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31 January 2018
7-Eleven has launched its first unstaffed convenience store in Taiwan.
The new ‘X-Store’
President Chain Store Corp., operator of 7-Eleven in Taiwan is testing its new unstaffed ‘X-Store’ at its headquarters. During testing, the store will only be open to company employees, and between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Source: Capture from YouTube promotional video of 7-Eleven X-Store
Facial recognition and other technologies…
The new X-Store store changes the way customers shop in store, utilising facial recognition technology to serve and service customers in different ways. Examples of facial biometric identification includes, ‘Face in’ to enter the store, ‘Face pay’ to make payments and ‘Face go’ for checkout.
7-Eleven has also utilised other technologies, for example, smart-voice activation, electronic labels, self-service POS systems, robot greeters and robot sweepers. This is 7-Eleven’s second unstaffed store in the world after one was launched (by Lotte) in Seoul last year.
Source: Capture from YouTube promotional video of 7-Eleven X-Store
Our View
As the pace of growth in the number of convenience stores in Taiwan slows down, retailers are looking at alternative ways to sustain growth. All the leading convenience chains in the market such as 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-life and OK mart, provide a range of services at stores to support consumers in their daily life. Technology and innovation demonstrated in 7-Eleven’s X-Store will become even more important, as will be the balance of function and emotion in stores.
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