The concept was developed by a group of Brazilian entrepreneurs. It is inspired by a well-known international example, but it has some peculiarities. ONI stores are mini-markets or convenience stores to be set up in buildings, condomsiums, companies, schools, and other community locations. They work 24 hours and are fully autonomous. The customer buys alone and pays with an application, which is also built by the brand.
In Brazil, the model has been successful. The project started last year with only one store, already has 125 and should have 500 stores by the end of the year. The expansion is supported by a franchising model and an agreement has already been signed for a master franchise in Portugal, Jorn de Negicios reveals today.
The application is the centerpiece for using the service. It can be downloaded before entering the store or from a QR code posted at the door of any store. It is with this application that consignment cabinets are opened and also with that, to fill the basket, the customer registers and pays the bar code of each product. A payment method, such as a credit card, must be configured in the first account.
Each Onii store can have between two and 20 square meters and can sell between 180 and 650 types of products. In Negiosio’s declarations, the entrepreneurs who created ONI explained that “this is the democratization of the Amazon Go model”.
In Portugal, in the first phase, five stores will be launched in Lisbon and another three in the region of Porto / Gaia and Sintra. Portugal is the country that initiated the process of ONI internationalization due to language and cultural proximity, but the company is already negotiating a partnership for the United States and Chile.
The ONI model is inspired by the Amazon Go model, first to popularize the concept of autonomous supermarkets. Previously in the United States and now expanding internationally, the first store opened in the United Kingdom recently, with the Amazon Fresh brand here. Here, the Geronimo Martins group has also tested the concept, but the only known result is the inauguration of Pingo Dose & Go in 2019, also available 24 hours a day and with payments on the app, in the Nova SBE region.
