Hundreds of unmanned stores are waiting to open. Ali is still blowing a gust of wind to promote the industry.

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In 2017, it was called the "big year" of unmanned convenience stores. Recently, Alibaba's unmanned convenience store "Tao Coffee" appeared in Hangzhou, detonating a new scene of artificial intelligence payment. For a while, unmanned convenience stores gained unprecedented attention, and industry financing news followed.

Before that, convenience stores had been the fastest growing in the retail industry, but had struggled to attract capital. Now, unmanned convenience stores seem to have broken that deadlock. However, while capital has poured in, most investors are still waiting to see. Can unmanned convenience stores really significantly reduce labor costs? Even if labor costs are reduced, can unmanned convenience stores go forward? Is an unmanned convenience store a "tuyere" or just a "gust of wind"?]

The long waiting team on the scene, through the mobile phone Taobao into the store, after consumption out of the store will be automatically deducted... Recently, Alibaba's unmanned convenience store "Tao Coffee" appeared in Hangzhou, quickly became the focus of attention.

Ali entered the game, pushing the popularity of unmanned convenience stores to a climax. In fact, from the end of June to the beginning of July, two unmanned convenience store companies, Bingo Box and F5 Future Store, announced financing news one after another, totaling more than 130 million yuan.

Overnight, unmanned convenience stores stood on the "tuyere", but the other side of the coin is that some unmanned convenience stores already in operation are undergoing market testing. Among them, Shanghai's high temperature weather tested a handful of fruit boxes, fruit box Shanghai two stores in Auchan shop due to high temperature closed for a few days, the latest news is that it has resumed business.

"Daily Economic News" reporter interviewed learned that at present, the fruit box has opened a total of 10 stores. Fruit Box and F5 Future Store are planning to open hundreds of stores in the short term. From this point of view, unmanned convenience stores are expected to usher in the opening tide.

● Ali "Tao Coffee" earns enough eyeballs

July 8 ~12, in Ali Taobao Creation Festival appearance of "Tao coffee" earned enough eyeballs.

"Tao Coffee" as Alibaba's first public appearance of the unmanned store, an area of about 200 square meters, consumers only need to open the mobile phone Taobao scan QR code can enter. After scanning the code through the gate, the phone can be put away and no longer taken out. Just like shopping, users can choose goods in the store at will. Before leaving the store, there will be a "payment gate". After passing through, the user will be automatically deducted.

The unmanned convenience store version of "Tao Coffee" is also seen as Ali's new taste in the new retail sector. According to Ali, the technology has no commercial plans for the time being, and will not open offline stores like Amazon in the future, but will provide a solution based on unmanned retail.

In addition to Alibaba, many well-known enterprises have targeted the field of unmanned convenience stores. The home store brand "unexpectedly home", which is determined to move towards "big consumption", also crosses the border of unmanned convenience stores. Its unmanned convenience store brand EAT-BOX will soon land in two stores in mid-July, located in Beijing Dongzhimen and Century Jinyuan respectively.

Earlier, according to media reports, Wahaha and Shenlan Technology reached strategic cooperation, signed three years 100,000 unmanned stores take go. In this regard,"Daily Economic News" reporter contact Wahaha side, the other party related responsible person revealed, not Wahaha behavior, but Zong Qinghou brother company behavior.

The convenience bee invested by Zhuang Chenchao, former CEO of Qunar, opened its first store in February 2017. Subsequently, convenience bees began to expand in many areas of Beijing, and so far they have opened five stores in Beijing.

At the end of June, Innovation Workshop announced the completion of 30 million yuan A+ financing for F5 Future Store, which is a 24-hour unattended convenience store relying on self-developed robotic arm and background management system.

Xiong Hao, general manager and investment director of South China District of Innovation Workshop, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that at present, domestic convenience stores are in the growth period of rapid development, unattended convenience stores can be easily differentiated to compete with the business format on the market, F5 can greatly reduce labor costs under the premise of ensuring user experience, and the profitability per unit area is better, and the mode is also conducive to rapid expansion.

● Capital favors or welcomes the opening tide

At the same time, well-known enterprises have stepped in one after another, represented by F5 Future Store obtaining financing, unmanned convenience stores are becoming capital darlings.

On July 3, Bingguo Box announced that it had completed Series A financing with an amount of more than 100 million yuan, led by Jiyuan Capital, followed by Qiming Venture Capital, Source Capital, Yintai Capital, etc.

It is understood that Bingo Box started project testing in Zhongshan area of Guangdong Province in August 2016 and landed in Shanghai in early June 2017. Bingo Box mainly uses RFID tag technology and Face Recognition technology. RFID has more advantages in identifying and preventing theft of goods, but it cannot achieve the shopping experience of "take and go" like take go and "coffee shopping".

Bingguo box to reporters introduced, at present it in Shanghai and Zhongshan City a total of 10 stores. The funds of this round of financing are mainly used for R & D, mass production, channel expansion, as well as corresponding promotion and personnel expenses.

According to the fruit box aspect revealed, Before the end of August the first batch of 200 stores will officially land, At present has been ready for mass production, It is expected that within a year can complete 5000 network laying.

