Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) on Thursday last week launched a concept store in Taipei on the intersection of Chongqing S Road and Wuchang Street, beginning a field trial that aims to attract customers to the store while reducing the burden on staff by using digital technologies such as robots and blockchain technology.
The new store marks the beginning of Taiwan FamilyMart’s efforts to transform into a next-generation convenience store chain, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported.
In collaboration with Fujitsu Ltd, Microsoft Taiwan Corp (台灣微軟), Plenty Island Taiwan Corp (和椿科技), LWO Technology Co (凌暉科技), BenQ Corp (明基電通) and several other business partners, Taiwan FamilyMart wants to build an open platform where they can receive input from other industries to meet different demands, the newspaper reported.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan FamilyMart operates the nation’s No. 2 convenience store chain, with 3,168 stores as of Feb. 26, the company said on its Web site.
Taiwan FamilyMart said the concept store provides a unique customer experience, which includes a robot to guide customers around the store, a content delivery service and a video communication solution.
The store’s entrance counter is equipped with a 3D camera to count the number of store visitors, while the use of electronic price tags enables consumers to interact with point-of-sale registers while allowing the store to update stock information automatically, it said.
Photo: CNA
The concept store also uses digital technologies — including Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, radio frequency identification, near-field communication and blockchain technology — to lessen staff members’ work burdens, from product ordering and goods receiving to item inspection and display, the newspaper said.
While FamilyMart is not planning to open cashier-free stores in the near future, it would add a self-checkout counter at the concept store in the second half of this year, the company said.
The company on Thursday reported a net profit of NT$1.41 billion (US$48.4 million) for last year, up 2.19 percent from the previous year, with record-high earnings per share of NT$6.3.
Photo: CNA
Consolidated revenue increased 6.38 percent annually from NT$60.57 billion to NT$64.43 billion, thanks to a better product portfolio and contributions from e-logistics businesses, the company said.
The company’s board has approved a cash dividend of NT$5.5 per share, equivalent to a payout ratio of 87.3 percent and a yield of 3.21 percent in terms of its closing share price of NT$171.5 on Saturday.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
TECHNOLOGICAL RIVALRY: The artificial intelligence chip competition among multiple players would likely intensify over the next two years, a Quanta official said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes servers and laptops on a contract basis, yesterday said its shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s GB300 chips have increased steadily since last month, should surpass those of the GB200 models this quarter. The production of GB300 servers has gone much more smoothly than that of the GB200, with shipments projected to increase sharply next month, Quanta executive vice president Mike Yang (楊麒令) said on the sidelines of a technology forum in Taipei. While orders for GB200 servers gradually decrease, the production transition between the two server models has been
ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing supplier, yesterday announced a strategic collaboration with Analog Devices Inc (ADI), coupled with the signing of a binding memorandum of understanding. Under the agreement, ASE intends to purchase 100 percent shares of Analog Devices Sdn Bhd and acquire its manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, a press release showed. The ADI Penang facility is located in the prime industrial hub of Bayan Lepas, with an area of over 680,000 square feet, it said. In addition, the two sides intend to enter into a long-term supply agreement for ASE to
RSS