An unmanned store is a retail concept in which there are no service personnel and no cashiers in the store. The transactions are handled through a mobile application. Unlike an

automated convenience store An automated convenience store is a convenience store that operates without a cashier, and instead relies on computers and robotics. Examples Robomart Robomart has created an autonomous grocery store on wheels that offers consumers the ability t ...

, the unmanned store concept relies on smartphone-related technologies and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

to remove the traditional features of a store.

History

First developments

In 2012, the

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

Internet Business Solutions Group published a paper on the unmanned store possibilities enabled by the recent rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets. In 2014, the company ShelfX developed the first version of unmanned stores. Customers could swipe their cards on their phones to pay in the store and go without checking out at the cashier. In February 2016, the first unmanned store of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

opened in

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

US-China race

In December 2016, Amazon announced the launch of unmanned store "

Amazon Go Amazon Go is a chain of convenience stores in the United States and the United Kingdom, operated by the online retailer Amazon. The stores are cashierless, thus partially automated, with customers able to purchase products without being checked ...

" and began research and development. Until January 22, 2018, it officially opened in Seattle, Washington, and opened up general consumer experience and purchase. On May 7, 2019, Amazon announced that it will open its first unmanned store, Amazon Go, in New York. The address is located on the second floor of Brookfield Plaza Shopping Center in New York City. While Amazon first announced the release of unmanned stores in the US, China started to compete with the USA in the adoption and growth of domestic unmanned stores.

Taobao Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cl ...

launched the "Tao Cafe" pop-up unmanned store in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

in July 2017.

Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...

opened an unmanned experience store in January 2018. Other Chinese retail giants such as Jingdong and

WeChat WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has bee ...

also opened unmanned flash Stores. Japan's Lawson announced in December 2017 that it will introduce unmanned stores this year. The Signature concept store in South Korea opened on May 16th on the 31st floor of

Lotte World Tower The Lotte World Tower () is a 123-story Megatall skyscraper located in Sincheon-dong, Songpa, Seoul, South Korea. It opened to the public on April 3, 2017, and is currently the tallest building in South Korea and the sixth tallest in the worl ...

, the tallest building in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. On January 29, 2018, Taiwan also launched 7-11's first unmanned store X-STORE. By 2017, an estimated 200 unmanned stores had opened in China.

Rapid decline

As soon as 2018, the unmanned store bubble started to pop in China, with many stores closing and facing bankruptcy. The online retailer

JD.com JD.com, Inc., also known as Jingdong (), internationally known as Joybuy and formerly called 360buy,

had announced 5,000 virtual shelves in July 2018, but retracted from this engagement 6 months later. One reason for the rapid downfall of unmanned stores is the failure of the pioneering stores to create an authentic "just-walk-out" experience, which killed the convenience of shopping there. While the focus was on technology, many stores neglected the customer experience aspect of their shops.

Description

Unmanned stores are completely self-serve and self-checkout, and there are no waiting lines at the cashier. The registering of bought products and their payments are done with a mobile application. The ceiling of the entire store is equipped with

camera system and machine algorithms. From the moment the customer enters the store, the camera will record the customer's moving route, browse the product, take, view the label or return the product. Wait for the action, and then send the image to the machine for image recognition. As long as the customer picks up a certain item, it will automatically be added to the virtual shopping cart in the APP. If the customer does not want to purchase the product and put it back on the shelf, the virtual shopping cart in the APP will also be automatically deleted. In the end, when customers choose their products, they do not have to wait in line for checkout. Because there is no checkout counter in the store, customers just need to walk directly out of the door of the store. There is also potential for political controversy, as it has been suggested that some of these stores do not automate jobs but essentially relocate them to overseas centers.{{Cite web, last=Pring-Mill, first=David, date=2019-10-18, title=Did Amazon Go automate cashier jobs, or relocate them?, url=https://techhq.com/2019/10/did-amazon-go-automate-cashier-jobs-or-relocate-them/, url-status=live, archive-url=, archive-date=, access-date=2021-02-08, website=TechHQ, language=en-US

References