Suning Commerce Group opened four automated stores in China towards the end of last year, close to the country’s largest annual shopping spree, the “11/11 Shopping Festival”.
After rolling out its first self-service store in Nanjing in August, the company launched its second cashier-less store in Shanghai in November, with three more stores opening in Beijing, Chongqing and Xuzhou. The stores are powered by facial recognition technology, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), big data analysis and Suning’s own online financial services.
With its years of experience in running approximately 4,000 self-managed stores and outlets targeting different communities, Suning plans to expand its unmanned stores to cover more diversified product lines. The stores will also feature AR technology to display items.
Analyst Comment
This story first broke a little while ago, but it seemed interesting so we included it, anyway! (BR)
