Unmanned Convenience Store Market to Grow at a CAGR of 51.9% to reach US$ US$ 1,640.32 Million from 2019 to 2027

The unmanned convenience store market was valued US$ 67.48 million in 2019 and is expected to reach US$ 1,640.32 million by 2027 with a CAGR growth rate of 51.9% during the forecast period.

Growing competition from the online players is stimulating traditional retailers to reorganize their store networks in each and every aspect, from design and layout to size and scale. The usage of technology in the stores has never been more essential, facilitating retailers to provide customers a variety of checkout options which is suits their preferences. Today, the customers expect instant services and are increasingly opting for automated devices in order to reduce their manual operating chores. Owing to this, the self-service technologies are progressively changing the customer’s way of interacting with the firms for creating service results. In the current scenario, the self-checkout systems are increasingly installed by numerous retailers in their stores for facilitating their customers for checking out with the things they have purchased without the need of the cashiers. Thus, the retailers use this system to enhance their customers’ shopping experience through reducing the checkout time and thereby offering more personalized services at their store.

As the self-checkout terminals have a tendency to be more compact than the traditional tills, utilizing this technology further supports the retailer to replace one manned till with the multiple self-checkout systems in place, as there will be no wastage of employee’s time. Thus, it is the smarter approach to reduce lines without having to expand the retail space. Furthermore, owing to the self-checkout systems, the employees can use their time to restock the shelves, receive products, or advice customers, which in turn facilitates the companies/retailers to make use of their employees in more efficient manner to gain productivity. For instance, in 2018, McDonald’s decided to install self-serve kiosks in all its 14,000 U.S. locations, i.e. use of self-serve machines where people can order their meal using a screen. Moreover, the QSR giant tested these machines in some of the selected restaurants, and recorded that the sales were consistently higher at the place using machines than at the manned tills. NCR Corporation, Toshiba, CCL Technology, Fujitsu, and Diebold Nixdorf, Inc. are some of the leading companies who are highly focusing on developing advanced self-checkout technology in the market. During the fiscal year 2018, NCR Corporation generated US$ 346 million of its total revenue from the self-service kiosk solutions. Thus, owing to the benefits of self-checkout systems there is high demand for these systems and solutions around the world by the retailers, which in turn is contributing to the growth of unmanned convenience store market

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Unmanned Convenience Store Market

The pandemic COVID-19 continues to enforce the temporary closure of retail stores in the countries of North America, signaling an unprecedented disruption of commerce. Retailers and brands are facing various short-term challenges regarding health and safety, supply chain, labor force, cash flow, consumer demand, and marketing. In North America, stores started closing at the beginning of March, and this trend is expected to continue as cities and states battle to contain the spread of the virus. For instance, out of 26 Amazon Go, the unmanned convenience store, 22 stores have been shut down as people have been asked to not leave their houses. Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly accelerating the tradition of digital commerce. As people are being told to follow social distancing, e-commerce orders for essentials and groceries have become a survival tool for the people in America. Many families are trying digital grocery services. This has significantly impacted retailers. Owing to high order picking and delivery costs, digital grocery orders are less profitable for the retailers than traditional in-store shopping trips.

Lucrative Regions for Unmanned Convenience Store Market

Get more information on this report : Request Free Sample PDF

Market Insights

Development of fully automated convenience stores

Several retail innovations are demonstrating the future of retail sector both in offline and digital market. For instance, a touchscreen corridor, developed the Inspiration Corridor, utilizes image recognition and purchase histories for suggesting and locating items to the customers. Another instance, Foodstuffs developed SMARTCART, which uses computer vision technology for recognizing products as they are put inside the basket. The consumers can then automatically pay for the products utilizing the mobile application, in which the customers are required to link their payment details. Further, a new startup, known as DeepMagic, also utilizes digital innovations for enhancing the experience of the physical stores. With the Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence (AI), DeepMagic is facilitating retailers to make unattended physical stores which are fully automated. Deep Magic offers the Qick Kiosk, which is a pop-up store that is fully automated deployed with image recognition software that allows these unattended mini-stores to function securely. Further, Chinese startup F5 Future Stores that operates 24-hour unmanned convenience stores, which are entirely managed and control by robotic arms. Moreover, this company has closed its Series B round of financing and has collected approximately RMB 100 million (USD 14.5 million), with which it is focusing to open 50 more unmanned convenience stores that are fully automated. Thus, with the new technologies such as image recognition, robots, and artificial intelligence, the market players can further focus on investing in developing fully automated stores.

