Whitepaper: How to support your retail Micro Fulfillment Center (MFC)

Consumers are increasingly expecting same-day delivery of online orders. 

Brick-and-mortar retailers – especially grocers – face a big challenge. More space must be found in stores for online order fulfillment. Some expand back rooms in an effort to create the space needed. This doesn’t always meet the need.

Implementing an automated micro-fulfillment center allows retailers to repurpose existing stores to meet the consumer demand for greater online order fulfillment and same-day pickup. This shifts last-mile delivery costs to the consumer who drives to the store to pick up their buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) purchase. 

Although this trend had been growing, the pandemic has accelerated both demand and need for retail automation like this. However… rapid plans for expansion of the MFC model have also created challenges. In addition to staffing, one of the biggest is Service Lifecycle Management.

In this whitepaper, “How to support your retail micro fulfillment center,” we discuss:

• The growing need for automation in retail and components of micro-fulfillment growth.

• Various configurations of automated fulfillment and rationale for the growth of the automated MFC.

• Current types of automated MFCs and state of the market.

• Ongoing needs for staffing, maintenance, and repair.

• Ways to scale operations to meet demand and remain customer centric.

• The strategic value of partnerships for installation and service lifecycle management.