WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: warning! this article is not about your typical "robots will rule retail" or "everything has to be AI driven unless you die". Well, in some parts it is.

The reality check that retailers - and their technology vendors - must make is: retail is difficult, focused on the bottom line, with no appetite for innovation with short term results. Retail innovators must find a way to experiment while staying focussed on the bottom line.

Best quote: "‘I think the majority of the problems come from the unwillingness, perhaps the fear, of investing in something that
doesn’t automatically bring a load of cash onto your balance sheet."

WHY IT MATTERS: the scores and the ranking is not important. This list is meaningful because it shows just how broad and deep the automation has become in retail stores. Expect to see a lot of those in your local shopping destination.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a huge step forward and a sign of the times: manufacturing automation. Fueled by digital, automation, and robots, this enables production of smaller batches economically. When this is rolled out at full scale - I assume it still requires development and lots of tweaking - we can expect retailers to shorten the time from idea to production. with eCommerce, it enables the make-to-order that was made popular by Dell computers in the late 1990s: onl;y build the computer when an order has been placed. Expand this idea to t-shirts and you can see why this new Alibaba production facility is so important...

WHY IT MATTERS: an article that summarizes many of the important trends of the retail transformation. Important note: this is pre-covid....

WHY IT MATTERS: once we get over the health crisis, we will need to address the economic crisis. Key supply chain technologies will offer retailers and manufacturers solutions to reduce cost and their dependency on global trade fluctuations.

WHY IT MATTERS:  robots are leaving the factory floor to enter the workplace. First stop, warehouses. This new generation of autonomous robots can carry orders from one place to another, navigating against the human and robot traffic.

See this video that I shot at NRF2020: youtube.com

See this article I wrote about this (french): e-marketing.fr

See this article on these robots: ailatech.com

WHY IT MATTERS: the report is not available for free but the 42 slide summary is a great overview of key trends that are presented with observations and outcome.

WHY IT MATTERS: this videos shows the inside of the new Ocado warehouse in UK. This warehouse is making its way top Canada, with Sobeys opening one soon: 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/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: delivery is the last problem to solve to continue ecommerce growth. McKinsey explores the different delivery models for the last mile in this article.