Amazon is taking its cashier-free “Just Walk Out” technology on the road, unveiling a portable RFID-enabled version designed for pop-up shops, festivals and other temporary retail venues.
The company said the latest iteration of its frictionless shopping platform features modular checkout lanes that can be deployed within hours, allowing merchants to offer grab-and-go retail in short-term locations.
Amazon is positioning the portable system for use at live events, seasonal activations and mobile retail formats.
The updated RFID lanes were piloted at 17 locations in 2025, including a pop-up shop at the Camp Flog Gnaw music festival where Amazon Music sold artist merchandise, as well as a store at the Circuit of the Americas racetrack operated by concessionaire Proof of the Pudding.
The portable solution builds on Amazon’s RFID walk-through lanes first introduced in 2023.
Those lanes use tagged merchandise to automatically identify what customers are carrying, enabling them to enter a lane, tap a payment card and exit without a traditional checkout.
Amazon said the newest version adds three key upgrades: in-lane digital screens with a guided user interface, motorized gates that automatically open and close to manage traffic flow, and dynamic pre-authorization that shows shoppers their running total before they complete a purchase.
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Previously, customers had to push through manual gates and could only see their total after checkout.
Just Walk Out technology combines computer vision, sensor fusion and generative AI to track item interactions in real time, detecting when shoppers pick up, move or return products.
While camera-based systems work well for many items, Amazon said soft goods such as apparel and fan merchandise present challenges when items are tried on or carried in bundles.
To address this, the updated RFID lanes use multiple antennas and specialized readers that detect unique RFID tags on each item, supported by algorithms designed to identify everything a customer is carrying as they pass through the lane.
Each lane can process up to six transactions per minute and includes built-in loss prevention that can detect unpaid items and automatically close exit gates when necessary.
Amazon said it deployed more than 150 new stores using both computer vision- and RFID-enabled Just Walk Out systems across a wide range of venues in 2025.
During the year, the company also expanded the technology into France and said it plans to launch Just Walk Out in the United Arab Emirates in 2026.
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