Munich fashion firm Willy Bogner is pushing towards internationalisation with the opening of a new Bogner store at the Thaiwoo Resort near Chongli, China. The resort is located in Hebei Province directly on the Great Wall of China, and extends over 40sqkm, three hours by car from Beijing. Once completed, it will feature 200 ski slopes and 45 lifts and gondolas, fitting snugly with Bogner’s traditional ski and winter sports business.
The store has a sales floor area of 164sqm and has been designed according to the brand’s “Modern Natural” store concept.
As the Chongli Area is considered to be the largest ski resort in China, the Thaiwoo Resort will play an important role at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022. The Chinese government has declared its intention to attract 300 million winter sports enthusiasts to China for the event.
Bogner CEO Andreas Baumgartner said: “The Thaiwoo Resort is currently completely focused on skiing, the skiing season here lasts over 150 days thanks to the perfect altitude and climate – ideal for a store and the corresponding clothing that Bogner offers.”
Global representation of Bogner currently consists of 19 of its own stores, 33 partner stores and more than 6500 trading partners in more than 50 countries. Together with its partners, Bogner operates more than 100 sites in the Asia Pacific region. The Bogner store at Thaiwoo will be the first partner store there.
Chinese healthcare company Tiens Group is eyeing global expansion following the success of its high-tech Shenzhen flagship store which opened in August. According to the firm, the launch was made as a step towards global expansion, featuring a combination of technology-enhanced online and offline consumer experiences such as touch-screen computers and live product demonstrations.
The brand now plans to establish 110 branches worldwide as part of its broader strategy to create a healthcare system integrating physical retail, e-commerce, Traditional Chinese Medicine and medical facilities, as well as educational, tourism, accommodation and lifestyle experiences.
Board member and e-commerce GM Chelsea Li said experience marketing is at the cutting edge of business development trends. “We aim to bring our customers an intuitive experience of meticulous care, attentiveness, and beauty.”
Tiens’ new e-wallet app PointsWin is positioned to play a core role in the firm’s strategy, connecting the business’s blockchain-based customer network. Consumers can currently use the app to make purchases and earn rewards at any business bearing the Tiens banner.
Tiens Group chairman Li Jinyuan said: “We have always approached development by considering the world from a global perspective. These [target locations] are especially the regions involved in China’s One Belt One Road initiative.”
The flagship is located in the Tiens International Health Industrial Park in Luohu, Shenzhen.
The electric scooter craze has well and truly hit New Zealand. Within just hours of Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi, or “Mi” as many know it as, opening the doors to its first New Zealand store, the retailer sold more than $250,000 worth of electric scooters.
In just seven hours it had clocked $257,750 in sales from the e-scooters, which are similar to the popular rentable Lime-branded ones sweeping Auckland and Christchurch.
About 200 of the scooters priced at $599 were sold online in 30 minutes yesterday, causing the retailer’s website to crash.
Meanwhile, at Sylvia Park in Mount Wellington, where Mi opened its store, about 1500 people queued – from one side of the mall to the other – waiting in line for a glimpse of the scooter.
More than 400 Mi electric scooters were sold in-store.
The scooters are said to now be sold out.
The Mi e-scooter is popular overseas.
Mi New Zealand spokesman Eric Chang said he believed the popularity of rentable electric scooters had driven significant demand and interest in consumers wanting their own.
The scooters have a range of 29km and can travel up to 25km/h.
Lime scooters were introduced to Auckland and Christchurch streets last month and have proven popular and been in the headlines since.
Some riders have left a trail of mayhem, and injury claims from electric scooter-induced injuries have soared.
Between October 14 and 31 there were 69 electric scooter claims lodged with ACC.
Overseas there have been bans of the scooters and one recorded death. As of today, there has been a global recall of models made by Chinese manufacturer Okai.
A spokeswoman for Lime said the company was working with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and other international agencies following reports the scooters made by Okai could break apart while in use.
Lime said it did not anticipate any disruptions to its service after the recall.
Lime currently operates in a string of cities across the world, offering e-scooters and bikes for hire, including in Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Canada, Austria and United States.
JD sales lept 25.1 per cent in the third quarter, to RMB104.8 billion (US$215.3 billion). “We are pleased to report solid results for the third quarter, with our core JD Mall business driving consistent growth under its highly experienced management team,” said CEO and chairman Richard Liu.
