This lunch I discovered close by my office the newly opened YongHui Fresh (from the YongHui supermarkets chain which used to be quite well known among retail professionals as a good benchmark when it comes to fresh products)…
Now we all know Hema Fresh supermarkets bought by Alibaba… Well… YH Fresh went one step further and has made the cashier (tills) totally obsolete and useless… here how its works. Just amazing:
1- SCAN
You enter this small store of no more than 100 sqm and instantly see that all products are pre-packed and have a digital price tag with of course its associated QR code. So far nothing more than #Hema… Both sell fruits and vegetable and live crabs…
Both Hema and YH Fresh have also some grocery items, imported goods. YH Fresh is far smaller and therefore caries much less SKUs but the idea is the same and YH Fresh plus clearly in the convenience store league more than the supermarket one.
2 – PAY (with your mobile of course)
Then, what cames next is a game changer… You (I did it) scan the code bar of the product you want to buy (you can, just like online) add, delete, scan again and so on.. Just use your WeChat barcode scan for instance and one you are done, you are asked to pay… then comes the magical part… you pay with WeChat for example and that’s it. Your purchase is done, you get out of the store. I showed my mobile to one of the staff there who was still on training and I went out of the store.
3 – GO
3 cashier desks (tills) were here, but I bet they won’t be much used since everybody is so used to pay by phone that they might be soon be replaced by additional shelf space…
Shopping in China is everyday more and more simple totally seamless:
1 – Scan
2 – Pay
3 – Go…
By Stéphane Joly, Altavia Asia