Discussion on RFID Application and Challenge from the Outbreak of No-person Retail

The unmanned convenience store solution is based on RFID (also known as radio frequency identification technology, which identifies specific targets and reads and writes related data via radio signals). Each product is affixed with an RFID tag for checkout and payment. Equipped with a monitoring system and remote guest artificial intelligence services. No one will use face recognition technology, motion recognition and anti-theft systems, dynamic shelves, automatic settlement systems, and intelligent commodity recognition technologies to push unmanned retail to the next level.

First, the collective outbreak of unmanned convenience stores

Following VR shopping, China's physical retail industry recently ushered in a "pig on the wind."

In the six months after Amazon Amazon Go unmanned line supermarkets were launched, domestic unmanned convenience stores finally ushered in a collective outbreak.

On July 7th, Alibaba launched the Ali Coffee Shop “Amoy Coffee” on the second Taobao Creativity Festival, which caused a sensation. At the scene of Taobao Creativity Festival, the "Amoy Coffee" offline physical model shop occupies an area of ​​about 200 square meters, which is a combination of shopping and dining, and can accommodate more than 50 users. The first time a consumer enters a store, he needs to open “Mobile Taobao”, scan the code to get the electronic store code, sign the data usage, privacy protection statement, pay the treasurer withholding agreement, etc., then go through the gate and start shopping, and then no longer need to use the mobile phone. . Before leaving the store, the user must go through a “checkout door”: This is composed of two doors. When the first door senses the user’s departure request, it will automatically open; after a few seconds, the second door will open, and then The system automatically completes the deduction and reminds the user - "Alipay's total deduction × × $." For consumers who are not sincere, such as deliberately hiding goods or tearing down electronic identification numbers, they are considered bad records and included in the credit system.

In line with last year’s flagship VR shopping, “Amoy Coffee” also carries Alibaba’s anticipation of future technology and integrates it with new retail.

Coincidentally. On July 3, FunBox announced that it had completed more than RMB 100 million in Series A financing, and plans to lay out 5,000 unmanned convenience store outlets within a year. It is reported that the bins are unguarded and convenience stores have always been closed. The consumers must first register and log in to the APP to enter the store. All the furnishings in the store are no different from ordinary convenience stores. In fact, each product has a unique label. When closing the product, the total price can be calculated by placing the product on the equipment in the product identification area, and then the mobile payment can be used to go out of the store. It is worth noting that there is an anti-theft system installed in the entrance of Bingo Box Store. If an unpaid item is delivered, an alarm will be triggered and the company can track it through face recognition.

At the same time, another unmanned convenience store, F5 Futures Store, recently announced that it will receive 30 million yuan in financing from the Innovation Workshop. This is an enterprise that builds an unmanned scene based on its independently developed robot arm and back-office management system. F5 no-man shop is less than 20 square meters, and the types of products sold in small shops are no worse than ordinary convenience stores. However, the convenience store does not have a physical product. All the displayed products are product images; instead of a cash register, four machines are replaced: a fast-moving consumer goods machine that mainly sells bottled and canned goods. Standardized products such as beverages, biscuit snacks, and small commodities for daily use; an existing fresh-food shipment machine, where consumers choose to buy fish eggs, beef balls, cart noodles, etc., are waiting to make shipments in front of this machine; A brewed drinks vending machine sells hot drinks such as coffee and milk tea; and an automatic table cleaning equipment.

What is intriguing is that Wahaha, the leader of FMCG, which has been criticizing e-commerce's fast-moving consumer products, has finally “reversed” and came to “unplugged” in the field of unmanned retailing.

On June 25th, Wahaha and Deep Blue Technology signed a three-year, 100,000-unit, 10-year-old TakeGo unmanned store news that boiled in retail. Erie also plans to promote the unmanned micro shop launched in collaboration with Shenzhen Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in more than 2,000 communities.

The favor of capital and the advancement of giants have allowed the concept of unrequited retail to be pushed to the forefront.

