Unmanned retail, which was once popular with capital, kept coming out with news of closure. Some traditional stores have begun to use technology to enhance the consumer experience. The trend of the integration of new technology and retail is irreversible, but the digital transformation of retail should return to retail itself and pay attention to convenience and quality products.
At 11: 30 on December 27, 2019, a milk tea shop on the first floor of Zhonghai Plaza in Guanghua East, Chaoyang District, Beijing lined up, but an unmanned supermarket diagonally opposite was relatively deserted. At this time, it was originally the prime time for white-collar workers to eat and shop. In 20 minutes, only four people entered the supermarket to shop.
Unattended, "code" to go, big data to predict consumption habits, intelligent anti-theft identification system … … Many unmanned retailers blessed by new technologies debuted in 2017. Now, two years later, as the new favorite of the retail industry, the impression of unmanned retail to the outside world is still more at the technical level. Recently, news of the closure has been constantly coming out.
What is the current situation of this former tuyere industry, is it really unattended? Is it shuffling or dying behind the collapse? Where will the future go? The Workers’ Daily reporter investigated this.
The first unmanned retail store in many places closed down.
The unmanned supermarket located in Donghe Road, Xinqi, Ningbo, was the first unmanned supermarket in Beilun District. After seven months of operation, it closed at the end of November last year. Not only that, the first unmanned retail stores in Wuxi and Jinan also announced their closure.
The closure of the first unmanned retail store in many places has made the unmanned retail scenery with capital and technology in 2017 no longer.
In 2017, it was called "the first year of unmanned retail" by the industry. Unmanned shelves were placed on the streets of many cities overnight, and many unmanned supermarkets also opened their doors. However, the good times did not last long. In 2017, the first unmanned convenience store in Shanghai, Binguo Box, was closed. In February 2018, GOGO Xiaochao, an unmanned shelf project in Chengdu, was exposed and stopped. In April last year, Astor, an unmanned retail store in Xinhepu Road, Guangzhou, suddenly closed … … A large number of unmanned retailers have fallen.
According to media surveys, some unmanned supermarkets have even been directly changed into normal supermarkets, including many unmanned supermarkets under well-known e-commerce platforms.
No one is very fresh, convenience is more important.
With regard to the closure of unmanned retail stores, some insiders pointed out that consumers are more concerned about the comprehensive consumption experience than the automation of retail stores and the "sense of technology" in the shopping process. Compared with ordinary convenience stores, the current unmanned retail stores only have fewer clerks, and other aspects have not changed much. The core of unmanned retail should not be unmanned, but convenience and products.
On the evening of December 30, 2019, the reporter saw in an unmanned shelf outside a residential area in dingfuzhuang, Chaoyang District, Beijing that the yogurt sold on this shelf was more expensive than that of a nearby convenience store. "It’s hard to make people want to shop." A passerby said.
In addition, the technical problems of unmanned retail stores themselves sometimes bring consumers a bad consumption experience. The owner of the first unmanned retail store in Ningbo said that once the system delayed the update time, at 3 am, the machine didn’t respond, trapping consumers in the store.
In this regard, Xia Liu, an associate professor in the Marketing Department of Shandong University of Finance and Economics, said that unmanned retailing now has many problems and disadvantages. Although the labor cost is reduced, it will inevitably bring about an increase in operating costs. Moreover, in terms of loss of goods and technology, it has not been well solved.
In the eyes of some insiders, unmanned retail seems to have a certain cost advantage in terms of rent and labor, but from the actual situation, the overall operating cost is very high. The automatic identification equipment of goods in unmanned supermarkets and the operating system established by using artificial intelligence and big data require high investment in the early stage, and the maintenance cost in the later stage is not small.
The ebb tide of capital has dealt a fatal blow to unmanned retail. A venture capitalist said that investors gradually found that blind expansion of unmanned retail projects could not achieve a balance between scene fit, replenishment cost and user fit, and large-scale financing was difficult to sustain. Capital is gradually returning to rationality, and it is no longer foolish to invest money.
Many supermarkets and stores realize self-checkout
While the unmanned retail industry has closed down, some new unmanned retail stores are opening. New stores have opened in Hangzhou, Chuzhou and Lu ‘an.
In addition to completely unmanned retail stores, some traditional stores have also begun to use technology to enhance the consumer experience. Reporters visited stores such as CR Vanguard and Decathlon Sports Supermarket and found that self-checkout has gradually become the standard of these supermarkets. Cashiers in these supermarkets all said that they are happy to help consumers understand and try to use self-checkout
"If there is a long checkout line, self-checkout is still very convenient." A consumer shopping in a Decathlon sports supermarket in Chaoyang District, Beijing said. The reporter saw that consumers put the purchased goods into a shopping basket, and the product details and prices can be automatically displayed on the screen, and consumers can pay by scanning the code.
In this regard, some commentators pointed out that nowadays, the trend of new technology and retail integration is irreversible, and the life with more and more sense of science and technology is destined to accelerate. Unmanned supermarkets and unmanned shelves still have broad room for development.
According to the data of a consulting company, the market size of unmanned convenience stores in China reached 1.1 billion yuan in 2018 and is expected to reach 3.3 billion yuan in 2020.
Tang Jun, co-executive president of Shenzhen Internet of Things Intelligent Technology Application Association, wrote that unmanned convenience stores only blew the horn of digital transformation of traditional convenience stores. Only those who return retail to retail, return to the essence of retail and provide earth-shaking changes for retail efficiency and benefit can become the king of retail in the future.