Hong Kong opens doors to first unmanned shops

AlipayHK and Okashiland both unveiled stores on a trial basis.

Unmanned retail shops made their debut in Hong Kong after Alipay HK and Okashiland separately launched two such spaces in early September.

The unmanned shop of Alipay HK is located in Olympian City in West Kowloon and features a wide array of fashion products and accessories for sale. Okashiland’s store, on the other hand, offers more than 100 varieties of snacks at its unstaffed store in Gala Place, Mong Kok.

Customers first have their faces scanned upon entry to Alipay HK's store which generates a QR code on a screen outside the entrance. After scanning the code on their phone, they can gain access to the shop.  

The two shops are equipped with sophisticated Radio Frequency Identification system that an automatically identify tags attached to goods and record a list of sales.

Customers can also verify a list of their desired goods on screen before paying through QR code scanning. The Alipay HK store has its own payment application whilst the Okashiland store accepts only WeChat Pay services.

Both stores, however, are only open on trial basis in Hong Kong with Alipay HK set to stop store operations on October 1 whilst the Okashiland store closing on September 25.

Photo from Insider Retail