京東加入無(wú)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(dòng)化商店的高效和新穎所吸引，中國(guó)消費(fèi)者已經(jīng)接受了通過(guò)臉部識(shí)別和手機(jī)支付來(lái)購(gòu)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(shí)當(dāng)你心情不好的時(shí)候，你只想走進(jìn)商店，拿了東西就走，”北京的一位小學(xué)老師Joyce Zhang說(shuō)。

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(yíng)的無(wú)人便利店。該公司目前共有12家門店。消費(fèi)者先用微信公眾號(hào)上的“掃碼自購(gòu)”掃一掃商品上的條形碼，然后用微信錢包進(jìn)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(wù)巨擘京東(JD.com)是最新一家進(jìn)入無(wú)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(guó)海外發(fā)展有限公司(China Overseas Land & Investment)合作，在中國(guó)開設(shè)數(shù)百家自助式便利店和1500臺(tái)售藥機(jī)。

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(wú)人零售店的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。由于藍(lán)領(lǐng)工作崗位勞動(dòng)力成本上漲，且離職率居高不下，對(duì)價(jià)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(yùn)用到無(wú)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(wú)人店鋪，你就可以避免與一個(gè)很差勁的、或未受過(guò)訓(xùn)練的人進(jìn)行讓你不悅的互動(dòng)，”市場(chǎng)咨詢公司CMR中國(guó)的董事總經(jīng)理雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示，“消費(fèi)者也希望看起來(lái)很酷。面部識(shí)別等技術(shù)對(duì)于中國(guó)消費(fèi)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(wú)人便利店不太像商店，更像是人可以進(jìn)入的自動(dòng)售貨機(jī)。首屈一指的要算“繽果盒子”(BingoBox)。該品牌今年在中國(guó)主要城市開設(shè)了5000個(gè)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(shí)，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(gòu)實(shí)體零售店，在購(gòu)物體驗(yàn)中注入高科技元素。阿里巴巴2017年共斥資55億美元，將實(shí)體零售商銀泰商業(yè)(Intime)私有化，并收購(gòu)了中國(guó)最大的連鎖超市營(yíng)運(yùn)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(rèn)為用‘臉部識(shí)別’來(lái)管理你的在線活動(dòng)，甚至可能比‘密碼’更安全，因?yàn)槊總€(gè)人的臉都是獨(dú)一無(wú)二的，”一位北京的大學(xué)生張林(音譯)說(shuō)，他跳下共享單車，“刷臉”走進(jìn)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(fèi)者在首次進(jìn)店時(shí)，系統(tǒng)便記錄了他們的臉部掃描圖像，他們以后進(jìn)入同一家店，就無(wú)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(guó)許多用戶規(guī)模最大的移動(dòng)應(yīng)用程序允許用戶提交自拍照進(jìn)行登錄，其中包括阿里巴巴的在線支付業(yè)務(wù)螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)、叫車服務(wù)滴滴出行，后者使用臉部識(shí)別來(lái)驗(yàn)證司機(jī)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(jì)劃利用中國(guó)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(dòng)監(jiān)測(cè)進(jìn)貨與銷售情況。