Recent Investments by Amazon and FreshDirect Highlight the Growing Importance of E-commerce Fulfillment Operations

In late July, FreshDirect announced that it would be partnering with Fabric Robotics to build a micro-fulfillment center (MFC) in Washington D.C., providing same-day delivery to area customers. The online-only grocer has traditionally only done next-day fulfillment, but is planning to expand same-day throughout the Northeast Corridor. This comes shortly after Amazon’s announcement that they have now converted 6 Whole Foods locations around the country into dark stores to support E-commerce fulfillment (via Retail Dive and Progressive Grocer). These are just 2 examples of retailers recognizing the shifting channel dynamics and making investments in dedicated E-commerce fulfillment centers to keep pace.

In a new whitepaper (free for download Here), we explore the growing importance of efficient E-commerce fulfillment in the grocery sector and discuss the pros and cons of the 4 most popular E-commerce fulfillment models. Highlights include:

• We discuss the backdrop of the global coronavirus pandemic and how it has led to massive increases in at-home food consumption and in grocery E-commerce demand and penetration.
• We discuss the 4 most popular fulfillment options that grocers are using when it comes to servicing their E-commerce customers: in-store picking, dark store models, micro-fulfillment centers, and centralized fulfillment centers.
• We explore the current tradeoffs of each fulfillment model when it comes to picking and labor efficiency, the order volume one facility can service, the SKU selection supported, last-mile delivery efficiency and cost, and CapEx requirements.
• We explore the latest profitability estimates for each fulfillment model, how to choose the best model for your business, and the growing number of tech advancements that will continue to revolutionize E-commerce fulfillment.

To download this free whitepaper, follow this link.