WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: Amazon spends 14.2% of its net sales to fulfill orders and 12.2% to deliver them to consumers. Thus a quarter of the costs of products sold is allocated to logistical costs and this is the biggest hurdle to eCommerce wide adoption. Amazon and other pure plays have a number of key advantages over established brick-n-mortar retailers (no retail store costs, no store employees, etc.) but they have to battle with order preparation and delivery which traditional retailers delegate to their customers as they push their carts in the store aisle. In that context, recent announcement of Sobeys to leverage Ocado's automated warehouse technology or recent Amazon announcement to create a parcel delivery solution that competes with FedEx and UPS makes sense. Any retailer thinking of scaling its eCommerce operation should thus make sure that its business model is viable regarding fulfillment and shipping - all other elements of eCommerce are not an issue.

- Amazon SWA service: http://fmcs.digital/blog/amazon-package-delivery-service-to-compete-with-fedex-and-ups-swa-ecommerce-disruption-retailapocalypse/ 

- Sobeys Ocado partnership: http://fmcs.digital/blog/u-k-s-ocado-taps-into-canadas-online-grocery-market-with-sobeys-tie-up-is-canada-mature-enough-to-have-automated-grocery-fulfillment-centers-ecommerce-robots/ 

- Ocado's technology: http://fmcs.digital/blog/video-shows-ocado-warehouse-technology-that-sobeys-has-acquired-to-prepare-grocery-orders-is-based-on-an-army-of-small-robots-working-on-3d-hive/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

WE always think of grocery as non technical and very hands-on, touchy-feely. This is becoming less and less so, a testament of the profound impact that digital technologies are having in our society at large.