Offering Market Insights

An unmanned convenience store is concept in retail sector in which there are no cashiers and no service personnel in the store. The transactions are handled through a mobile application. Different than automated convenience store, the unmanned store concept relies on smartphone-related technologies and artificial intelligence to remove the traditional features of a store. There are two types of offering in unmanned convenience store such as solutions and service.

The companies in the unmanned convenience store market offer different solutions for the unmanned convenience store. These products help streamline the whole shopping as well as the selling process in a convenience store. These solutions include machine vision, facial recognition, shelf sensors, barcodes, quick response (QR) codes, and RFID tags. A subset of AI, Machine vision, enables computers to understand images. The Cashier-free retailers use machine vision to track shoppers through stores, though the technology can’t identify the shoppers without facial recognition. Customers still have to scan a code on their phones as they enter the store in order to link their physical presence with their identity. Facial recognition algorithms tie visual data of the customer to save specific customer's identities. With a fully functioning facial recognition device, in-store shopper visuals are matched by the camera to digital shopper profiles, determining the name and identity of each visitor. The unmanned (and traditional) retailers use weight sensors or light sensors on shelves to detect when products are added or removed. Mobile apps that enable customer to scan product barcodes themselves and pay support the concept of unmanned checkout. Various unmanned retail mobile apps make use of QR codes. In some models of the store, a mobile app provides a personalized QR code for the customer, which the customer can then scan to enter the store, pay, and leave. RFID (radio frequency ID) tags can be connected to products to track them through the store. Sensors at store exits are able to read RFID information to confirm which products a shopper is carrying out. These solutions are combined together to make a fully automated, unmanned convenience store.

Unmanned Convenience Store Market, by Offering– 2019 and 2027

Get more information on this report : Request Free Sample PDF

Type Market Insight

The paradigm shifts of businesses embracing digitization have reaped more significant benefits for the enterprises and resulted in more revenue generation opportunities. Companies across the world are looking forward to integrating their unmanned convenience store to automate the shopping experience for customers. The unmanned convenience stores are of two forms fully automated and semi-automated.

The fully automated convenience stores are stores that do not require any manual help. Every process is carried out by the robots. In fully automated convenience store, there aren’t any products inside the store for the customers to pick, instead of the process of picking up the products by themselves from the shelves, the customer orders the products through their smartphones or the in-store interactive kiosk.

Strategic Insights

The players operating in the enterprise content management market focus on strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, and market initiatives to maintain their positions in the market. A few developments by key players are listed below:

• In Feb 2020, Amazon.com, Inc. opened its first grocery store to pilot the use of the retailer’s cashier-less “Just Walk Out” technology that has previously been used in 25 Amazon Go convenience stores, which are located in major U.S. metro cities. This Amazon Go Grocery store is based in Seattle, that allows customers to shop for every day groceries products such as fresh produce, seafood, meat, bakery items, dairy, household essentials, ready-to-cook meal options, beer, wine & spirits, and others. The size of the store is 7,700 square feet in the front of the house and 10,400 square feet overall. Same as the Amazon Go convenience stores, customers use the Amazon Go app to scan in as they enter the store. Further, the sensors and cameras track the items that are removed from the shelves which are then added to the customer’s virtual cart. As the customer leaves the store, their cart is checked out automatically using their payment card on file.

• In Jan 2019, Shenzhen Rakinda Technology Co., Ltd. launched Eco Mini Price Checker for Money Cashier Solution. It enables effective digital management through a built-in information management system. The Eco mini 10inch Price Checker is an Android POS machine that can be paired with a bar code machine. Its small size design is convenient for narrow places, such as small dining, shopping, etc., and its flexible and scalable structure makes it more suitable in the retail industry.

Global Unmanned Convenience Store Segments:

Unmanned Convenience Store Market – By Offering

• • Solution
  • Service

Unmanned Convenience Store Market – By Type

• • Fully automated
  • Semi-automated

Unmanned Convenience Store Market – By Geography

• North America

  • U.S.
  • Canada
  • Mexico

• Europe

  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Spain
  • UK
  • Rest of Europe

• Asia Pacific (APAC)

  • Australia
  • China
  • India
  • Japan
  • Rest of APAC

• Middle East & Africa (MEA)

  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • South Africa
  • Rest of MEA

• South America (SAM)

  • Brazil
  • Rest of SAM

Companies

• Amazon.com, Inc.
• Shenzhen Rakinda Technology Co., Ltd.
• F5 Future Store
• BingoBox
• CYB-ORG