From unmanned store to roadshow robot, modern retail technology is shaping the way Australian business launching brands to China market.
Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba Group, said: “In the future, 60%-80% of the new retail e-commerce will have no future without reform.” New retail will become an inevitable trend.
What is new retail? Let’s take a look at the TAOCAFE from Alibaba Group. It is the “unmanned store” that combines Ma’s new retail concept. The consumer scans the QR code for product information, if a product is desired, buyer just need to bring it out, and the payment is automatically completed when walking out of the store.
The rise of unmanned stores is attributed by m-commerce, Unmanned stores meet two things: “product information” and “convenient mobile payment automation.” And these can be achieved through mobile phone APP such as WeChat
Before buying a product, consumers must first have a good impression on the brand of the product. It is best to get from words of mouth from friends, family, or from social media, ultimately it is best to try it out for personal experience by oneself.
Chinese consumers are loyal to well-known brands that are strongly promoted, they don’t easily trust the brands that have never been heard, or brands that have no reputation, that why consumers are buying products of few well-known brands.
How to become known by the consumers? in the past the only way seems to import the goods and made them available for consumer experience, For many Australian brands with good products that wish to develop China market, cost to import goods into China market is too high and time-consuming, furthermore it is necessary to obtain import license for each product through a test will take at least half year. Products used in the human body, such as beauty skin care products, are also forced to be tested in animals and replaced with Chinese packaging, leaving many Australian manufacturers who advocate nature, emphasize organic and protect animals and environmental protection hesitate to enter the market. And maybe it is the right decision to make as manufactures will soon find the import cost is very high so need to invest on China local factory, which can be another fatal decision.
When foreign brands set up factories in China and local-packaged them, the product become made-in-China. So the Australian products that consumers are buying from local channels are not really made-in-Australia. Once a brand move to china and become famous, very soon there will be counterfeit products in the marketplace, including most popular ones TaoBao, Tmall and JD. In order to prevent buying counterfeit goods, consumers are looking to buy same products from trusted channels, so many turn to Daigou (in Chinese words, buying agent) they know personally, who help to buy products from Australia and send them to the end-buyers in China. Funny, isn’t it? and end of day, after all the effort to bring the products to local, people still want to buy from Australia directly.
Therefore the task for a smart Australian manufacturer shall be how to make the brand famous for directly purchase cross border, in stead of investing on make the products available for local distribution.
This means few things: make the brand famous and available to purchase from China via trusted channel, we have the solution – EMPOS roadshow robot
Ecommerce Marketing Point of Sales – SydneyDirect
EMPOS- Ecommerce Marketing Point of Sales Roadshow robots offer solutions that meet modern retail trends. It is an AI machine designed for the behavior of Chinese consumers. The EMPOS is similar to a vending machine and can be customized for brand/product theme. It has a 50″ large-screen touch screen on the front, which interact with consumers in real time to provide preferential promotional messages for small sample distribution.
EMPOS in brand themes – SydneyDirect
Each EMPOS system is a physical mini store that can be set up in an office lobby, mall corridor or public subway station. Its small size, the shape can be customized, it can store hundreds of goods, and connected to the AI backstage for management and analysis.
In Shanghai’s buildings,metro stations,100 EMPOS roadshow robots are working as unmanned shops to reach more than 800,000 consumers every day.
People who see ads on EMPOS roadshow robots can scan QRs from large 50-inch touch screens and interact to get more product information. They can redeem free samples or purchase items and participate in promotions.
Currently, EMPOS roadshow robots already have 200,000 users, and the users Big Data is growing rapidly.
Sample experience & online purchase
EMPOS Roadshow Robots provide international brands to launch products for consumer experience and guide consumers through online purchases. This business model is a combination of offline experience and online purchase, is a perfect implementation of new retail.
EMPOS – experience offline and purchase online
Consumers first see the beautiful appearance according to the brand design, and then obtain product offers from the rotating banners on the touch screen, scan the coupon information to the mobile phone to redeem the sample, and EMPOS will get the consumers to follow its WeChat social account, providing consumers with more customized offers based on their preferences.
Marketing mechanism of EMPOS system
For the majority of domestic consumers, there is a certain degree of goodwill for products from Australia, because most of the Australian products are organic and environmentally friendly. When choosing Australian products to buy, it is more important to buy with peace of mind.
When purchasing from SydneyDirect, the price is often much cheaper than purchase from local due to tiers of distribution adding up the price, consumers also enjoy the peace of mind that the goods are coming from Australia directly, And because it is cross border model, the local 17.5% VAT (value-added tax) is exempted.
SydneyDirect Channel program with EMPOS new retail technology provides turnkey solution for international brands to launch China market.
