Auchan Minute (self-service shop)

2017: Start

In November, 2017 the Auchan company announced opening in China of shops without sellers and cashiers. The round-the-clock trade pavilions with the system of self-service received the name Auchan Minute from the French retailer.

Such sales points have the area about 18 square meters and the range from 500 products including fresh products, drinks, light meals and other daily goods.

Auchan Minute shop

The Chinese producer of home appliances Hisense which is responsible for design, development and construction of such shops and also for their service acts as the partner of Auchan in the Minute project.

For an exit in Auchan Minute the user needs to scan the special QR code in the WeChat application, thereby having been identified. The same codes on goods will allow to put them in a virtual basket, and it is possible to pay purchases through AliPay or WeChat Pay services.

Auchan is going to open several hundred Auchan Minute shops, however did not specify terms of implementation of this idea. It is also unknown whether the company will distribute this project to other countries.

It is still difficult to tell whether really these shops will be pleasant to consumers — the analyst of Northeast Securities Luo Xianfei says. — However Alibaba and other companies in the field of Internet trade will be able to collect data on a consumer behavior through these shops. In turn it can be used for increase in online sales. Therefore they are stronger motivated on such business in comparison with traditional retailers, such as Auchan.

Earlier in 2017 Auchan began implementation of the concept of autonomous shop in Shanghai jointly with BingBox startup,  however the pilot project was quickly closed because of different views of partners on strategic development, the South China Morning Post newspaper notes.

Auchan — not the first retailer implementing shops without cashiers. Started similar supermarket Amazon in Seattle at the end of 2016. Then the company announced plans to open not less than 2 thousand such points by 2020.^[1]

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