What pain points can unmanned vending machines solve in physical stores?

Unmanned convenience stores are definitely the future trend, but not necessarily the'small business' like the grocery store downstairs. But a real node about the development direction of unmanned convenience stores has also emerged-is it really a competitor of traditional retail stores? Or, from the beginning, the focus of the industry has been out of focus. In terms of format, unmanned convenience stores are actually the same route as automatic vending machines. One is a standardized process that does not require shopping guides. In the last round of e-commerce testing, the physical store form was no different from the traditional retail store. At that time, the line of thinking was to use offline services and shopping guides to enhance the user experience and increase the conversion rate. However, compared with traditional retail stores, the effect of such services as unmanned supermarkets is not obvious. At the same time, many traditional convenience stores take root in the community. The intersection of their long-term and residents cannot be replaced by an'outsider' in the short term. In this round of testing, the entry point of the choice jumped directly out of the 'warmth' link of traditional stores. It is a flaw in many industry views, but in essence, it has found the life of Internet +, that is, to replace traditional shopping guides with standardized processes. In addition to reducing labor costs, it also meets the standardization requirements under the e-commerce trend: watching reviews online and enjoying offline experience. This in itself is also the law of the survival of various 'drones' earlier, that is, there is a standardized process to truly realize unattended. The second is to dig deeply into user pain points. Each type of 'drone' represents a certain type of rigid needs of users, and it is not simply attributed to lowering prices or queuing issues. The unmanned vending machine placed in a relatively hidden location solves the user's privacy problem; the bank automatic teller machine solves the demand for deposits and withdrawals in the second half of the night and part of the standardized banking business; the unmanned ticket machine at the airport provides That is to say, if the demand for visual seat selection achieves the real pain point resolution, it can to some extent ignore factors such as cost and price and become an outlet. What kind of pain points can unmanned convenience stores solve for users? Perhaps an act of Infarm in Germany can provide enlightenment: it is taking the path of fresh food e-commerce, but it is more vertical. The company started from the crowdfunding 'Household Paper Art Miniature Garden' in 2014, and has been committed to various Vegetables are grown in places that are'impossible'. In one of Infarm's latest inventions, convenience stores will grow spices, vegetables and even some fruits through an'indoor vertical farm system'. 'Whether it is arugula from Provence, Mexican tarragon or Moroccan mint, we can grow them in a planting box. In addition to the words of its founder, there are consumers' immediate needs (pain points) for the word'xian' in fresh food (pain points) and the desire for exotic fruits (itch points) in the word'sheng'. In other words, in terms of business format, unmanned convenience stores may not necessarily go in the direction of'small business format', but they must make strong cuts from a vertical angle and achieve rigid demand release.