Today, on a street in Hangzhou (Zhejiang province), Jack Ma's first unmanned supermarket officially opened for business. Because there are no costs for manpower, the expenses for running the unmanned supermarket only add up to about a quarter of those of traditional supermarkets. The shop owner just needs to replenish the inventories every morning - nothing else needs to be done.
Entrance to the unmanned supermarket
Reports state that a single person on average is able to manage ten unmanned supermarkets. This means that the costs for employees would only be around 500RMB for each supermarket. This has caused a very severe blow to the traditional supermarkets and retail stores. The chances of survival for convenience stores and supermarkets with high costs are shrinking gradually, and their profits are dropping rapidly.
The first step: scanning a code with your mobile phone and going through the gate
The second step: Select and purchase goods
The third step: Going through the payment gate
Relying on Alipay's huge wireless payment capabilities, Jack Ma and Wahaha group's chairman Zong Qinghou, have recently announced that, in the coming years, 100,000 unmanned stores will be opened in China! Immediately afterwards the CEO of Jingdong, Liu Qiangdong, also reported that he would establish 500,000 convenience stores in China, and even a lot of unmanned Jingdong supermarkets.
The gate to the unmanned supermarket
Jack Ma's Alipay and Liu Qiangdong's payment services through WeChat both have huge wealth, capital, technology and an unmatched wireless system. After already having monopolized the online shopping market, these two giants have directed their gaze at offline stores now. The popularization of a 24/7 unmanned convenience store has already started! In the following 3 to 5 years, brick-and-mortar supermarkets and department stores are about to face an unforeseen calamity.