Second, the type of unmanned convenience store and the main technical model

Judging from the types of participants in current unmanned convenience stores, they can be roughly divided into three types: one is traditional retail led by Auchan, RT, and the other is Internet company represented by Ali and Binhu. The category is a cross-border operating company represented by home brands and Wahaha. Basically, they all use RFID technology. Each product has an RFID tag attached to it for checkout. In addition, it is equipped with a monitoring system and remote customer service.

In summary, the current RFID-based unlicensed retail stores currently have the following three main modes. According to the use process, they are mainly divided into: 1. Pre-identification (identity) mode; 2. Free recognition (identity) mode; 3. Full Open mode.

1. The pre-identification (identity) mode refers to the fact that the user must perform identity recognition before opening the smart goods cabinet or the no-man shop door to perform commodity shopping. If Auchan introduces unmanned shops, it must first scan the QR code (identity authentication) before entering, that is, it belongs to a typical pre-identification (identity) application, if it can not complete the recognition, the consumer cannot perform the shopping action! Are equipped with RFID tags and form corresponding electronic bills)

2. Identification (identity) mode means that the user can carry out commodity shopping without identity recognition. Generally, such an unattended store will have an access control system. Consumers can enter the store directly through the physical switch. After the consumer enters, the access control is automatically locked. After the consumer completes shopping and the payment is successful, the access control can be reopened. (Products are equipped with RFID tags and form corresponding electronic bills)

3. The full-open mode means that users can access the store freely and they can freely choose their products. The products carry RFID and two-dimensional code payment labels. Consumers can go out of the store after selecting the product and scanning the code to complete the payment. However, if you leave the store without completing the payment, the access control system will automatically detect and alert you. The advantage of the full open model is that it can solve the problem of multi-point shopping settlement, and the transformation of stores is relatively controllable. This mode is particularly suitable for new models in which convenient stores and supermarkets are formed with people and unmanned applications when they are equipped with a small number of service personnel and combined with the first two modes of application device combinations.

In the technology-driven era, capital and enterprises are eager to choose to enter the convenience stores in the past and convert them into technology-based unmanned retailers, which means that they will be a pioneering outlet and an indicator of the industry. The prospects are huge.

According to the 2017 China Convenience Store Development Report released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, the growth rate of the convenience store industry in 2016 reached 13%, and the market size exceeded RMB 130 billion. At present, there are at least 5.6 million grocery stores and convenience stores in the country. The sales volume of the 5.6 million grocery stores is almost 10 trillion yuan a year, which is undoubtedly a huge and disorderly market that requires regulation. If there is no retail sales in the future, it will only account for 10% of grocery stores and convenience stores. There are also 1 trillion yuan, and the market size is also considerable.

Third, it looks beautiful, many problems at this stage

The bingo box that landed in Shanghai once told the media that the cost is 80% less than that of ordinary convenience stores. According to him, a 15-square-meter box can be sold in the same quantity as the 40-square-meter traditional convenience store, but the former’s cost (100,000) is about a quarter of the latter.

According to the person in charge of Beijing Net Technology Co., Ltd., its fully-enclosed 24 unmanned convenience store machines can store up to 400 to 500 SKUs (inventory units) and 78,000 inventory units, equivalent to 30 to 40 square meters. The stock of traditional convenience stores also greatly reduces costs.

The number of unretailed retailers looks beautiful, but the actual situation cannot always be accounted for by saving some labor costs or rent. The cost of security is the market’s primary concern for semi-open/ fully open unmanned convenience stores. The no-man's convenience store in operation at this stage mainly uses RFID tag technology and two-dimensional code recognition.

According to the Ministry of Commerce’s previous news, in 2015, Beijing Full-Time Convenience Store and Hangzhou Vanguard Wango Convenience Store each selected a store to run a no-manship convenience store. In the same day, it sold a total of 16,700 yuan worth of goods and received customer self-help. The payment is about 13,700 yuan, a difference of 3,000 yuan. According to the survey, some unmanned convenience stores can escape the settlement by simply tearing off the RFID tags on the goods when they go out. In a smart convenience store in a trial operation in Beijing, they can even go straight out without blocking or tearing the labels. Current video surveillance, networked alarms and other technologies cannot detect and stop these actions in a timely manner.