“JD’s commitment to convenient, reliable service and high-quality, authentic products continues to translate into an increasingly loyal user base. Our ‘Retail as a Service’ strategy is also gaining traction as we provide a wide range of partners with innovative retail infrastructure solutions,” he said.
Annual active customer accounts increased to 305.2 million in the year to September 30, from 266.3 million at the same time a year earlier.
Net income from continuing operations attributable to ordinary shareholders for the third quarter was RMB3.0 billion (US$400,000), three times more than for the same period last year.
“JD’s strategic focus on improving customer experience helped drive strong performance across the business,” said Sidney Huang, JD’s CFO. “We will continue our disciplined strategy of investing in key technologies as we focus on optimising operations and driving economies of scale over the coming quarters.”
Among highlights of the quarter was the signing of a raft of major international brands to the JD platforms, including L’Occitane de Provence, House 99, Hera, Salvatore Ferragamo, Furla, Gieves & Hawkes, Kent & Curwen, Cerruti 1881 and D’Urban. JD’s dedicated luxury platform Toplife welcomed John Galliano, Buccellati and Shang Xia among others.
As at September 30, JD had some 200,000 merchants on its online marketplace, and 175,366 full-time employees.
As aftershocks of the clampdown on Daigous continue to reverberate through the luxury shopping community in China, e-commerce platforms are rising to fill the gap.
The launch of China’s new e-commerce law, coupled with the 928 Daigou crackdown at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, has stirred up uncertainty in the global luxury industry.
In fact, LVMH share prices reportedly fell in early October due to fears of a slowdown in Chinese spending.
Earlier this month, Luxury Society attended the live seminar “Reinterpreting the 300-billion Daigou market” hosted by Tencent media.
During a debate, luxury e-commerce platform OFashion’s CEO Xiao Yu and N5 Venture Capital’s founder Xiao Yiwei shared their insights on how luxury buying will likely evolve in the post-Daigou era.
According to Xiao Yu, the estimated Chinese luxury spending in 2018 is 600 billion RMB and Daigou purchases account for half of that, making it an estimated 300-billion industry.
Without Daigou, what is the next best alternative for Chinese consumers looking to buy authentic luxury goods at lower prices?
First, let’s revisit the 928 daigou crackdown in Shanghai’s Pudong airport and take a look at how China’s 300-billion Daigou industry is in danger.
What Happened During The 928 Daigou Crackdown
September 28 2018 marked an important date in the history of Chinese luxury consumption.
In Shanghai Pudong airport, all passengers returning from Seoul were stopped by Chinese customs for baggage inspection.
Seoul has been a classic shopping destination for Daigous to obtain global brands at a discount. More than 100 passengers from same Seoul-Shanghai flight were found guilty of illegal imports.
It was every Daigou’s living nightmare.
One of them relayed the unfolding events through WeChat text messages. Screenshots of this message thread eventually made its way online.
The messages read,
“In the line to pay my fine”
“I was live streaming in duty free shop during the day, but live streaming fine payment during the night (face palm emoji)”
Source: Sohu, A Daigou’s WeChat record of 928 crackdown got popular online.
Whether as a full-time profession or simply a hobby, the Daigou business is one based on relationships.
In fact, the first clients of most Daigous are generally from his or her own social network.
Since Daigous operate in a legal gray area and rely solely on private transactions, customers often have a hard time verifying the authenticity of their purchases.
Needless to say, seeking redress in the case of fraud is difficult or near impossible.
Within the last decade or so, Daigous have become rather ubiquitous.
Chinese netizens often joke on social media that “everyone has a Daigou friend on his/her WeChat”, or “Daigou is our generation’s best marketing guru”.
Rumors of Daigous making a minimum of $100k USD a year and buying houses while still in college flood the internet, making the Daigou profession both a mysterious and highly coveted one in China.
On September 28, however, this all came to a screeching halt.
Within a night, the image of Daigous as self-made businessmen was reduced to that of illegal importers.
Chinese Luxury Consumers Have Changed
The Daigou business flourished in China largely because of strong domestic demand for global luxury products. This demand is quickly changing.
During the seminar, OFashion’s CEO Xiao Yu offered his observations on shifting consumer tastes by analyzing the purchase data of its platform’s 3 million active buyers.
Here are our major takeaways.
