The Material Handling Blog

With the global pandemic only a few years behind us, rising diesel prices, supply chain shortages and a drastically transformed customer shopping landscape, the closing of 2022 should have looked bleaker. However, the “hyper growth” that was seen in ecommerce during the pandemic moved 2025 projections up by years. At the closing of 2022 we’re seeing retail’s first trillion-dollar year. As the meteoric growth of online sales has begun to moderate, and as we look forward to 2023 it will be imperative for retailers to address the past, present and future of retail.

Sin duda alguna, el “microfulfillment” es un concepto que se está volviendo tendencia dentro de los esquemas de cadena de suministro. La habilidad de llevar productos a las manos de los consumidores más rápido que cualquier competidor es el objetivo último, así que, no sólo es una tendencia actual, si no que ha evolucionado en una estrategia de descentralización a través de la cual los productores buscan mejorar la experiencia de los consumidores. Entonces, ¿cómo se define?

As we gear up for 2022, experts at Adobe predict we will be facing the first ever trillion dollar year in ecommerce sales – it’s never too soon to prepare for an uptick in sales year-round.

With continuing growth in ecommerce sales and mobile device usage, companies will need to master the art of fulfillment in minutes to meet same-day delivery requests.

By now, we all know the headache that is the world of grocery ecommerce. Between a global pandemic, supply chain issues, product shortages and changing consumer demands, many grocers are scrambling to make the best decision for their customers and their bottom line. The industry transitioning from “how a grocer is going to automate the instore fulfillment process?” to “how are they going to optimize the whole process, including last mile delivery?” Brick Meets Click data showed that online grocery sales for pickup or delivery were $6.6 billion in April of this year. That’s down from the $7.1 billion in grocery e-commerce sales in March of this year, but up from $5.3 billion in April 2020. Reducing the labor spend for filling orders in the store is the first step; what follows is a strategy that can help reduce the overall cost of getting orders into the hands of customers, regardless of the hand-off location. Being a high-volume and low-margin industry, grocers need microfulfillment automation and technologies that are proven, scalable, dense, fast AND have a quick, high return on investment, like these:

There’s no question that online grocery ordering is here to stay. Access to fresh produce, milk, eggs, toilet paper and many more grocery items isn’t changing. However, the process by which those products get delivered to the consumer from distribution centers – that is being re-envisioned to meet changing consumer demands. And, with that come new challenges, technologies and strategies. Let’s first look back at history.

This supply chain evolution has created the need for hyper-local fulfillment, which also comes with its own challenges. Customers expect things like free or low-cost shipping, same or next day delivery, hassle-free returns and inventory to be always in stock, just to name a few.

The term “microfulfillment center” has quickly become one of the top buzzwords in material handling. But what is it and is investing in it the right decision for your supply chain?

Without a doubt, microfulfillment is one of the hottest trends in supply chain. The ability to get products into consumers’ hands quicker than your competitors is the ultimate leg up, so not only is it a trend, but it’s a strategy enabling today’s retailers to decentralize fulfillment, create a better customer experience and redefine the retail landscape. So, what is it?