(Chinese Version)

　　Shortly after a new convenience store brand was established, it was linked with labels such as “high-end”, “magnificent” and “classy”. However, for insiders in the traditional retailing industry who’ve paid a visit to its spacious outlets, they would wonder: can this kind of store really be profitable?

　　Empty second-floor, clean and tidy, no cashier, wide passage… these new convenience stores are indeed quite different from traditional ones. For customers, these convenience stores do provide a better shopping experience; for insiders, however, this is a total waste of money.

　　At the beginning of 2017, Bianlifeng, a new convenience store brand, began to appear in some media reports. Its founders include former executives from 7-11 and Lin+, its investors include Zhuang Chenchao, founder of Qunar.com and founding partner of Zebra Capital. It is reported that Zhuang planned to invest RMB 3 billion into Bianlifeng, so that it could open as many as 10,000 outlets.

　　Coincidentally, the popularity of Bianlifeng also drew much attention to the traditional retailing industry. As a surprisingly promising business, it certainly won’t be left alone by internet thinking.

　　As a matter of fact, a new force is indeed quietly rising since last year. A new type of automatic vending machines, selling orange juice, snacks, facemask, etc., has emerged in subway and shopping malls. Other gadgets, such as mini KTV and mini fitness center, would sell services.

　　As online traffic has already reached a bottleneck, people have begun to re-focus their attention on offline traffic. However, rising lease has always been an obstacle for offline stores. At this point, how to modify the original product structure, service structure and lower lease have become important questions to solve in order to survive in offline channels.

　　By dividing products and services into smaller units, automatic vending machines managed to cover more customers and scenarios with lower cost. However, late entrants such as “Bianlifeng” also attempted to upgrade convenience stores through internet thinking.

　　Recently, TMTPost journalists paid a visit to several Bianlifeng’s outlets to find the underneath business logic and truth behind Bianlifeng.

　　What’s different?

　　By integrating internet elements to offline stores and recruiting both traditional convenience stores and internet practitioners, Bianlifeng seems to coincide with the latest concept “new retailing” from many aspects.

　　As is mentioned in Bianlifeng’s corporate vision, “Bianlifeng is dedicated to improving existing retailing model through internet thinking, improving shopping experience through big data as well as smart hardware and software and bringing concrete convenience to customers by centering around customers’ specific needs.”

　　So what exact internet thinking did Bianliefeng adopt? The most obvious difference is that Bianlifeng has an APP.

　　To promote this APP, posters promoting 15 to 25 per cent discount in the APP could be seen everywhere in Bianlifeng’s offline outlets.

　　At present, Bianlifeng’s APP has four major functions: online payment, offline self-shopping service, online shopping and home delivery service.

　　To pay bills through the APP, you have to register and shake your smartphone to get the VIP codes. After the shop assistants scan your VIP codes, you can go to third-party payment tools and pay bills. However, you can also directly pay bills through third-party payment tools. In other words, this APP makes the entire process more complicated for customers.

　　Offline self-shopping service is often compared to Amazon Go. However, Bianlifeng actually didn't improve problems such as queuing in rush hours.

　　Suppose when you go to a Bianlifeng’s outlet, you have to hold the goods in one hand and use your smartphones to scan bar codes, though you might still hold a bag in your hand. Besides, you have to queue in front of the cashier and have the shop assistants check the billing and goods information. In case the shop assistants have to waste too much time in checking information, customers can purchase at most nine goods.

　　Outlet pick-up service, however, is more like a complement to home delivery service. After research, we find that customers also need to have shop assistants check necessary information even if they use pick-up service. For Bianlifeng’s outlets, if they have designated personnel to handle pick-up service, they have to afford higher personnel cost.

　　From this aspect, home delivery service should be very handy. However, with only a few shop assistants in the store, how can you expect a high delivery efficiency? In a short time, it’s no easy job to build its own delivery team. That’s why many Bianlifeng’s outlets have opened online stores on online takeaway delivery platforms, which is certainly a more cost-efficient way in the short term.