Alibaba's Freshippo and Hema grocery stores are reinventing the supermarket of the future

Summary

Alibaba's Hema store in Shanghai showcases a futuristic retail experience with a robot restaurant. The store integrates shopping, online order distribution, and dining, featuring real-time price updates and transparency on product origins. Customers can order groceries for delivery within 30 minutes and enjoy a seamless checkout via the Hema app. The robot restaurant automates food delivery, offering a high-tech dining experience, though human servers are still needed for complex dishes.

Takeaways

• 🏬 Alibaba's Hema store in Shanghai is a new retail concept that combines a physical shopping experience with a robot restaurant.
• 📈 The Hema store has been rapidly expanding in China, opening 65 locations in just one year.
• 🛍️ The store serves as a place to shop in person, a distribution center for online orders, and a restaurant.
• 🏷️ Every price tag in the Hema store has a barcode that can be scanned with the Hema app to see the price, reviews, delivery information, and a government certificate.
• 📈 The pricing system uses special technology that can change prices in real-time.
• 🚀 Store employees use scanners and conveyor belts to fulfill online orders, making the store an efficient distribution center.
• 🏠 Delivery is available for customers within three kilometers of a Hema store, with groceries delivered within 30 minutes.
• 🦞 Chinese consumers prefer to visit the store in person to see the freshness of seafood before purchasing.
• 🛒 There are no traditional cashiers in the Hema store; payments are made through the Hema app connected to Alipay, or via facial recognition.
• 🍽️ The robot restaurant at Hema allows customers to order and pay through the Hema app, with robots delivering the food.
• 🤖 Alibaba uses technology from its e-commerce automated warehouses to power the robot restaurants, creating an efficient system of robots working together.

Q & A

What is the name of Alibaba's new retail concept store?

The name of Alibaba's new retail concept store is Hema.

What is unique about the Hema store's expansion into offline retail?

The Hema store is unique in its expansion into offline retail as it includes its own robot restaurant, which is the first of its kind.

How does Hema's pricing system work?

Hema's pricing system uses barcodes on price tags that customers can scan with the Hema app to see the item's price online, read reviews, and get information about delivery and origin, including government certificates for organic products.

What is special about the technology used in Hema's price tags?

The technology used in Hema's price tags allows for real-time price changes and provides information about when and where the product was delivered to the store.

How does Hema's store function as a distribution center for online orders?

Hema's store functions as a distribution center by using a conveyor belt system where employees place products for online orders, which are then automatically transported to the back area for delivery.

What is the delivery promise for customers living within three kilometers of a Hema store?

For customers living within three kilometers of a Hema store, the delivery promise is to have their groceries delivered within 30 minutes.

How does Hema's checkout process differ from traditional grocery stores?

Hema's checkout process is fully digital, with no traditional cashiers. Customers use the Hema app, connected to Alipay, to swipe their phone in front of a scanner for payment, and they also have the option to pay using facial recognition.

What is the role of the Hema app in the shopping and dining experience?

The Hema app is central to the shopping and dining experience, allowing customers to scan barcodes for pricing and reviews, facilitate checkout, order food at the robot restaurant, and even pay using facial recognition.

How does the Hema robot restaurant work?

At the Hema robot restaurant, customers check in at a kiosk using the app, get assigned a table, scan the table's barcode, and place orders through the app. Robots then deliver the food, and payment is made within the app.

What is the significance of the Hema store's three pillars of strategy?

The three pillars of Hema's strategy are to serve as a place for in-person shopping, a distribution center for online orders, and a restaurant. This approach aims to define the future of retail by integrating online and offline experiences.

What are the limitations of Hema's robot restaurant in terms of food service?

While the robot restaurant can handle the delivery of most dishes, it is limited in that it cannot serve complicated dishes like soups, which require human servers.