French checkout-free shop lands in Yangzhou

People from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province celebrate the opening of Auchan Minute, a checkout-free convenience store on March 13. [Photo/hj.gov.cn]

Yangzhou in Jiangsu province welcomed its first Auchan checkout-free shop on March 13 after the French retail giant announced in November 2017 that it will open several hundred such shops in China. 

The operation of Auchan Minute, the official name of the shop, is very simple and intuitive. Customers use WeChat, the most popular social app in China, to scan the QR code presented at the entrance, have their membership information identified and registered, and then walk through the open doors and start their shopping journey. 

After the bar codes of products are scanned, customers' purchases are automatically added to a virtual cart. Payments are made by Wechat Pay or AliPay and transactions are validated by mobile phone. 

Director Xu Li said the Auchan Minute offers 500 products for sale 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

"We will continue to promote our checkout-free shop in more populated areas," she said.

Customers shop at the checkout-free convenience store. [Photo/hj.gov.cn]

The door of Auchan Minute is automatically opened after customers scan the QR code at the entrance and have their membership identified. [Photo/hj.gov.cn]

The entrance of the checkout-free shop [Photo/hj.gov.cn]