京東加入無人零售大戰(zhàn)

Chinese consumers have embraced facial identification and mobile payments to buy everything from fast food to sex toys, drawn towards the efficiency and the novelty of semi-automated stores.

由于被半自動化商店的高效和新穎所吸引，中國消費者已經(jīng)接受了通過臉部識別和手機支付來購買從快餐到情趣用品的各種商品。

“Sometimes when you are in a bad mood, you just want to be able to get in and out without any hassle,” said Joyce Zhang, a teacher at a Beijing elementary school.

“有時當你心情不好的時候，你只想走進商店，拿了東西就走，”北京的一位小學老師Joyce Zhang說。

Ms Zhang frequents one of 12 cashier-less locations opened by start-up Xiaomai. Customers scan bar codes on items using Tencent’s Chinese messaging app WeChat before paying with WeChat Wallet.

這位女士經(jīng)常光顧初創(chuàng)企業(yè)小麥公社(Xiaomai)經(jīng)營的無人便利店。該公司目前共有12家門店。消費者先用微信公眾號上的“掃碼自購”掃一掃商品上的條形碼，然后用微信錢包進行在線支付。

Ecommerce giant JD.com is the latest to branch into automation, announcing a tie-up last week with Hong Kong-listed developer China Overseas Land & Investment to build hundreds of self-serve convenience stores and 1,500 medicine dispensers across China.

電子商務巨擘京東(JD.com)是最新一家進入無人零售領(lǐng)域的公司。該公司上周宣布，與香港上市的地產(chǎn)開發(fā)商中國海外發(fā)展有限公司(China Overseas Land & Investment)合作，在中國開設數(shù)百家自助式便利店和1500臺售藥機。

In so doing, JD.com is chasing competitors such as Alibaba that are developing their own cashier-less outlets. Rising labour costs and high turnover among blue-collar jobs has price sensitive online retailers looking to apply logistics and online payment systems to automate shopping.

京東此舉旨在追趕阿里巴巴等正在開發(fā)自己的無人零售店的競爭對手。由于藍領(lǐng)工作崗位勞動力成本上漲，且離職率居高不下，對價格十分敏感的網(wǎng)上零售商被迫將其物流和在線支付系統(tǒng)運用到無人零售領(lǐng)域。

“With automated stores, you get rid of any chance of bad interaction with a miserable or untrained human being,” said Shaun Rein, managing director for market consultancy CMR China. “They also want to look cool. Things like facial recognition still have a big wow factor among Chinese consumers.”

“有了無人店鋪，你就可以避免與一個很差勁的、或未受過訓練的人進行讓你不悅的互動，”市場咨詢公司CMR中國的董事總經(jīng)理雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示，“消費者也希望看起來很酷。面部識別等技術(shù)對于中國消費者而言仍然是令人驚嘆的新鮮事物。”

Some automated outlets are less like stores and more like walk-in vending machines. Chief among them is BingoBox, which this year installed 5,000 of its compact units selling snacks and fresh fruit across major Chinese cities.

一些無人便利店不太像商店，更像是人可以進入的自動售貨機。首屈一指的要算“繽果盒子”(BingoBox)。該品牌今年在中國主要城市開設了5000個銷售零食和新鮮水果的緊湊型便利店。

Meanwhile, Alibaba has spearheaded the push into “new retail”, buying up physical stores to give shopping experience a high-tech twist. It spent a total of $5.5bn in 2017 to buy private brick-and-mortar retailer Intime and a one third stake in Sun Art Retail, one of China’s biggest supermarket chains.

與此同時，阿里巴巴引領(lǐng)著打造“新零售”生態(tài)的潮流。該公司大舉收購實體零售店，在購物體驗中注入高科技元素。阿里巴巴2017年共斥資55億美元，將實體零售商銀泰商業(yè)(Intime)私有化，并收購了中國最大的連鎖超市營運商之一高鑫零售(Sun Art Retail)三分之一的股權(quán)。

“I think [facial recognition] is probably an even safer way [than passwords] to manage your online activities as everyone’s face is unique,” said Zhang Lin, a Beijing university student, hopping off a shared bike before swiping in to the Xiaomai store with his face.

“我認為用‘臉部識別’來管理你的在線活動，甚至可能比‘密碼’更安全，因為每個人的臉都是獨一無二的，”一位北京的大學生張林(音譯)說，他跳下共享單車，“刷臉”走進了一家小麥便利店。

At Xiaomai’s convenience stores, visitors record a scan of their faces during their first visit that allows them to enter the building without scanning a QR code during subsequent trips.

在小麥便利店，消費者在首次進店時，系統(tǒng)便記錄了他們的臉部掃描圖像，他們以后進入同一家店，就無需再掃描二維碼(QR)。

Many of China’s biggest mobile apps allow users to submit a selfie to log in, including Ant Financial, Alibaba’s online payments affiliate, and car-hailing service Didi Chuxing, which uses facial recognition to verify drivers’ identities.

中國許多用戶規(guī)模最大的移動應用程序允許用戶提交自拍照進行登錄，其中包括阿里巴巴的在線支付業(yè)務螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)、叫車服務滴滴出行，后者使用臉部識別來驗證司機的身份。

Retailers such as JD.com and Alibaba plan to make use of chips that are already embedded in second-generation identification cards required of all Chinese citizens. The same technology allows supermarkets to automatically detect which products enter and leave the store.

諸如京東和阿里巴巴等零售商計劃利用中國第二代居民身份證中嵌入的芯片。超市也利用同樣的技術(shù)自動監(jiān)測進貨與銷售情況。