The China Files: Facial recognition software will give shoppers discounts if they smile at products

In a promotion likely to produce slightly creepy scenes such as shoppers smiling maniacally at shampoo, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has rigged its facial-recognition technology to analyze customers’ faces and give discounts for those grinning at products.

The “Happy Shopping” campaign will apply at the company’s unmanned store in Wuzhen town, launched as an exhibit at the 4th World Internet Conference on Sunday.

According to youth.cn, customers at the shop need only to beam a smile at a product and watch as the price listed on the tablet below drops.

The outlet quoted director of Alibaba’s unmanned supermarket project as saying that unmanned sales should be “human” rather than “cold.”

We’re not sure exactly what is human about smiling at groceries, though we guess humans do like cheap stuff.

A post promoting the campaign from the Weibo account of Taobao, Alibaba’s popular e-trade platform declared the world was for “good looking people” and encouraged shoppers to show their smiles for discounts.

The post joked that a guy “laughing to death” might save 30RMB while a lady’s “gentle smile” might get a 50RMB discount.

Alibaba’s technical expert in charge of the unmanned sale program, Yuan Yuefeng, said the facial recognition technology would also analyze shopping behaviors such as how long customers stay in a particular area and how long they take to decide on a particular item.

“We want to build a store that understands you, and knows what you want. That’s why we put in a ‘emotion marketing strategy’,” Yuan said, according to youth.cn.

Alibaba’s first unmanned brick and mortar supermarket opened in July in Hangzhou city.

The company has not announced whether the “Happy Shopping” campaign will be rolled out beyond its exhibition store at the conference, an annual gathering of internet tycoons held by the Chinese government.

The staff-less store concept was pioneered by US online retail giant Amazon, with its Amazon Go store, initially opened for its staff in Seattle. The idea has since taken root in China, where, several companies have experimented with the technology.

Last month, the head of Chinese company BingoBox, which has opened almost 200 of the staff-less stores on the mainland, announced the company was looking to enter the Hong Kong market.



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