Ecommerce demand may not be exploding like 2020 and 2021, but retailers are increasingly looking at automated solutions like goods-to-person (GTP) systems to help future-proof their operations as conditions fluctuate. Automated storage and retrieval (AS/RS) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are gaining serious traction, with rapid market expansion projected between now and 2030.
While there are some concerns about robots replacing humans and taking their jobs, with U.S. unemployment at about 3.6% ecommerce companies are struggling to find enough workers. Thus companies are seeing robotics as a way to close the gap and augment human labor instead of replacing it. Find out more in a new MCM report.
Andover, MA-based Locus Robotics, spun out of 3PL Quiet Logistics in 2015, has raised $26 million in Series C funding, increasing its total to $66 million. The round was led by the venture arm of mobile scanning and printing technology firm Zebra Technologies and Scale Venture Partners.
By 2025 there will be more than 4 million warehouse robots in use at 50,000 locations globally, up from 5,000 locations in 2018, according to a report from ABI Research, with much of the growth coming from ecommerce fulfillment including demand for same-day delivery. See what experts have to say about the growing trend.
After a successful rollout of robotic fulfillment at its distribution center in Toronto recently, Hudson’s Bay Co. plans to expand the capability to a DC in Pottsville, PA sometime in 2017. See how the technology performed in Toronto, and how the company performed in terms of ecommerce growth during the third quarter.