1. Chinese Consumers Love Buying “Hits”
The biggest difference between luxury consumers from China and those from mature markets is that Chinese consumers prefer mainstream “hit” items, while mature market consumers also buy a brand’s long-tail (niche) products.
2. Entry-Level Luxury Sells Best
Out of all the luxury product categories, entry-level items with a price range of 2000-5000RMB (430-730USD) exhibit the strongest sales performance.
3. Consumer Tastes Have Diversified
While Chinese consumers concentrated their research on highly famous luxury brands in the past, they are now much more receptive to niche brands.
Bestselling product styles have also shifted from traditional classics like the Salvatore Ferragamo ballet flat, to streetwear brands.
Additionally, Chinese consumers are now searching more about domestic brands compared to four years ago, when most searches were about established global brands.
4. TheLipstick Effect Doesn’t Quite Apply In China
Considered an entry-level luxury product, lipsticks have been selling like hot cakes in the Chinese market recently.
While the “lipstick effect” – a global economic theory that postulates the correlation between beauty product sales and economic downturns – may hold true in many markets, industry professionals have stressed that it might not necessarily be the case in China.
While China might be in the midst of a lipstick craze, experts have noted that lifestyle brands that are inspiring, soulful, and fun, can still rise to the top of the market quickly.
How Platforms Can Rise To The Challenge
Now with the individual Daigou business in danger, it’s time for luxury cross-border platforms to shine.
As the live seminar’s two speakers noted, inefficiency is still a huge pain point in the cross-border industry.
That said, cross-border solutions aiming to improve efficiency would likely to grow fast.
As the luxury buying business faces tightening controls by regulators, consumers are turning to professional buyers, reliable platforms, or buyer’s platforms — a combination of the former two.
Besides established luxury e-commerce platforms such as Tmall Global, JD’s Toplife, Secoo and VIP, platforms that specialize in serving professional buyers are booming, too.
Tmall Global’s Luxury Direct has turned buyers into consultants and made fashion-consulting service a selling point.
The platform’s “About” page reads, “Our buying team takes orders straight from fashion weeks and selects products from brand official showrooms all across Europe.”
OFashion’s app “Buyer Box”, an app targeting professional buyers, has even a CRM (Client Relationship Management) system for users to personalize a client’s order.
Social media conglomerate Tencent Holdings is believed to be close to joining a Chinese investment group bidding to acquire Finnish sports goods firm Amer. The consortium, spearheaded by Anta Sports Products, would see Tencent participating as one of a few minority investors under the proposal. Its involvement would serve to boost considerably Amer’s brands in the Chinese market.
In a statement made two months ago, Anta spoke of joining with local buyout company FountainVest Partners to offer a potential €40 (US$45.60) per share for Amer, a target value of around €4.7 billion ($5.3 billion). The consortium has sought at least €3.5 billion ($3.99 billion) in loans. Anta has a market value of about $11.6 billion.
The acquisition agreement could potentially be complete within several weeks.
Hyundai Motor premiered the latest version of its Santa Fe SUV at an international auto exhibition in Guangzhou on Friday in its latest move to try and woo Chinese buyers. It also rolled out a reshuffle of its Chinese business. Vice President Lee Byung-ho was promoted to president of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors’ China Business Division, the carmaker announced Friday.
The automaker showcased the fourth-generation Santa Fe, which has been strategically modified for the Chinese market. The new edition is the most futuristic Santa Fe on the market anywhere in the world, including the models sold in Korea.
After hitting rock bottom in the past two years due to diplomatic tension over the deployment of the U.S.-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile system in Korea, Hyundai Motor has been slow in recovering sales in China. In the third quarter, it sold 177,000 units, a 6.2 percent year-on-year drop.
Hyundai Motor said it has installed a fingerprint scanner on the door – a global first – allowing owners to lock and unlock the door without a car key. The fingerprint scanner can also turn on the engine and automatically adjust the seat and side mirror to the owner’s liking.
The new version is also bigger than the latest Santa Fe that launched in Korea in February.
The length was extended by 160 millimeters (6.3 inches) and the wheelbase by 100 millimeters, enlarging the space for the second and third row passengers. Other smart car technology included in the vehicle is similar to the version available in Korea.
The car is equipped with a Rear Occupant Alert system that alerts the driver when a passenger is left behind in the back seat through ultrasound detection. It is the first time Hyundai Motor has installed such a system in cars launched in China.
