Watch: Keeping Pace With the Relentless Growth of E-Commerce

All the issues skilled in e-commerce gross sales throughout the pandemic are persevering with, says Paul Ambruso, vice chairman and common supervisor, cell robotics, at Berkshire Gray. The challenges, nonetheless, are alternatives for know-how distributors.

The speed of progress in e-commerce orders has dipped barely, however on-line gross sales proceed, and supply is vitally essential, whether or not on to a buyer’s dwelling or to a retailer for pickup. “That implies that all the issues we noticed earlier than by way of with the ability to present automation to alleviate delays and be capable to help that progress are nonetheless there,” says Ambruso.

The three largest challenges he sees are the persevering with labor scarcity, insufficient stock house and variability in stock. 

“We all know the expansion of e-commerce and retail is quicker than the expansion of the supply of a labor drive,” he says. “As such, we'd like to have the ability to drive in direction of fashions that use much less labor by means of automation. There's additionally a ability concern round that labor. We've got to not solely discover labor, now we have to retain it, and it needs to be of a excessive stage of ability.”

As each e-commerce and retail gross sales proceed to develop, says Ambruso, there's not sufficient bodily house. “Which means now we have to have denser options that match into extra constrained areas. And final however not least, we nonetheless have a extremely excessive variability within the kinds of stock and the location of stock throughout shops and throughout different facilities for distribution. We've got to have the ability to deal with variability of products and availability of products on a extra localized foundation.”

Ambruso says that is the place the idea of hyper-local, hyper-fast supply comes into play, which means that items need to be nearer to prospects. And that provides know-how distributors many nice alternatives.