The online group has joined other retail chains and tech startups flocking into the market with their own solutions, making staff-less retail one of the hottest tech trends. This bypasses eye contact and small talk that normally take place with cashiers in traditional stores. Neil Wang, president of global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan China, said staff-less stores will bring the "next spring" to the retail industry. "Staff-less stores are a combination of digital payments, radio frequency identification technology, biological recognition, big data and AI," Wang said. "In 2017, staff-less stores will boom," Chen added.

Source: The China Post July 18, 2017 06:45 UTC