{"id":1536961,"date":"2024-05-13T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T09:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=1536961"},"modified":"2024-05-13T05:52:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T09:52:04","slug":"robots-are-coming-to-ecommerce-smbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/robots-are-coming-to-ecommerce-smbs","title":{"rendered":"Robots Are Coming to Ecommerce SMBs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Small to midsize ecommerce companies often struggle with order fulfillment. Given the costs of running a warehouse and fulfillment center, many SMBs outsource those tasks, but that could change as robots become viable for even smaller companies.<\/p>\n<h3>Warehouse Automation<\/h3>\n<p>Warehouse automation has existed for years and continues to expand. According to a February 2024 Gartner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/documents\/5236563\">report<\/a> titled &#8220;Avoid These Pitfalls in Large-Scale Warehouse Automations,&#8221; the industry will generate about $21.8 billion in worldwide revenue in 2024 and reach an estimated $71.0 billion by 2032.<\/p>\n<div id=\"everviz-ZMMHVIxTx\" class=\"everviz-ZMMHVIxTx\"><script src=\"https:\/\/app.everviz.com\/inject\/ZMMHVIxTx\/?v=6\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Much of the industry&#8217;s revenue and growth comes from large retailers and logistics businesses. This focus on huge companies has generally put warehouse automation out of reach for SMBs for at least two reasons.<\/p>\n<p>First, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/steps-to-greener-ecommerce-warehouses\">warehouse systems<\/a> \u2014 particularly robotic ones \u2014 are too large and complex for non-enterprise companies. A business that doesn&#8217;t completely understand the nuance of pick-and-pack software, technology infrastructure, robots, and services can easily waste truckloads of money on systems that prove inadequate or overblown.<\/p>\n<p>Second, an automated, robotic pick-and-pack warehouse solution is expensive. Think millions or tens of millions of dollars. Investing in the automation doesn&#8217;t make sense until a business has scale and volume.<\/p>\n<p>Hence ecommerce SMBs typically run small, manual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/ecommerce-drone-delivery-is-coming\">shipping operations<\/a> or scale with the help of a fulfillment service and its warehouse automation and shipping facilities. The fulfillment vendor invests in the technology, and its many customers benefit.<\/p>\n<p>The choice boils down to a business calculation: pay the fulfillment service or incur the cost of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/getting-started-with-in-house-fulfillment\">doing it in-house<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Affordable Robots?<\/h3>\n<p>There could soon be another option for SMBs \u2014 or at least mid-sized merchants.<\/p>\n<p>Warehouse automation companies such as BionicHive, Dexterity Inc., Prime Robotics, and Pio have started to aim products and services at ecommerce SMBs in an apparent effort to reach emerging sellers.<\/p>\n<p>For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/bionichive.com\/\">BionicHive<\/a> makes a two-foot-wide, 100-pound robot that runs through aisles and along existing warehouse shelves, picking orders unaided. The robot, called sqUID, is suitable for large and, potentially, mid-sized merchants.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1536964\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1536964\" class=\"wp-image-1536964 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm-570x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"570\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm-570x380.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-squid-robot-sm.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1536964\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sqUID is primarily a tool for large warehouses and, potentially, mid-market sellers.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/pio.com\/\">Pio&#8217;s P100 cube<\/a> \u2014 &#8220;essentially a high-speed vending machine&#8221; that stores and picks products efficiently \u2014 starts at $101,999 as of May 2024 for a 14-foot, 620-bin setup with two picking robots plus a $2,997 monthly fee. Upgrade to three robots, and the monthly subscription is $3,996.<\/p>\n<p>Each of the Pio robots can pick about 120 items per hour. The system is &#8220;plug-and-play,&#8221; meaning merchants don&#8217;t need a separate warehouse management system. It will work alongside existing manual fulfillment operations, occupying as little as 500 square feet.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1536966\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-pio-rendering.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1536966\" class=\"wp-image-1536966 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-pio-rendering-570x314.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"570\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-pio-rendering-570x314.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-pio-rendering-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-pio-rendering-768x422.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/051024-pio-rendering.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1536966\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">As seen in this rendering, the Pio P100 is a compact cube filled with storage bins, each capable of holding, for example, about 120 t-shirts.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Potential Benefit<\/h3>\n<p>The warehouse automation industry remains focused on massive companies, but the nascent trend toward ecommerce SMBs could offer growing brands more fulfillment options.<\/p>\n<p>The question will be whether small-scale warehouse automation systems and robotics save ecommerce companies money and otherwise offer a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Pio, which is based on large-scale warehouse technology from AutoStore, had five cube-and-robot installations at the time of writing: Privada Cigar Club, Sunday Swagger (apparel), Souko (fulfillment), Barnes 4WD (auto parts), and AI Stone (apparel).<\/p>\n<p>The performance of these brands could foretell ecommerce fulfillment in general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The warehouse automation industry remains focused on massive companies, but efforts toward smaller companies could offer growing brands more fulfillment options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":1537083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[13096],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1536961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shipping-fulfillment",""],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.2 (Yoast SEO v25.2) - 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