Location of unmanned retail industry startups
Unprecedented retail sales undoubtedly made the strongest pitch in the retail market in 2017. With the entry of Amazon, Ali, Jingdong, Wahaha and other giants, unattended retail becomes a new outlet for investment and business startup. However, entering the unmanned retail start-up Enterprise projects failed, venture capital business integration news is also frequent, people worry that no retail will 'short-lived'.
Recently, Chengdu's unmanned shelves project 'GOGO small super' was outage, and its affiliated company 'GOGO unmanned supermarket' also suspended operations.At the same time, Amazon released in the fourth quarter of 2017 earnings showed that the Of the quarterly sales, with more than $ 4.5 billion from physical stores, the figure shows Amazon's "ambitions" for offline retail.
Look back on the retail market in 2017, no one retail is undoubtedly issued the strongest sound, 2017 can also be said to be the first year of unattended retail. With Amazon, Ali, Jingdong, Wahaha and other giants into the uninitiated retail investment business A new outlet.From the second half of last year, the unmanned shelves in the field of red, according to incomplete statistics, into the unmanned shelves market starting no less than 50. However, the start-up project failed, entrepreneurial camp business integration news Also frequently appear, people worry that no retail will 'short-lived'.
So, no one retail is tuyere or bubble?
Big data-based items for sale
It is understood that unattended retail sales in the absence of salesmen, cashiers and other store staff, consumers themselves into the store, the selection, purchase, payment and other retail all the shopping activities.At present, the unattended retail market There are three main types of vending machines: vending machines, open shelves and unmanned convenience stores, of which vending machine market is more mature while open shelves and unmanned convenience stores are focused on 'exploding' in 2017 and are in the early stages of development.
IResearch Consulting China Unmanned Retail Industry Research Report 2017 shows that the estimated transaction size of the unmanned retail market (including vending machines) in 2017 will be estimated at nearly 20 billion yuan. It is expected to exceed 65 billion by 2020 and the three-year compound annual growth rate Around 50%.
It is precisely because of such a large commercial blue ocean, no one retail to attract funds all the way in. Venture vertical pen and pencil survey released after the "2017 unattended retail industry development status and trend inventory" shows that from early 2017 to the current year 11 On March 3, the companies in the bank absorbed about 3.37 billion yuan, but the recent unmanaged shelves continue to show some ups and downs in the field, suggesting that the industry has entered a consolidation phase. In 2017, a total of nearly 500 million yuan of financial aid was received on January 10, 2018 To close the first convenience store, suspect in a number of cities withdrew, layoffs news.In addition to the project collapse, the business community has recently come out of business integration news, Yi Guo fresh and Hammi technology reached a strategic cooperation, 51 snacks, fruit and the United States to facilitate the merger of tomato ... So, the future prospects of unattended retail what happens?
'Unattended retail can only be said to be one of the retail directions, unattended retail in the United States mainly by artificial intelligence and big data to promote through big data to understand the consumer's current spending habits, no retail layout of the various commodities Is based on the introduction of big data, if there is no big data to rely on, there is no way to do unattended retail. Without the support of big data unmanned supermarket will become a bubble. 'February 23, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Professor Lvben Fu told the Science and Technology Daily Reporter. Technology innovation and entrepreneurship service platform 36 Krypton Institute analyst Nanan in the "unmanned, 'code' on the left - no retail research report," also expressed a similar view, 'the future, (no one Retail) will be based on big data items sold. '
Startups waiting for giants to buy
Over the past year, although no one retail won the applause, but there are still many bottlenecks need to crack development.Research Consulting believes that typical high-quality enterprises can play a good role model, the overall retail market has no prospects for development But for now, it can not be ignored that the market has just undergone a year or so of development and is still in the early stage of exploration. Therefore, there are still some difficulties in development that are more common, mainly focusing on product technology optimization, regional market expansion and enterprise scale Development, opening up enterprises and supply chain synergies.
Among them, the upgrading of product technology is a prerequisite for the large-scale unmanned store.Unmancent convenience store area is smaller than the traditional convenience store and the store has a small stock, so the high frequency of goods in the store, the supply chain put forward higher Requirements.Industry insiders have pointed out that the convenience store market needs at least five years or more inputs may be apparent growth.Therefore, the development of the market need to experience the accumulation period of time.
In Lvbenfu's view, unattended retail has a series of 'problems' to solve in addition to the big data to support in operations. "At the heart of unattended retail is big data, along with supporting systems For example, the payment system, the monitoring system, and the various technical support related to unmanned shopping malls are also necessary.In addition, some necessary conditions of traditional shopping malls such as lot selection and unmanned supermarkets still need. Lvben Fu said.
At the same time, some people think that unattended retail is not a game that start-up companies can afford to play, and only those giants who have capital, technology and management can stand out in this competition. Agree, he said: 'There is no big difference between start-ups and big companies. If start-ups get data sources from other places, they can also gain a foothold in unattended retail, and most importantly, are there big data to support? But Lvbenfu also said: 'Before the reason why no retail so hot, it is because Amazon has no supermarket, Ali is also doing, and start-ups to do unattended supermarket, in a sense not want to profit How much, they finally want to be acquired.
Cinnabar founder and CEO Chen Zilin had said that as a start-up company, the moment is the most important thing is to first polished the product, continue to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the future does not rule out the cooperation with the giant.
The essence is not nobody but grasp the data
Unattended retail market has just begun, in the data, technology, supply chain and other links to jointly promote the unmanned retail market, the three major formats complement each other, and are closely integrated with the traditional formats.Zan Nan believes that the future unoccupied retail With the traditional co-existence of convenience stores, with electricity suppliers, local O2O mutual diversion, the essence of unattended retail is not nobody, but lies in the entire consumption process data to grasp.In the new retail format, the front-end is the people, goods, Back-end is AI, big data, cloud computing and other basic layer for a long time in the future, it will not completely replace the traditional model, but long-term coexistence with the traditional business model, and in the process of evolving.
IResearch believes that in the short term, unmanned retail business operators focus on technical optimization and market size, through rapid access to financing, to join the model so that stores quickly landed, open the market, for example, with the daily fresh, hungry Such as the advantages of the supply chain enterprises to cooperate.
In the medium term, the focus of operations lies in the improvement of supply chain and management efficiency, including the enhancement of technological algorithms by enterprises and the transformation of the supply chain into networks. Meanwhile, the expansion or development of retail multi-scenarios will cover major consumption scenarios, categories and product mixes Select mode, according to different users personalized / precise push and so on.
In the long term, the focus of the company's operations is on refinement of operations and experience, including more accurate user portraits based on data feedback, analysis of multi-dimensional data, refined operations, business extension and product innovation to further enhance the user experience. Product innovation, including research and development of own-brand products, etc. Each of the key operational focuses mainly on three aspects: technology, data and supply chain.