon Go locations conducted by digital advertising and data firm inMarket.

• The research, conducted over a 60-day period through September and October, also found that Wednesday tended be the busiest shopping day of the week at Amazon Go stores, followed by Thursday and Friday. Monday was the slowest shopping day, excluding weekends (only three of the five stores were open during weekends).

• Mid-day hours, specifically noon, 2 p.m. and 1 p.m., appeared to be peak shopping times according to inMarket’s data, though the 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. hours also saw high volumes of traffic through the stores.

Dive Insight:

From the opening of its first Amazon Go store in January 2018 to the opening of its most recent stores in San Francisco and Chicago, Amazon has kept quiet on the stores' shopping data. InMarket's study at least provides a snapshot of the daily comings and goings of Amazon Go shoppers and store operations, derived from location-based data points. 

The firm's research suggests a high percentage of return shopping visits and the average dwell time of shoppers. Both these numbers could still trend upward, too, if the number of first-time visitors that have ducked in just for a few minutes to check out the store with a loose plan to come back later for a longer shopping trip is considered. (Alternately, those numbers could go down, too, if the stores' convenience proposition and offering can't keep shoppers out of competitors' stores.)

For now, this data and the details about peak shopping days and hours all point to the notion that Amazon Go is being received by consumers the way the e-commerce giant likely hoped it would be. On-the-go urban office workers are coming by around lunchtime and breakfast time, perhaps for freshly-prepared meals.

InMarket's research helps fill an information void left by the e-commerce giant. Amazon has been busily opening new Amazon Go locations in three cities — Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco. More data could show how shopper behavior varies between these cities and others where stores may open soon. Also, the average dwell time reported by inMarket appears to be longer than expected for a store that is essentially a convenience store reinvented with faster checkouts. Additional data about what shoppers are doing during these longer visits might shed some light on the forces at play.

As Sam’s Club Now and other cashierless store concepts prepare to launch and expand, the retail sector is going to be hungry for plenty of analysis on just how much these concepts may shake up brick-and-mortar retail in the months and years to come.