The Santa Fe is also equipped with Safe Exit Assist, which prevents collisions with oncoming traffic when exiting the vehicle.
The car is also equipped with voice recognition through a partnership with Chinese IT giant Baidu.
“The latest Santa Fe stands in the center of Hyundai Motor’s continuous attempts and innovation toward the ever-changing needs of the customer,” said Beijing Hyundai in a statement. “The Santa Fe will bring about changes in the premium SUV market in China with its top-notch safety and smart car features.”
The car will go on sale starting in the first quarter of next year in China.
Hyundai Motor set up a 1,820-square-meter (19,590-square-feet) booth at the Guangzhou International Auto Exhibition where its latest lineup of 18 cars, including a concept version of the large Grandmaster SUV and N series vehicles, such as the Veloster N and i20 WRC, were on display.
It also showed off its hydrogen-powered Nexo SUV.
The auto exhibition in Guangzhou runs from Saturday to Nov. 25.
Gaming and chat specialist Tencent has reported a strong third-quarter profit despite ongoing issues with Mainland China regulatory authorities over its gaming software. Tencent’s share price has fallen by about one third this year, shedding US$165 billion off its value, although last year its share price doubled. In September the company announced a restructuring program aimed at lessening its reliance on games and expanding its interests into areas such as cloud and industrial services in the transport, fintech and healthcare sectors.
Tencent profit in the September quarter rose 30 per cent to RMB23.3 billion (US$3.36 billion) which exceeded analysts’ forecasts. This was partly due to fair-value gains from the IPO of food delivery service Meituan Dianping.
Growth in its gaming division was ahead of expectation, but the company was unable to update shareholders on the status of its negotiations with mainland government officials over a regulatory block which has frozen new game approvals. The government has yet to decide on whether or not to allow Tencent to begin charging for features of its popular PUBG Mobile game. Chinese authorities are concerned that many Chinese are becoming addicted to mobile games.
Those roadblocks were cited as the reason Tencent’s growth rate – a respectable 24 per cent, nonetheless, to US$11.6 billion – was its slowest quarter in more than three years.
Sales of smartphone games grew 7 per cent year on year and 11 per cent quarter on quarter, while advertising sales, the company’s single largest revenue source, rose 47 per cent
Revenue from cloud and payment services (WeChat Pay) helped fuel a 69 per cent increase in Tencent’s “other” revenue category.
Link Reit has improved like-for-like revenue by 7 per cent in the first half year, with car park revenues up 10 per cent and retail up 6.6 per cent. The valuation of Link’s investment properties portfolio reached HK$209.8 billion, an increase of 3.3 per cent compared to March 31.
In a results announcement, the company said its portfolio “continued to demonstrate its resilience and provide a productive platform for our tenants to thrive” during a time of geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
“Our efforts invested in asset management have yielded positive results for our retail portfolio,” the company said. “As at September 30, occupancy rate for the portfolio remained stable at 95.5 per cent and the overall portfolio reversion rate stood at 22.5 per cent. Average monthly unit rent improved to $65.7 per square foot (psf) as at September 30, up from $62.4 psf as at March 31.
Four asset enhancement projects were completed during the six-month period: Fu Shin Shopping Centre, Homantin Plaza, Sam Shing Commercial Centre and Wan Tsui Commercial Complex. Link’s asset enhancement pipeline is filled with projects in various stages, including 10 projects currently underway, five preparing to commence and 19 projects undergoing review.
On the mainland, Link’s three properties – EC Mall in Beijing, Metropolitan Plaza in Guangzhou, and Link Square 1 & 2 in Shanghai – performed “satisfactorily”, contributing a combined revenue of $490 million and net property income of $390 million. Increases of 22.8 per cent and 25.8 per cent, respectively. The retail portfolio occupancy rate was 98.8 per cent.
“The latest addition to the portfolio, Metropolitan Plaza, continues to be a growth engine with vast potential to be unlocked. EC Mall’s reversion rate stayed at a satisfactory level and the new tenants have been warmly welcomed by the local community. Reversion rate of retail portfolio stood high at 43.2 per cent. We will continue to tailor asset management strategies to enhance our asset qualities and offerings to the neighbourhoods,” the company said.
