Just like shared bicycles, the moment that it was introduced, "unmanned retail" brought us one step closer to the future. It embraces the "new retail" strategy where big data technology connects and optimizes offline outlets and online stores to enhance customer experiences. All of these new industries have greatly facilitated our lives and have saved countless people’s time and energy. This is an inevitable trend of social development and it is sure to spark new waves of innovation. In the meantime, unmanned stores are the focus of the newest innovation.
Let’s break it down:
"无人 (Wúrén)" means no one. "便利 (biànlì)" means convenient, suitable for calmly completing certain actions or functions. "店 (diàn)" means store, a place that sells goods. Unmanned convenience stores refer to stores that are intelligently automated through technical means without manual intervention. Simply, they don’t have any anybody running the store. Rather, it is managed by technology.
无人 (Wúrén): unmanned. 
便利 (Biànlì): adj; convenient; easy.
店 (Diàn): noun; shop; store.
"无人便利店 (Wúrén biànlìdiàn)" means a store where A.I. and data technologies have made it possible for customers to shop without queuing to pay.
Origin:
All of this probably feels a bit familiar – if you’ve heard about Amazon Go, you may know what unmanned convenience stores are. At an "无人便利店 (Wúrén biànlìdiàn) unmanned convenience store", you can scan the code, take things, and leave. Now in some cities in China a similar format has been utilized.
The advancement of science and technology has saved people a lot of time and improved people’s work efficiency.
购物流程 (Gòuwù liúchéng) Shopping Process:
1. 进入商店 (Jìnrù shāngdiàn) Enter the store
Designed to be consumer friendly, by scanning a "二维码 (Èrwéimǎ) QR code" on Wechat or Alipay at the entrance of the store, patrons are tracked with cameras for facial recognition.
2. 购物 (Gòuwù) Shop
After going through the checkout doors, customers will automatically make a ... Read More
