Walmart kickstarts major micro-fulfilment centres project

Walmart is set to install micro-fulfilment centres next to and inside some of its stores.

These will use autonomous robots to fetch the likes of boxed and frozen food for online orders.

Human workers will handle more complex tasks such as choosing fresh produce or larger items. Orders will then be picked up at the store by customers or delivery workers.

Also of interest: Walmart teams with DroneUp Coca-Cola on drone deliveries

“This whole process can take just a few minutes from the time the order is placed to the time it’s ready for a customer or delivery driver to collect,” says Tom Ward, Head of Customer Product for Walmart US.

Walmart began piloting its first local fulfilment centre in Salem, New Hampshire, in late 2019.

It will be building local centres with various technology partners, including Alert Innovation, Dematic and Fabric.

“With these partners, we’ll be testing different orientations and add-on innovations to understand what works best in different environments.”

“For example, in some locations, we’ll be adding on to our stores. In others, the fulfilment centres will sit inside the existing store footprint,” says Ward.

Furthermore, in some stores, the retailer will be adding automated pickup points. “Think of it as the ultimate convenience that allows customers and delivery drivers to drive up, scan a code, grab their order and go,” Ward comments.

He concludes: “It’s no secret our customers love the speed and convenience of pickup and delivery.”

“These local facilities help unlock our ability to expand even faster to meet their needs today, while also setting a new foundation to serve them in the future.”

“We’re excited about this new chapter for our business and what it means for our customers.”

It’s about time

“I have been pushing Walmart, and other retailers, to do this since 2017,” says Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant who has also worked at Amazon, Deloitte and Capgemini.

“Online grocery retailing and curbside pickup will continue to increase,” he continues.

“Manually picking orders by using labour to push carts up and down aisles to fulfill orders, is inefficient and unnecessary. On average, grocery retailers lose up to $25 on every online order they fulfil manually.”

He reckons that leveraging micro-fulfilment will allow Walmart to automate 70% to 80% of the online grocery and curbside fulfilment process. Although chilled and frozen products will continue to be picked by hand, that will eventually change, he believes.

Ladd concludes: “Micro-fulfilment is about to explode in popularity in the grocery industry.”

“Get ready for a large grocery retailer to soon announce they have signed an agreement with AutoStore. I encourage Albertsons to accelerate a decision to sign with AutoStore as well.”

“Every grocery retailer must ask this question: What’s our micro-fulfillment strategy?”