Tag: Ecommerce Trends

Important eCommerce Trends for 2019 that Warehouse Managers Should be Watching

Make Work a Little Easier on Yourself - Setting Automated Chatbots to Weed Out Frequently Asked Questions and Issues so You Can Focus on the Bigger Things.
Make Work a Little Easier on Yourself – Setting Automated Chatbots to Weed Out Frequently Asked Questions and Issues so You Can Focus on the Bigger Things.

With eCommerce becoming the preferred method of shopping, speed of order processing and shipping has become more important than ever. Equipment such as motorized trailer dollies helps streamline the process, but logistics technology is also growing more sophisticated.

What steps are you taking to upgrade your warehouse? Here are eCommerce logistics trends in the forefront for 2019.

Mobile Optimization

Smartphones are deeply entrenched in today’s society, making them a convenient tool for online shopping. Any retailer who hasn’t prioritized mobile-friendly sites is already behind the eight-ball, but they may fall further off the pace thanks to Google’s rollout of its mobile-first indexing.

Automation

Unfortunately, as the growth of eCommerce has put more demands on warehouses, the available pool of qualified workers has shrunk. Incorporating automation for basic tasks lets your warehouse operate with fewer employees who can be assigned to more skilled jobs.

Chatbots

The longer customers have to wait for assistance, the greater the chance they’ll simply abandon your site. Chatbots provide immediate communication to help customers through the buying process.

Delivery Options

For some time, next-day delivery was the ultimate service, but companies are now pushing the boundaries with same-day delivery. Unsurprisingly, Amazon is at the forefront of creative delivery methods with options such as drones and package lockers.

Upgraded Checkout Process

Slow or complicated checkout is the reason most often cited for cart abandonment on eCommerce sites. Retailers are turning to guest sign-ins, shorter forms and autofill fields to make checkout easier and quicker to navigate. Many companies are also beginning to accept cryptocurrency and other alternative payment options.

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Ecommerce and the Speed of Fulfillment Drives New Robotic Technology into Warehouses

Ecommerce and the Speed of Fulfillment Drives New Robotic Technology into Warehouses
Ecommerce and the Speed of Fulfillment Drives New Robotic Technology into Warehouses

As e-commerce growth continues to surge past brick-and-mortar sales, how will online retailers keep up with order fulfillment? It may not be long before order-filling robots take their place alongside the rest of your material handling equipment.

Can E-commerce Response Keep Up with Consumer Demand?

According to Ken Goldberg, a roboticist from UC Berkeley, Amazon and other ecommerce companies are delivering orders at an astonishing rate of 500 packages per second. With online sales projected to reach $600 billion in the U.S. by 2020, that number will only increase.

While robots aren’t new to warehouses and fulfillment centers, they’ve been limited to literally doing the heavy lifting. Advancements in technology are allowing robots to pick orders and perform other nuanced tasks.

Robots Go to “School”

Human hands are still more suited to packing orders, the final step in order filling, but a San Francisco startup named Kindred is teaching this task to robots with a two-step method surprisingly similar to how humans learn.

– The process begins with imitation learning, in which engineers actually steer the robots to show them how to handle products from a wide range of shapes and sizes.

– During reinforcement learning, robots essentially “practice” what they’ve learned, refining their movements to increase speed and accuracy.

Will humans eventually become obsolete? Not according to David Schatsky of Deloitte, co-author of a report on robots in the workplace. Schatsky predicts that jobs will evolve, with humans shifting into creative and supervisory roles.

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