The future of unmanned stores
1. October 2018 | Chapter China, Interview, Retail Technology, Visitor´s Corner

Interview with Jiefu Feng, founder of Cloudpick

Mr. Jiefu Feng enters the field of smart retailing. In the following interview he  talkes about the characteristics and benefits of  an unmanned convenience store. As the founder of the compnay Cloudpick he has a stable idea of how a convenience store should look like in the future.

Renée Zhao, Messe Düsseldorf Shanghai: How did Cloudpick technology enter the field of smart retailing in unmanned convenience stores?

Jiefu Feng, Cloudpick: From smart stores to unmanned stores, it solves the last few hundred meters of consumer demands. At present, the main forms of unmanned retailing include unmanned shelves, unmanned supermarkets or unmanned convenience stores. Unmanned shelves are obviously more ideal business model, and intelligent container is the inevitable evolution of unmanned shelves. But even so, there are more container manufacturers in the field of intelligent containers. However, there are less high-quality operators such as CityBox and Daily Fresh. At the same time, the promotion and operation of intelligent containers are still relatively difficult because of the rent of venues and other reasons.

Cloudpick was first inspired by the opening of AmazonGo, the first unmanned store in Seattle at the end of 2016. After the customer enters the door by scanning the QR code through the mobile phone, he can pick up the selected goods and go out directly. After leaving the store, he receives the bill. The fee will be automatically removed from the bound account to complete the shopping. There is no need to queue up to check out the whole process.

Zhao: How did Cloudpick achieve “Take away with invisible shopping”?

Feng: Cloudpick technology is based on computer vision, deep-learning and multi-sensor fusion to determine consumer shopping behavior. We digitally rebuild people, goods and stores in the retail sector and empower B-end retailers to help them achieve the front-end “unmanned” at the same time, but also for businesses to provide back-end “data” services. Hundreds of millions of data generated every week, the speed of data generation is milliseconds. These data include off-line user data, commodity data, consumer data and credit data, as well as operational value and mining services based on these data.

Zhao: Where are the characteristics and values of the Cloudpick unmanned convenience store?

Feng: The technology propose of Cloudpick is “taking away without feeling payment”. Cloudpick convenience store provides consumers with valuable consumer experience – fun and fast. For store operators, it also provides a novel and efficient business model, as well as the mentioned “data” services.

Zhao: What is the implementation speed of Cloudpick convenience store?

Feng: At present, Cloudpick LePick has six projects including JD Headquarters, Hongqiao Airport, Office Building and Street Shop. The next eight projects, including MALL, office buildings, communities, universities, hotels, railway stations, airports and hospitals, are expected to complete the target of 10 unmanned convenience stores by the end of the year.

Zhao: What are the next steps in the development of Cloudpick unmanned convenience store?

Feng: Next we will cooperate with brand stores, shopping centers, Department stores, hotels, real estate, and online and offline retail enterprises, which is mainly in the first-tier andsecond-tier cities.

Cloudpick demonstrates how their unmanned convenience store works

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