--- title: "Big News: Uni-President to Launch Unmanned Convenience Stores, Why Are FMCG Giants Entering This Field?" description: "Uni-President Group announced it will launch its first unmanned convenience store in Taipei by the first half of next year, as revealed at its 50th anniversary celebration. This move follows similar initiatives by Wahaha, Yili, and Mengniu, reflecting a trend among traditional FMCG giants to embrace unmanned retail as a response to changing consumer behavior and declining traditional channels." author: "新经销团队" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-12-28" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/big-news-uni-president-to-launch-unmanned-convenience-stores-why-are-fmc-993754bc/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/big-news-uni-president-to-launch-unmanned-convenience-stores-why-are-fmc-993754bc.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DSIL42va6nTYqh01-Nn2rg" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E9%87%8D%E7%A3%85-%E7%BB%9F%E4%B8%80%E4%B9%9F%E8%A6%81%E5%BC%80%E6%97%A0%E4%BA%BA%E4%BE%BF%E5%88%A9%E5%BA%97%E4%BA%86-%E5%BF%AB%E6%B6%88%E5%93%81%E5%A4%A7%E4%BD%AC%E7%BA%B7%E7%BA%B7%E5%85%A5%E5%B1%80%E6%89%80%E4%B8%BA%E4%BD%95-993754bc.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/big-news-uni-president-to-launch-unmanned-convenience-stores-why-are-fmc-993754bc/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Big News: Uni-President to Launch Unmanned Convenience Stores, Why Are FMCG Giants Entering This Field? > Uni-President Group announced it will launch its first unmanned convenience store in Taipei by the first half of next year, as revealed at its 50th anniversary celebration. This move follows similar initiatives by Wahaha, Yili, and Mengniu, reflecting a trend among traditional FMCG giants to embrace unmanned retail as a response to changing consumer behavior and declining traditional channels. Uni-President is also entering the unmanned convenience store arena! Today, New Distribution learned that Uni-President Group announced it will launch its first unmanned convenience store in Taipei by the first half of next year. At the 50th anniversary celebration of Uni-President Enterprises, Chairman Lo Chih-hsien stated that President Chain Store has over 5,000 stores across Taiwan. In addition to developing distinctive features, the company will leverage technology to develop unmanned stores in response to retail industry changes. The first store is expected to open in Taipei by the first half of next year. ▲ Source: China Times Electronic News 2017 is a transformative year for retail and the starting year for new retail. Unmanned convenience stores have become a hot trend, with more companies leveraging data and technology advantages for transformation. **Wahaha: Take Go – Customized Unmanned Smart Convenience Store** On June 25, Wahaha, the beverage industry leader, signed an agreement with DeepBlue Technology, a leading AI company in retail, to deploy 100,000 Take Go unmanned stores in 3 years and 1 million in 10 years. The cooperation with Wahaha includes two aspects: > First, the "QuickCat Payment System" will be fully integrated into Wahaha's existing and future vending machine systems. According to reports, Wahaha will deploy vending machines at a pace of "100,000 in 3 years, 1 million in 10 years," with a total investment of 2 billion yuan. > > Second, Wahaha will pilot the Take Go customized unmanned smart convenience store based on the QuickCat system. It is reported that Wahaha will first select five locations in Hangzhou (a total of 5 stores) for pilot deployment, with each store covering 30-40 square meters. The unmanned convenience store has become one of Wahaha's key initiatives for 2017. **Yili: Piloting Unmanned Convenience Micro-Stores in Shanghai** Yili is promoting unmanned convenience micro-stores in over 2,000 communities, in cooperation with DeepBlue Technology, to bring its products directly to the community consumption circle closest to consumers (at the bottom of high-rise residential buildings and within residential areas). The stores come in two sizes: large ones of several dozen square meters and small ones that can only accommodate a family of three. During the summer, Yili piloted the stores in three communities in Shanghai. **Mengniu: Entering Unmanned Convenience Stores with "Mystery Store"** While Yili is deploying unmanned convenience stores, Mengniu, the other dairy giant, is not far behind. It is reported that on November 15, Mengniu's first unmanned convenience store, "Mystery Store," opened in Beijing. The purchasing process at "Mystery Store" is similar to most unmanned stores. Before purchasing, consumers need to download the "Mystery Store" app on their phones. After entering the store, consumers select products from the shelves and scan the barcode of the selected product against a scanner. The computer then automatically displays the quantity and price of the product. Consumers open the "Mystery Store" app to scan the order QR code to pay and take the product. As representatives of traditional enterprises, Wahaha, Yili, Mengniu, and Uni-President's deployment of unmanned convenience stores has implications for their own FMCG businesses and the entire industry. **New Distribution Columnist Liu Shaode:** First Wahaha entered the vending machine market, and now Uni-President is entering unmanned convenience stores. Why are traditional FMCG giants so keen on unmanned retail? In my opinion, in the context of consumption upgrading, consumers have more choices, personalized consumption trends are becoming more obvious, and FMCG distribution channels are becoming more fragmented, leading to a decline in traditional circulation channels. It is foreseeable that this situation will continue for a long time. For traditional FMCG companies, despite the huge market stock, the decline in sales is like boiling a frog in warm water. When the original circulation methods can no longer meet consumers' increasingly personalized choices, building self-owned channels is undoubtedly a last-ditch choice. Whether it is setting up vending machines, opening unmanned convenience stores, or cooperating with internet B2B platforms, for manufacturers, these are all passive choices in the face of an uncertain future consumer market. And this may just be the beginning! **New Distribution Columnist Yuan Lai:** FMCG giants entering unmanned convenience stores is not a business mindset but a research mindset. Facing the overall decline in the FMCG environment, traditional FMCG giants are in pain. What did they do wrong? Some say consumption scenarios have become diversified; some say consumption upgrading has led to a pursuit of health and quality; others say the internet's dimensionality reduction attack has crossed boundaries and destroyed you. There are many masters among those who say these things. Who do you listen to? No one! Open an unmanned convenience store, listen to consumers, truly understand the decision-making process and purchase behavior trajectory of consumers in the store, and build your own consumer behavior database. Translate the database into products and brands. Making good products is the only way out for FMCG companies. Therefore, Uni-President's entry into unmanned convenience stores is not a business study but a research study. **Old Na's Comment:** Unmanned convenience stores seem to be the next trend. I hope it doesn't end up like this year's shared bikes, leaving a mess. In recent years, the internet industry has had a huge impact on traditional FMCG industries. FMCG companies have been waiting and hoping to get involved with the internet. Finally, they found the good excuse of unmanned convenience stores. "Unmanned" is clearly an internet concept; "convenience store" can help me sell goods. So it is understandable that those FMCG leaders who are being hit hard by the internet are investing in this industry. In simple terms, it is the development of special channels for traditional FMCG industries. For traditional FMCG companies, doing unmanned convenience stores, first, adds channels; second, they hope this project will attract investment from big players. This strategy is similar to Master Kong's Dicos opening stores in fourth- and fifth-tier markets, hoping that McDonald's and KFC would acquire them, but those two giants never went downmarket, and in the end, Dicos was acquired by a Chinese company. This also means Dicos's plans will be put on hold for a while. What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment below to discuss with us. -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671