Chinese tech companies venture into unmanned convenience stores - Digiday

Out of curiosity, Teresa Chen recently went to an unmanned convenience store, EasyGo, near the China Plaza shopping mall in Guangzhou, China. She used her WeChat app to scan a QR code to get into the store, where she found imported snacks, candy and soft drinks. Every product had a price tag powered by radio-frequency identification, a technology that can automatically track and identify tags attached to objects. After she selected a box of crackers, Chen stood in the payment area and the bill automatically appeared in WeChat. Once Chen paid using her WeChat Wallet (a mobile payment service developed by Tencent), the door opened to let her leave the store. "The whole experience was seamless, as I didn't even need to scan the price tag to pay," said Chen, a product manager for a nutrition supplement company in Guangzhou.