Bianlifeng, a Chinese startup which owns and operates a chain of cashier-free convenience stores, has started to replace its existing unmanned shelves with smart vending machines, according to an insider.

The move was first started in Beijing on a large scale in late February, and will be gradually expanded nationwide.

The change in development strategy came after the company determined that the unmanned shelf industry had begun to shift its competition focus from simply increasing the number of shelves deployed to improving operational efficiency of those shelves, and that replacing the shelves with smart vending machines is a prerequisite for raising the efficiency, said the insider.

Bianlifeng will initially have 50,000 such machines installed in more than ten key cities it has selected. To achieve this, it is recruiting close to 1,000people, mostly marketing specialists of those machines, in these cities. An internal reshuffling is also going on in support of such a change.

If the machines prove successful in these cities, the company will proceed with the replacement plan elsewhere across China, as allowed by the production capacity of those machines.

According to the company, smart vending machines can effectively reduce instances of damage to goods, a pain point for previous unmanned shelves, by at least 90 percent.

In addition, these power- and Internet-connected machines can provide their operators with information about the number of goods left in them and thus can be replenished in a more timely and precise manner. With this, it is possible for their operators to sell goods that are expensive and have a short shelf life.

Currently, most players in the unmanned shelf business are developing smart vending machines, but they adopt different technologies and their progresses vary. Due to a lack of a mature industry chain for producing such machines, supply still falls far short of demand.

Against this background, Bianlifeng managed to get ahead of its rivals by already ordering 50,000 such machines, a number that would be sufficient for its initial deployment.

As the machines gradually replace unmanned shelves, the Matthew Effect in the industry will be more obvious, with perhaps only a few amply-funded players left. This is because the machines are expensive to make and its widespread use will require its operators to have matching financing capacity.

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