As the lazy economy deepens, the office, where people spend most of their time and activities, is being embraced by entrepreneurs as the best place to spend their money, using the “proximity rule.” In addition, convenient operation and low overall cost create conditions for the rapid development of unmanned shelf project. It is understood that the general office unmanned shelf, the initial cost of landing a point is only about 1000 yuan, which means that as long as you want, the office unmanned shelf can appear in minutes.

The emergence of unmanned shelves has led to the emergence of an unmanned “kiosk” in many big city offices. Unmanned shelves in offices are more convenient than convenience stores and supermarkets outside, but also faster than O2O. In a short time, this seemingly primitive model of unattended retail has become the industry’s new darling.

New retail shelves in empty offices

Unmanned office shelves received a lot of financing from various companies during August and September this year. With the advent of the new retail army, the office unmanned shelf is also out of the situation, there is a small convenience, Harry fan technology, seven koalas and other office unmanned shelf projects, and have obtained more than ten million financing, office unmanned shelf is a moment of infinite glory. The rise of unmanned shelves in the office is not an emergency, the main reasons for the following aspects.

First of all, China has no less than 50 million office space points, which means that in the future, the market space of unmanned shelves in the office will have a consumption value of no less than 30 billion yuan, with a vast market space. And unmanned shelves in the office can solve some problems of eating and drinking consumption, in some respects, unmanned shelves in the office meet some of the needs of convenience stores, retail e-commerce and takeout. For example, Youbo.com has added many women’s daily necessities in companies with a large number of women, such as tampons and baby warmers, to effectively solve women’s needs and bring women consumers a more intimate and convenient consumption experience.

Secondly, the Internet and electricity business leaders took a fancy to the office of the consumer market, they increase the support for the office unmanned shelf project, and the office unmanned shelf back by the big guy good “cool”. According to the 2017 Chinese unmanned shelf Market prospect Research Report, we can learn that by the end of September, there have been no less than 16 unmanned shelf has been funded by capital, the total financing of unmanned shelf is more than 2.5 billion yuan. Among them, there is a small convenience behind Ali and Meituan dianping support; Hami Technology and Tmall’s Yiguo “marriage”; E-point Convenience is a product of Ele. me, so E-Point Convenience has corresponding advantages in commodities, distribution and supply chain. Ele. me can also provide e-Point Convenience with a variety of products. In addition, Alibaba’s logistics system can also provide distribution and back-end supply chain measures, so that products can be maintained and updated in real time.

Finally, it satisfies consumers’ demand for “close distance” unplanned and instant consumption under the consumption scenario of office. Office shelves are unattended micro shopping shelves in the office, which place some food and drinks and other goods. Nowadays, the lengthening of working hours and the fragmentation of time make people have less and less free time. In order to save time, people mainly deal with events “fast, ruthless and accurate”. The unmanned shelf in the office just conforms to its “convenience”. People can solve some small problems in life such as eating and drinking by scanning the code to pay in the office, and truly realize casual and close consumption.

In addition, due to the special environment of the office, unmanned shelves in the office have high-frequency passenger flow nodes, which can obtain stable flow from offline. And office retail is the new retail project that is closest to consumers and has the most access to offline traffic, which promotes the development of unmanned shelves in the office.

Due to low entry threshold, small footprint and easy operation, Internet and e-commerce giants have entered this industry. However, this does not mean that the short-term entry of Internet giants will change the pattern of the entire consumer market. As far as the current situation is concerned, these giants are still in a state of wait-and-see and testing water, and the empty shelves in the office are not highly profitable, and there are still many problems behind it.

There are still pain points lurking behind all the hype

Since August, unattended shelves containing a wide variety of snacks and drinks have been placed in some offices in the tea room or corner. Among them, hami technology, small convenience, snack E home, E point convenience, guomiao beauty, seven koalas and other unmanned shelves repeatedly. With the increase of attention of major enterprises and entrepreneurs to the office unattended shelf project, the promotion of capital, the development of the project will on the one hand push the office unattended shelf to the front of the retail industry, on the one hand highlight the hidden problems of the office unattended shelf.