CEO George Hongchoy said Link is “well-placed to sustain its long-term growth trajectory while keeping foundation of business fundamentally sound and resilient”.
The company is considering acquisitions and/or divestments that can drive sustainable return long term.
South Korean retailers benefited from another record-setting Nov. 11 Singles Day shopping extravaganza led by Alibaba Group of China. Since 2009, Chinese retail giant Alibaba Group has transformed Singles’ Day, which falls on Nov. 11, into an online shopping festival with large discounts offered for 24 hours.
Over 40 percent of shoppers made purchases from international brands, said Alibaba.
Among the countries that sold products to Chinese customers on Sunday, Korea ranked third after Japan and the United States.
Korea placed at No. 3 on the list in 2016, but fell two ranks last year after the deployment of the U.S.-led terminal high altitude area defense (Thaad) antimissile system.
The incident soured relations between the two countries and provoked a boycott movement against domestic brands in China.
The exact volume of Korean goods purchased on Sunday was not disclosed, but it was evident that the shopping spree had an impact on local companies, as some of them reported record-breaking figures on Monday.
Korea’s top beauty and personal care brand LG Household & Health Care Ltd. said on Monday that overall cosmetics sales during this year’s around-the-clock shopping gala rose 50 percent from a year ago at Tmall Global, a major e-commerce platform managed by China’s Alibaba Group.
Sales of household items also jumped 73 percent during the same period.
LG Household & Health Care raised 23 billion won (US$20.3 million) in sales of its flagship cosmetics label the History of Whoo during this year’s Singles Day event, up 72 percent from last year.
Sales of luxury cosmetics brand su:m37 also jumped 82 percent during the same period mainly driven by increased demand for its Water-Full skin-care product line.
The brand sold 26,500 sets of Water-Full line on November 11, up 208 percent from a year ago. It sold 24,400 sets of its Time Energy skin moisturizing solution, up 48 percent during the same period.
Korea’s largest cosmetics company AmorePacific Corp. also scooped up sales on Sunday event.
Sales of Yoonjo Essence, an activating serum of its premium cosmetics brand Sulwhasoo, hit 10,000 in just 60 seconds after launching sales at Tmall.
Pre-order sales of Hera’s Rouge Holic lipstick also quintupled this year from last year.
Korea’s fashion and retail conglomerate E-Land Group that manages 19 brands on Tmall raised 72.3 billion won in revenue on November 11 alone.
Korea’s largest manufacturer of instant noodles Nongshim Co. also raked in record sales of 800 million won at Alibaba’s online shopping mall Taobao on the event day, more than tenfold from its daily average sales and up 25 percent from last year.
The company attributed record sales to its top-sellers Shin Ramyun and Kimchi Ramyun.
Alibaba clocked in sales of US$30.8 billion in the 24-hour shopping gala that began at 12 a.m. Sunday, beating last year’s US$25.3 billion.
Official figures for China retail sales show an 8.6 per cent year-on-year increase in October. That’s a little shy of the 9.2 per cent achieved in September and the same pace of growth for the first 10 months of the year.
The data was released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which blamed the slowing growth rate on delayed consumption ahead of the 11.11 Singles Day shopping festival. Many products sold on Singles Day are pre-ordered, but not settled until the 24-hour sale commences, to boost the event’s topline figure.
The NBS said sales in rural areas rose by 9.7 per cent in October, a faster rate than the 8.4 per cent in urban areas.
Online spending soared 25.5 per cent to reach RMB 7 trillion during the first 10 months of this year.
Chinese consumers are quickly adapting to buying groceries online for immediate delivery from local offline stores, according to a new joint study conducted by JD, Walmart, Tencent and JD Daojia. In China, where over 15% of consumption takes place online, compared to just 9% in the US, consumers have been faster to embrace online grocery shopping.
Over 67% of Chinese consumers actively use services like JD Daojia, which can deliver goods from local offline shops, including Walmart, to customers in under an hour.
An increasing number of online shoppers in China view a guarantee of product authenticity as the most important factor when buying goods, with price often viewed as secondary in importance to considerations like product variety, speed of delivery and after-sales service.
Consumers carefully consider purchases that can improve their lifestyle, reflect their individuality and be delivered in a convenient way that fits in with their busy modern lives.
