Fear and loathing in eCommerce
I attended The Delivery Conference, where Auctane and Retail Economics outlined how online retail as a percentage of total retail sales in the UK is now lagging pre pandemic predictions.
By Simon Duddy, Editor, Logistics Matters
OF COURSE, the pandemic itself was a bonanza, but the hangover since means that according to the current graph the online tide has ebbed.
It put me in mind of Hunter S Thompson speaking about the 1960s counterculture.
“We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave [but ] less than five years later, look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”
What does this change of paradigm mean for retailers? It means you can’t just ride the wave, you need to take business off your rivals. Let’s not forget warehousing and logistics is a key part of retailers keeping their customers happy. You want to invest and make your warehouse operations more efficient. This is important for a variety of reasons, from labour shortages to changing volume demands and order profiles and much else, depending on the nature your business. One factor to add to the list is the need to differentiate.
Which bring us to this issue. If you are looking at ways to transform your warehouse to steal a march on your rivals, then we are bulging with the latest innovations. Mobile robotics is a fast maturing market, with the leading providers coming up with ever more ambitious solutions. Exotec is moving out from its tote ASRS stronghold to promise an elegant robot-led logistics solution for much more of your warehouse processes, including sequencing orders for despatch.
Autostore is one of the heavyweights of the automated robot segment and it has further ramped up the innovative nature of its system, with faster picking, smarter analytics and more options on systems for smaller volume users.
HAI Robotics is determined to challenge Exotec with its own high density, high throughput tote ASRS based on rack-climbing robots. If you told me 15 years ago when I stared this job that I would be writing about the battle of the rack climbing robots, I wouldn’t have believed it!
In terms of forklift technology, STILL outlines its philosophy on end to end seamless warehouse intralogistics, Toyota unveils its swarm robotics offering; and Jungheinrich provides a varied fleet to handle pallet loads for a leading pharma supplier.
Of course its you want innovation, you must get yourself along to the Tomorrow’s Warehouse Event on May 15 at the Coventry CBS Arena. Register here.