As for the store opening plan, Chen Zilin, CEO of Bingo Box, said that stores are planned to be laid all over the country. At present, it has 6 branches, including Dalian, Xi'an, Zhongshan, etc. "Because the business is developing too fast, we have to set up branches in the northeast and northwest regions to implement the business. There are many sites in the process of signing, and there are many boxes to be laid. We are confident that there will be 5000 boxes a year."

Compared with Bingguo Box, before the investment in Innovation Workshop, F5 Future Store had obtained angel round financing of Chuangda Capital of RMB 2 million yuan and Pre-A round financing of RMB 10 million yuan from TCL Venture Capital.

Xiong Hao said that his investment hopes to bring two aspects of help to F5 future stores: one is to help the company achieve rapid scale expansion, and build supply chain system and product R & D system; The second is to provide a set of systematic post-investment management services for start-ups, including the establishment of financial system, the establishment of employee incentive plan, assistance in market operation, and even future capital operation.

It is understood that after F5 Future Store completes financing, it plans to open 30~50 stores within 3~6 months. This year, it plans to open 50~80 stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, of which Guangzhou accounts for 80%.

Xu Haicheng, founder and CEO of F5 Future Store, said in an interview with Daily Economic News that the core of convenience stores is convenience, which requires convenience stores to have high enough density, which in turn requires very low initial investment costs and operating costs to make convenience stores have lower life and death lines to cover higher density.

According to the opening plan of Bingo Box and F5 Future Store, the two companies plan to open hundreds of stores within half a year.

● Is it a vent or a gimmick?

"Suddenly, it was like a spring breeze." Unmanned convenience stores have received unprecedented attention for a time, both for those who are optimistic and for those who look down.

"Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about convenience stores. At present, most of the proponents of unmanned stores still focus on attracting capital attention. The concept of unmanned stores is somewhat gimmicky." Wang Hongtao, deputy secretary-general of China Chain Business Association, told the reporter of Daily Economic News.

Panda Capital partner Mao Shengbo in an interview with the media said, Standing in VC angle is not optimistic about unmanned convenience stores. VC investment has its own model limitations, favoring projects with large market sizes and requiring large volumes in a short time. But convenience stores, even if unmanned, may be harder to explode quickly." He gave an example. The whole family entered China in 2004 and opened 1530 stores in 2014 before leveling out, indicating that this business needs scale very much.

In this regard, Xiong Hao said,"unmanned convenience stores are a big trend and will develop faster." First of all, the number of convenience stores in China is not saturated; second, the replacement of labor by machines is what is happening in all walks of life, and we think there are such opportunities in the convenience store industry. Thirdly, the area of the unmanned convenience store is about 30 square meters. Compared to the convenience store model of 711 and the whole family, which is often 100 square meters large, the unmanned convenience store can enter small communities, scenic spots and industrial areas that they can't sink to compete differently. We are still optimistic about this business format and scenario."

Compared with the rise of unmanned convenience stores, the domestic convenience store industry has been in an awkward situation: it is the fastest growing in the retail industry, but it is difficult to attract capital.

According to the "China Retail Industry Development Report (2016/2017)" recently released by the Ministry of Commerce, the sales volume of convenience stores, shopping centers and supermarkets increased rapidly in 2016, with growth rates of 7.7%, 7.4% and 6.7% respectively; the sales growth rate of specialty stores and department stores was only 3.1% and 1.3% respectively, and the growth rate of department stores also decreased by 2.1 percentage points. It can be seen that the growth of convenience store industry is the best.

The unmanned convenience store broke the deadlock. Ali proposed that the technical solution of "Tao Coffee" not only brings cool shopping and payment experience to users, but also has far-reaching value: it can improve the efficiency. The so-called "ping effect" means how much turnover can be generated per ping area (turnover divided by the total number of ping occupied by counters).

However, there are still different opinions on whether unmanned convenience stores can improve their efficiency through Internet of Things technology. Some personage inside course of study expresses to reporter, because the flat effect is determined by many factors, including passenger unit price, geographical location, people flow and so on, only rely on technology to improve the flat effect, or worth discussing.

Why are empty convenience stores suddenly receiving widespread attention? In this regard, Zhang Kun, founding partner of Antelope Venture Capital, said: "First, traditional retail upgrading has always been the core of retail exploration, but it has been explored online before, and no offline mining has been carried out, and now this exploration has reached a critical point; The second is the change in payment methods. Previously, unmanned sales relied on the form of 'love stores' and relied on people's moral constraints. This is not possible. The cost of default is too low, but now the payment method has been completely upgraded to support unmanned sales. The third is the change in user purchasing habits. From large supermarkets like Walmart to small convenience stores like the whole family, users have clear product needs. The role of shopping guides has been seriously weakened, and unmanned sales have begun to be accepted."

It is worth mentioning that, following the previous closure due to high temperature, July 13, Bingo box Yangpu District shop suspected of illegal construction and urban management investigation news was spread very loud.

According to the paper news report, Due to receiving residents report, July 13 at about 4 p.m., A team of urban management law enforcement officers walked into the fruit box, The unmanned supermarket whether illegal building investigation evidence.

Bin fruit box side confirmed to reporters, urban management really came to the scene, Auchan high-level has come forward to solve, but whether suspected of illegal construction, at present there is no conclusion, the box is still in normal business.