First, under the new retail, all kinds of “unmanned” technology began to appear on the consumer retail stage, “unmanned” retail compete to grab the consumer market, such as unmanned convenience store, unmanned library, unmanned supermarket and other “unmanned” retail challenges to the office unmanned shelves. At present, the three main forms of unmanned retail are unmanned convenience stores, vending machines and unmanned shelves in offices. Besides, unmanned cafes also exist. Office unmanned shelf rivals are strong, and their own because of the emergence of reasons, the foundation is not solid, weak competitiveness, and the demand of the consumer market is not too understanding, can not let go to do.

Second, there are limited and limited goods placed on unmanned shelves in the office, and the loss rate of goods stolen is not controllable. The lack of empty shelf space in an office is not always a good thing, because it means that there are only a limited number of items on the shelves, and only small items. Another is that the goods on the unmanned shelves in the office are directly placed on the shelves. Consumers can take goods by scanning and paying when they want to buy them, but it does not rule out that some consumers with low behavioral quality only take goods but do not pay, which will give businesses the loss of interests.

Third, the small footprint of unattended shelves in offices means that there are fewer goods to put in them, but it also means that the project will not become a big one. No shelf surface office covers an area of small businesses can make a lot of money, but it also limits the development of unmanned retail projects, narrow place due to the goods which makes placed in the above goods also want to cooperate with the volume of a shelf, which means less profitable goods, to this kind of small-scale office no one shelf model is difficult to get interest.

Fourth, the goods on the unmanned shelves in the office are mainly food and beverage. In the seemingly low threshold and anyone can participate in the retail field, it is just the new opportunity consumers need. However, the office unmanned shelf is difficult to achieve large-scale fine operation. At present, major enterprises are speeding up the layout of office unattended shelves, too much attention to the data growth of market size, which is not conducive to the fine operation of office unattended shelves.

In the new retail, although there are still many problems with unmanned shelves in the office, the final reason is that they do not understand the new format. Office unattended shelf is like a new piece of land, the future is a desert or oasis, it depends on enterprises and entrepreneurs on the overall layout of office unattended shelf heart.

How can unmanned office shelves fight their way into the new retail market?

Now, under the influence of the new wave of snacks, unattended shelves in the office also began to layout to seize the consumer market. For the company, unmanned shelves in the office is a small benefit for employees, and such close shopping is much more convenient than O2O and convenience stores. In addition, for the office unmanned shelf entrepreneurs and investment enterprises, consumer acceptance and market demand makes the office unmanned shelf has greater space for development. And today’s unmanned office shelves are ill-equipped to take hold in the new retail market.

First of all, change the “small” nature of unmanned shelves in the office and diversify the development of products. Office unmanned shelves in order to have a big development will be the first adjustment to its entire shape, although now a lot of retail formats are “small and fine” route, but in terms of office unmanned shelves, “small” does not mean that a refrigerator or a grill can form an office unmanned shelves, This “stingy” approach hinders the development of unmanned projects on a large scale. Empty shelves in offices can increase their volume, stock more products and diversify beyond eating and drinking.

Secondly, based on people’s high requirements for consumer experience, in order to increase consumption of office unattended shelves, it is necessary to combine intelligent technology to develop and upgrade consumer experience. New retail is a technology retail model integrating online and offline development. Nowadays, people pay more attention to consumption experience while consuming. Unmanned shelves in the office can place different goods in different areas, and consumers can play some songs when they consume goods in each area to relieve their psychology. And while unattended shelves in offices are “unattended,” voice could be built into them so that consumers can talk to them as they make purchases.

Finally, unmanned shelves in the office seek differentiation in the homogenization, such as the main fresh products, additional ordering products. Now many office shelves are empty goods are nothing more than small goods such as food and drink, product thousands of times are nothing new. Unmanned shelves in the office should not be eliminated by many new retail industries to find the existence of the difference from others, we can start from the quality and demand of products. Unoccupied shelves in the office mainly face white-collar consumers, for this kind of consumers, we can start from cake and daily necessities.

In short, empty shelves in the office have become a powerful part of the new retail format. However, due to the low entry threshold of office unmanned shelf and relatively few application scenario services, the office unmanned shelf project has been repeatedly questioned. But there is no denying that unmanned shelf project in the face of doubt, some unmanned shelf projects have been quietly launched in the offices of major companies. As for the community retail, unmanned convenience stores and many other new retail industries, the office unmanned shelf can survive in this consumer market let us wait and see.

Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110