Feng-E Technology Partners with Zelos Intelligence to Drive End-to-End Unattended Retail Powered by AI

On December 26, Feng-E Technology and Zelos Intelligence officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement and held an autonomous delivery vehicle handover ceremony in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. The partnership is founded on the two companies’ shared strategic vision and complementary strengths in the field of “AI + Automation.”

According to Dr. Zhu Tao, Chief Operating Officer of Feng-E Technology, the company is one of the few fully self-operated vending machine retail operators in China. As of September 2025, Feng-E Technology had deployed 180,000 smart retail terminals across 72 cities nationwide, serving over 100 million consumer users.

“In recent years, Feng-E Technology has continuously leveraged proprietary AI algorithms to achieve end-to-end digital intelligence across the retail value chain,” Dr. Zhu Tao explained. “This includes core processes such as consumer demand insights, precise product selection, dynamic replenishment, and supply chain management. On the back-end, we have established a comprehensive smart logistics management system that enables real-time monitoring and coordination of nationwide transport capacity and installation progress. From automated warehouse sorting to intelligent task recommendations for replenishment staff, all decisions are driven by AI algorithms to ensure precise and efficient operations.”

Industry data shows that under traditional unattended retail replenishment models, replenishment staff typically spend one to two hours daily traveling between warehouses and retail locations. Challenges such as limited parking availability and time-consuming cargo handling in urban distribution significantly constrain operational efficiency, becoming a major bottleneck for large-scale industry expansion. Dr. Zhu Tao noted that this cooperation was driven by the mutually reinforcing capabilities of Zelos Intelligence’s autonomous vehicles, which will become an important supplement to Feng-E Technology’s smart logistics ecosystem.

“Managing product demand in real time across 180,000 Smart Markets nationwide is extremely complex,” said Dr. Zhu Tao. “Feng-E Technology’s fully direct-operated model inherently relies heavily on AI technologies. Both parties share ‘AI + automation’ as a core strategic direction, and this strong alignment in technological vision is the fundamental basis for our collaboration.”

Zhu Tao further outlined two key objectives of the partnership.The first is cost reduction and efficiency improvement. “By leveraging Zelos Intelligence’s autonomous vehicles to replace traditional replenishment workflows, we are shifting from a ‘people searching for goods’ model to a ‘goods finding people’ model. Autonomous vehicles can automatically deliver products from warehouses to retail locations and arrive simultaneously with replenishment staff. Once replenishment at Location A is completed, staff can proceed directly to Location B, as goods are already waiting to be stocked. This significantly reduces round-trip warehouse time and parking search costs. Based on pilot data, single-trip replenishment efficiency is expected to improve by more than 40%.”

The second objective is supply chain upgrading through exploration of a “mobile micro-warehouse” model. “In the future, autonomous vehicles will serve as dynamic storage nodes, replacing fixed front-end warehouses and enabling a ‘warehouse moves with people’ approach. We plan to gradually reduce reliance on physical warehouses and build a flexible supply chain network through autonomous vehicles, thereby improving inventory turnover efficiency.”

From Zelos Intelligence’s perspective, Chen Lei, Vice President of Business Development, said, “This partnership is an important large-scale proving ground for us and a valuable opportunity to enhance our service capabilities. Feng-E Technology’s 180,000 retail terminals provide high-density, high-frequency commercial scenarios for Zelos autonomous vehicles, validating our dispatch and operational capabilities in complex urban environments. At the same time, this cooperation extends our strengths from pure logistics into the commercial retail sector, achieving a true ‘1 + 1 > 2’ synergy.”

Mr. Chen added that “this collaboration marks a major evolution in unattended retail—from ‘intelligent terminals’ to full end-to-end automation. It pioneers an integrated model combining autonomous vehicles with unattended retail, driving the industry from isolated intelligent applications toward systematic and holistic upgrades.”

In terms of strategic deployment, Dr. Zhu Tao revealed that initial pilot operations will be launched in Beijing E-Town, followed by phased expansion into cities nationwide where autonomous driving road access has been approved. Over the next three years, Feng-E Technology plans to deploy several thousand autonomous vehicles, covering three major scenarios: unattended logistics, mobile warehousing, and autonomous retail vehicles.

Looking ahead, Dr. Zhu Tao outlined three key cooperation directions: “First, unattended logistics, which is the core focus of this partnership; second, mobile autonomous warehouses, which we aim to explore progressively within the next three years; and third, autonomous retail vehicles, designed to deliver more flexible, highly fragmented service solutions and further penetrate micro-consumption scenarios.”

This cooperation represents not only a strategic alignment between two enterprises, but also a benchmark case of AI technologies being applied to the real economy. As technology continues to advance and policy support strengthens, the integration of unattended retail and unattended logistics is poised to reshape urban commercial infrastructure and inject new momentum into the intelligent transformation of the unattended retail industry.