Chicago, April 7, 2021 — SEKO Logistics and Peli BioThermal are targeting a bigger share of Ireland’s growing pharmaceutical market after extending their two-year partnership, supported by SEKO’s opening of … Continue Reading →
Austin, April 7, 2021 – Prima Coffee has opted for the powerful combination of Brightpearl and BigCommerce to supercharge its daily ecommerce grind. Deployed in just 90 days, the Kentucky-based … Continue Reading →
ERIE, PA, April 6, 2021 – Logistics Plus Inc., a leading worldwide provider of transportation, logistics, and supply chain solutions, has again been named to two top third-party logistics provider … Continue Reading →
Boston Dynamics, creators of the viral dancing robots video just before New Year’s Eve, is making further inroads into the warehouse automation space with the unveiling this week of Stretch, a mobile robot purpose-built for unloading and palletizing and de-palletizing boxes. The company was acquired by Hyundai in December 2020.
Welcome to The State of the Ecommerce Facilities Services Industry Study, which analyzes how leading ecommerce companies are managing and improving their facilities, warehouses, and logistics strategies and operations.
There’s plenty of pressure on ecommerce merchants to get orders out the door faster and into the eager hands of customers — so they don’t go to the competitor next time when the experience is less than flawless. Behind the scenes, more fulfillment center operations are turning to the latest automation solutions, including robotics, to address throughput and efficiency issues and tight turns in an era of scarce labor and rising costs.
A national unemployment rate hovering around 4% is a good thing for the economy but makes life difficult for managers of distribution and fulfillment centers. Finding sufficient staff is a problem that’s not likely to go away soon, so companies are looking to maximize productivity and reduce inefficiency.
As merchants search for ways to contend with the behemoth of Amazon — which accounted for about half of ecommerce sales in 2017 — many are focusing on three areas to battle back: The last mile of fulfillment, returns and outsourcing of logistics services.
Amazon may have raised the bar on customer expectations with Prime and free two-day shipping — soon to be one-day shipping. But the pressure refuses to abate industry-wide as merchants large and small scramble to meet increased demands and not get swamped in the process.
While many question rosy projections like that of ABI Research, calling for 4 million warehouse robots in 50,000 locations by 2025, no one doubts that use of robots for ecommerce fulfillment is trending up.