Is the unmanned convenience store really so beautiful in WeChat moments?

As the most vibrant format in the retail industry, convenience stores have been a hot topic and the goal of capital pursuit in the depressed traditional retail environment in the past two years. The concept of "unmanned convenience store" is different from the usual, Alibaba, Zong Qinghou, Innovation Workshop. The intervention of traditional retailers, e-commerce giants, capital and entrepreneurs has made the convenience store business boil.

Follow the caf é (Wechat official account vdailycom) and found that Beautiful Cafe opened a small shop of its own.

Unmanned stores, Amoy Coffee and other new retail formats have recently gone viral on moments, causing widespread concern. After the grafting of artificial intelligence technology, the high profile of the unmanned supermarket is frequently sung in the capital market, and some even think that the unmanned supermarket will change the life of the traditional convenience store, but returning to the offline shopping scene, the unmanned supermarket is really so beautiful?

Compared with traditional retail stores with large space, more stock and slow manual service operation, unmanned convenience stores have the characteristics of small space, low inventory, convenience and so on. Take Amazon Go, the boss of an unmanned convenience store, as an example. After entering the door and scanning the code, the background system binds the human eigenvalues to the account ID through a 3D camera, and intelligently analyzes the action videos of picking up goods-- through in-depth learning to correctly identify the action details of human goods-- to update the virtual shopping cart in real time, and automatically pay after going out. It is not difficult to see that unmanned convenience store is a kind of convenience store full of science and technology based on the development of intelligent technology and on the premise of merchants' trust in consumers.

For homes, scenic spots, office areas, schools and other places that need to buy fast consumer goods at any time, there is no need to queue up, and the unmanned retail which can be purchased immediately has a big market.

For businesses, unmanned convenience stores also have the characteristics of liberating labor, reducing labor costs and saving inventory space. More importantly, unmanned retail needs to be bound with online ID, so businesses can effectively collect user information and layout accurate marketing.

The use of artificial intelligence, face recognition and other technologies to solve the convenience store and supermarket sales, checkout links, at first glance, fresh and fun, like the upgrading of consumption. However, carefully speculate that the models and products of several newly opened unmanned convenience stores are actually close to the popular unmanned vending machines and are not new.

"there has been a lot of discussion about convenience stores recently. at present, most of the proponents of unmanned stores still focus on attracting capital attention, and the concept of unmanned stores is more or less gimmick." Wang Hongtao, deputy secretary-general of China chain Management Association, said.

Take the Hangzhou unmanned supermarket, which has been brushing the screen these days, using technologies such as vision sensors, pressure sensors and Internet of things payment. Among them, the key is to add a RFID (commonly known as electronic tag) tag for each item, which is a non-contact automatic identification technology. It automatically identifies the target object and obtains the relevant data through the radio frequency signal, the identification work does not need human intervention, and can work in a variety of harsh environments.

However, this kind of RFID tag itself has insurmountable problems. For example, goods of special materials such as glass cannot be identified. If the label is pinched tightly, it will not be recognized.

There have been twists and turns since the opening of the colorful Fruit Box, the first unmanned supermarket in Shanghai. First, an air-conditioning failure led to the closure of business last week, and then it reopened on Thursday and was investigated by chengguan on suspicion of illegal construction. Unmanned convenience stores were defeated not by issues such as damage management, but by the high temperatures in Shanghai: fully closed convenience stores with indoor temperatures as high as 40 and food on the shelves showing signs of melting. As a last resort, a "temporary suspension" notice was hung outside the unmanned convenience store.

Innovation and trial and error go hand in hand, the wind of the future is clear and there is still a long way to go. Whether it is an unmanned supermarket or a shared economy, the development of the new economy in China still needs to be tested.

Unmanned retail has broken the gap between online and offline, the consumer experience is constantly upgrading, and the consumption pattern is constantly changing. With the progress of technology, new business models and scenes are constantly merging and changing. Unmanned supermarkets can bring us a shopping experience that subverts the traditional shopping scene, but it is restricted by many factors. It remains to be seen whether this advanced shopping concept will become a new trend and whether it will replace the traditional retail model.