Micro-Fulfillment for Retail
Micro-Fulfillment Center and retail world
In Europe, retail is still functioning well and its trend is still growing. However, strong competition from e-commerce combined with changes in customers' buying and consumption habits can put their business model at risk.
Nowadays, retail groups may have more opportunities for development simply by taking advantage of available technology for a new customer-oriented approach.
The potential of Micro-Fulfillment in retail is revolutionary:
MF is able to make even small retailers competitive.
Retailers are able to deliver the products ordered at the latest the day after the order is placed. With the advent of MFC, the retail world will be able to compete with online retail giants such as Amazon.
The advantages of a Micro Fulfillment Center system in the retail sector
Micro-Fulfillment Centers (or MFCs) represent the future of retail. Thanks to them you are able to create a new business model. In short, they are fully robotized centers for the processing of orders received online. The interesting novelty of MFCs is that thanks to them it is possible to create intelligent warehouses with much less space.
An MF system could benefit retailers and retailers in terms of:
- Order delivery services: home delivery services, car pick-up, pick-up in stores or shopping centres, 24-hour pick-up at ATMs, next day delivery, etc…
- Inventory Management Services.
- Deposit for customer orders
- Order Fulfillment Services: An MFC will also be able to prepare online and offline orders placed by visitors to a store and have them ready for pickup a few minutes after the order is placed.
The features of a Micro-Fulfillment Center applied to Retail
A Micro-Fulfillment system applied in the retail sector should have the following characteristics:
- High storage density: over 40 euro-box per square meter
- Throughput: in the order of 240 lines per hour with growth potential
- Response time: delivery of the single euro-box in less than a minute, to avoid long waiting times
Space saving and high speed standards
A traditional robotic center requires thousands of square meters of surface area; on the other hand, a Micro-Fulfillment Center requires only a few hundred.
A Micro Fulfillment system is also ideal for retailers who sell fresh products such as fruit, vegetables, etc… and who need high standards of speed.
In the retail market, therefore, the speed of order and delivery becomes essential: by replacing the manual assembly of parcels to be sent with an intelligent and robotized system, you are able to make deliveries in a very short time. We are talking about very few minutes for parcel composition. Not to mention the small footprint and space savings.
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