No one convenience store through technology upgrades, customer self-checkout after taking the goods to replace the cashier's work. However, such tasks as marketing, replenishment, racking, and cleaning still require manual operations. That is to say, no one shop does not completely replace manpower but only partially reduces manpower costs. However, we must not ignore the fact that while reducing labor costs partially, unattended stores also increase other costs: 1. Store input costs, including back-end support technology development and deployment costs, hardware equipment purchased for technology upgrades, and special decoration; 2, to achieve the cost of no sales, including RFID chip hardware costs and labor costs attached to the goods.

In summary, there is no such thing as a low-cost convenience store, and it may be overly optimistic and simple, and even self-talking.

Fourth, the difference between C-end user experience and B-end merchant cost

As far as the C-side experience is concerned, the current problem with many unmanned convenience stores in China is that there are more shopping steps than there are people-owned shops. For example, the user needs to download the APP and scan code to enter the store. After taking the good goods, he also needs to go to the checkout desk to check out himself and use the APP or scan code to check out. Take the example of a user who buys coffee from Starbucks. It takes only three steps to “order, pay, and take coffee.” In some unmanned coffee shops, it takes more steps, which actually adds a lot of trouble to users. .

For the B-side, the background must be RFID tag for each product, but also may need to be 24 hours staring at the video surveillance whether someone stole, if the user needs to scan the code to pay, it means that businesses need to do promotion to attract users to install their APP, Both the cost of customers and the cost of maintaining viscosity are long-term problems at the B-side. In this way, this unmanned convenience store does not save costs and it is likely to increase costs.

"Similar to the Internet scan code open, RFID radio frequency tags, scan code settlement programs or hybrid solutions are not smart retail," Chen Haibo, CEO of Shenlan Technology believes: "The future is the era of artificial intelligence, retail upgrading artificial intelligence should play a heavy responsibility, real intelligence First of all, retailing needs to make the user's shopping process more concise. No one shop has fewer shopping steps than a human shop, and customers are willing to go if they are convenient. Otherwise, they are in vain.”

He also said: "To really move toward new retail, it is by no means relying on the current Internet of Things and Internet scanning scheme, or the "online, offline integration + logistics" program, and ultimately to really use artificial intelligence technology to achieve Retail unmanned, intelligent and credited.”

V. Suggestions for unsupervised supermarkets

At present, consumers need to use a calculator to calculate the amount of money they spend on unpaid supermarkets, and then use Alipay or cash to pay. The cash box needs its own investment and self-discovery, and when the customer scans the QR code to pay, there is no payment amount for the page to be paged out. Unmanned supermarkets need to be equipped with self-service scanning and settlement machines for landing and promotion. Consumers can put the purchased goods on the machine to collect the total amount and the small ticket, and then use Alipay or cash to settle, and do not need to use their own calculations. The calculator calculates the amount of money, which is simpler and more convenient in practical operation, and is more convenient for popularization. Or on the shelves of each product equipped with electronic price tag, consumers through the merchant's mobile phone app or WeChat shopping malls can scan codes to buy and pay online, more simple and easy.

In addition, through the opening of the CRM system of supermarkets, the real-name membership system and personal credit registration and recording system are implemented. Through on-site camera monitoring, personal credit card and Alipay account can track consumer records, after the daily inventory can be found that someone pay less, and recorded in his credit record, to limit the credit behavior of their loans to buy a house, limiting their Opportunities in various opportunities such as employment and welfare have led the entire society to have a legal and ethical supervision of people with low credit. In this way, no one supermarket has the guarantee of promotion.

At present, the unmanned convenience store is still in an experimental stage. There is plenty of room for imagination. However, we must guard against the emergence of “virtual fire”. After all, the convenience store is a retail business. The design and management of the supply chain is still the key to success or failure. At this stage, technological development is not yet perfect, and "artificial service + self-service" is one of the more pragmatic practices.

Business logic cannot deviate from human nature, otherwise it may be a test that the value of hype is greater than the actual value.

On the original title from the outbreak of RFID applications and challenges of unmanned retail: Wu Yongyi Source: "Customer World"