Omnichannel integration in the Chinese supermarket industry is expected to be a major trend going forward, as online and offline players in the industry are increasingly combining resources to meet the diverse needs of modern-day shoppers: bringing together the convenience and diversity of online shopping with offline retail’s immediacy of service and superior user experience.
Boundaryless Retail is a reality gaining in popularity as “The increasingly diverse needs of consumers require a correspondingly dynamic approach” said Kenny Li, VP of JD.com.
Dolce & Gabbana is launching a new Pop Up at The Promenade Shops, Galaxy Macau, featuring its iconic colorful Christmas characters and festive decorations. Inspired by traditional Sicilian parades, the exclusive-to-Asia pop-up store features the brand’s latest collections and inventive installations.
Shoppers will be the first to experience the pop-up at the Pearl Lobby of The Promenade Shops from 16 November 2018 through 6 January 2019.
The italian brand will light up the Pearl Lobby with luminaria (festive lights) and ornate, hand-painted Sicilian carreto (carts).
The craft of making carreto has been handed down from generation to generation and is often a focal point of Dolce & Gabbana’s aesthetics.
At The Promenade Shops, they will carry the latest men’s, women’s and children’s prêt-à-porter and accessories collections, as well as an exclusive, Chinese-inspired collection featuring the beloved and playful panda.
Shoppers purchasing at the pop-up will be entitled to various customization activities for personalized Dolce & Gabbana gifts.
Hazel Wong, Senior Vice President of Retail for Galaxy Macau, said, “We are excited to host an unmissable, Sicilian-style Christmas celebration with delightful Chinese accents courtesy of legendary Italian fashion brand Dolce&Gabbana.”
Shares in Asian suppliers and assemblers for Apple fell on Tuesday after several component makers warned of weaker than expected results, leading some market watchers to call the peak for iPhones in several key markets. Following a poor forecast earlier this month, analysts and investors voiced concern over the state of Apple’s business, contributing to growing worries that iPhone sales were stagnating and could hurt suppliers.
Fresh warnings on Monday from screen maker Japan Display, British chipmaker IQE and Lumentum Holdings, the main supplier of the Face ID technology in the latest generation of iPhones, hurt technology stocks in Asia on Tuesday.
Taiwan-based assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) dropped more than 3 percent. Rival Pegatron fell more than 5 percent but later recouped losses. Both companies count Apple as a major customer.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, fell 2.6 percent, while Flexium Interconnect was down 1.5 percent. The Taiwan Weighted Index was down around 1.6 percent.
“Apple’s iPhone weakness has been a long-term issue for the Asia supply chain,” said Arthur Liao, an analyst at Fubon Research in Taipei.
“For Apple, iPhone shipment has reached its peak. For tech suppliers facing the future, they have no other big client like Apple.”
The company’s shares fell to their lowest level in more than three months on Monday.
Last week, a media report saying the iPhone maker had told its smartphone assemblers to halt plans for additional production lines dedicated to its new lower-priced iPhone XR had pressured supplier stocks.
Analysts said the lack of technological breakthroughs had put a cap on demand.
“With no new technology in sight next year for the supply chain, this is not ideal for the companies involved,” said Nicole Tu, a Taipei-based analyst at Yuanta Investment Consulting.
“Up through the first half of 2019, we likely won’t see any breakthrough.”
Lumentum on Monday slashed its profit and revenue forecast for the current quarter, while IQE warned that current-year results would be lower. Japan Display lowered both sales and margin outlook for the year as well.
Apple warned earlier this month that holiday sales would miss Wall Street expectations due to weakness in emerging markets.
Chinese online retailer JD has opened its first fully automated robot restaurant in Tianjin. The 400sqm venue has opened as “XCafe” at the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, an area of Tianjin dedicated to environmental sustainability. XCafe is the first fully-automated restaurant in China, with all aspects of ordering, preparing, cooking, plating and serving performed by robots, which can work a full day on a single charge. Five or six human staff are still required to refill and position ingredients for the robot chefs.
XCafe’s manager Tang Siyu said the restaurant can seat about 300 guests for dinner, with a table turnover rate of three turns per table during the lunch or dinner hour. It currently serves around 40 predominantly stir-fry dishes, with a potential full menu of more than 200 offerings.
The restaurant also features VR interactive games and immersive dining experience areas.
JD plans to open 1000 robot restaurants by 2020 and is seeking to promote the technology to other catering firms.
