PARIS -- Auchan, one of France's leading retail groups, announced Monday that it would open several hundred shops without checkout counters in China by the year-end.

"The operation of Auchan Minute is very simple and intuitive. To enter, the customer uses the application WeChat. At the entrance, it scans a code that opens him the doors of this automated shop and identifies it," Auchan said in a statement.

After scanning the products, they are automatically added to a virtual cart. The customer takes the products after paying them via Wechat Pay or AliPay and validating them by the mobile, the company added.

Every Auchan Minute will offer 500 products for sale 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Founded in 1961 by Gerard Mulliez, Auchan is France's second largest retail group after Carrefour.