Quick Insight: For convenience stores fighting high rent and labor costs, a self-service kiosk isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s survival gear. Meiyijia, China’s largest convenience chain with 32,000+ stores, proves the point: putting compact desktop kiosks at the counter cuts checkout time, frees staff to prep food, and makes 24/7 unmanned operation actually work. Customers scan, pay, and go. Stores save space, save labor, and keep lines moving. The math is simple—when every square foot costs money and every minute counts, a self-service kiosk for convenience stores pays for itself by doing the one thing that matters: getting people out the door fast.
In 2023, Meiyijia Convenience Stores overtook Easy Joy to become the top of China’s convenience industry by virtue of its over 32,000 stores and has been praised as China’s Convenience Store King. What’s its success recipe?
Founded in 1997, it has been 26 years since the first Meiyijia convenience store was founded. Up to now, it has covered more than 220 cities in 20 provinces in China. According to the data from Meiyijia’s official website, it serves more than 200 million customers every month.
From 1 to 32,000, innovation plays an important role in the success of Meiyijia C-store Chain.
1. Self-built POS system
As early as 2000, Meiyijia embarked on the road of computerisation and built its own POS system. The smart cash registers connect the headquarters and stores, which greatly improves operational efficiency. Besides, the self-built POS system provides great convenience for franchise owners with simple operation and low operation difficulty.
2. Self-service checkout
In addition to providing convenience for its franchises, Meiyijia convenience stores introduce self-service kiosks to offer self-service checkout and self-ordering experiences to customers and thus provide more convenience for customers. What the Meiyijia convenience stores apply are Telpo’s compact desktop self-service kiosks that support multiple payment methods. The easy-to-use kiosks become great helpers for store operators.
Why is self-service kiosks so important in convenience stores?
1. Customers’ high demand for convenience
What most customers look for in a convenience store is convenience. If customers have to spend much time on ordering and checkout, the purpose of going to a convenience store will be defeated. Quick service and short waiting times are of great importance for office workers who are often in a hurry.
2. High labour costs
The convenience store staff are always busy. They have multiple tasks to deal with every day, such as handling transactions, preparing and serving food, restocking shelves, checking inventory levels, etc. As the labour costs are getting higher in recent years, it’s expensive to employ more staff for operators. Compared to increase labor costs, it’s more cost-effective to invest in self-service kiosks in convenience stores.
3. High rental cost
Most convenience stores are located in business zones, where the rent is very high. Therefore, convenience stores usually take up a small space, which cannot provide ample space to accommodate many employees and customers waiting in line. The small store space puts forward a higher demand for higher serving and checkout efficiency offered by convenience stores.
What benefits do self-service kiosks bring to convenience stores?
1. Convenience
Convenience is the core value of convenience stores, and self-service kiosks highlight this value. Customers could freely choose to check out by self-service. They don’t have to wait long and can check out for their goods in a short time. Customers could get what they want with a short stay at the store. The self-service kiosks make the 7/24 operation of convenience stores feasible. Even at midnight, customers could make their purchases successfully on the desktop kiosks placed at the counter by self-service scanning the commodity codes and paying.
2. High service speed
The self-service machines share a part of the work of convenience store staff so that staff could be dedicated to improving service quality, such as providing friendly assistance for customers and preparing food items. As staff could focus more on food preparation, the service speeds up and customers are able to enjoy a faster experience, which enhances their satisfaction.
3. High order accuracy
The self-service is fully controlled by customers and they could check their orders directly. On the touchscreen of the kiosk, they could correct the wrong orders by themselves, which saves more time. Besides, the effects of kiosks are highlighted especially in the food ordering process. After customers customize their orders, the orders can be directly transferred to the back kitchen, which eliminates the errors caused by communications.<>
4. Satisfactory customer experience
Self-service gives more autonomy to customers. On the kiosk display, the bargains and promotions are clearly displayed, and customers could freely make combinations according to their needs. What’s more, it’s easier for store operators to facilitate upselling in a way that customers don’t resent. The self-service technology delivers a more convenient and comfortable experience to customers that elevates customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Differentiation
Modern technology not only provides convenience for customers and staff but also elevates the enterprise’s image by shaping the innovation image. The advanced, modern and intuitive self-service technology makes your convenience stores different from others and creates a more memorable experience for customers.
Conclusion
Embracing advanced technology and introducing self-service is one of the success recipes of Meiyijia Convenience Stores. Of course, selecting a reliable self-service kiosk provider is essential, too. Telpo is a smart terminal and solution provider with 24-year manufacturing and customization experience.
What’s worth mentioning is that Telpo’s lightweight desktop kiosk, Telpo K10, has been widely applied in convenience stores, fast food restaurants, and many other scenarios. With a built-in scanner, the Telpo K10 supports both commodity scanning and QR code payments. The built-in 58mm thermal printer supports fast paper output and customers could easily check their order lists.
Welcome to contact us for more details. We have confidence that Telpo won’t let you down.
Tag: self-service kiosks, kiosk, c-store, convenience store, self-service chekout, self-service technology, desktop kiosk