In an era where fast delivery times, seamless service and customer trust are an eCommerce company’s top priorities, maintaining efficiency, sustainability and quality presents an often insurmountable challenge.
The time has well and truly come for eCommerce providers to embrace automation and harness all the tangible benefits it can offer. The rise of eCommerce over the last several years has fundamentally altered how products move across the entire supply chain, from the initial manufacturing facilities to customers’ shopping bags. Automation technology itself has emerged as a pivotal and influential enabler of success in this complex paradigm.
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The Importance of Automation in eCommerce Fulfilment
With 53% of global consumers opting to continue purchasing goods from brands that can offer competitive prices while offering free and fast delivery (in a report from Hostinger), the salient point is that delivering them isn’t enough. eCommerce businesses must do so with precision, accuracy, and speed.
To keep up with the evolving consumer demands and priorities, fulfilment automation must be embraced in order to streamline operations and help keep customers happy.
The traditional fulfilment model sees warehouse staff physically sorting, picking, packing and shipping orders. Recent innovations in automation technology have seen those duties now fall to smart robotics, which, coupled with the explosive growth in online retail, has seen global eCommerce industry valuations predicted to be $4.32 trillion in 2025, and $5.89 trillion by 2029 (growing at a CAGR of 8.02%).
For packaging industry stakeholders and decision-makers, understanding and recognising the relevance and strategic placement of automation in eCommerce fulfilment has become vital. Those businesses that do manage to integrate it successfully and methodically can maintain a vital competitive edge. Business owners who find success with robotic eCommerce automation also stand a solid chance of making meaningful changes in sustainability, labour shortages, and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) while preserving human autonomy and supervision.
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By GlobalDataTechnologies Influencing Fulfilment Automation
Many automated fulfilment centres and solutions integrate several technologies to create a unified, aligned, tech-led processing system.
These include (but are not limited to):
- Robotic systems – Powered by AI and computer vision, these systems can process orders with an unrivalled degree of accuracy, minimising the risk of human error. As a result, errors stemming from manual handling mistakes can be dramatically reduced, and businesses can handle higher order volumes, meet tighter shipping deadlines, and operate around the clock. Businesses must be mindful of packaging design considerations, with products requiring engineering for robotic handling compatibility as well as consumer appeal. It’s expected that robotics technology is present in most distribution centres nowadays, according to Cleverence.
- AGVs – Automated Guided Vehicles have transformed logistics through the autonomous transport of products between picking and packing stations. With the help of magnetic strips, lasers and vision technology, the manual effort involved in fulfilment is significantly lessened. Packaging must be uniform and precisely sized as they are handled through a facility, to ensure even weight distribution in storage and shelving.
- Conveyors – Smart conveyor systems now include integrated sortation technology, which automatically routes packages based on weight, dimensions, destination and shipping method. For packaging professionals, this involves designing a system that can support conveyor transport and space requirements while ensuring product integrity from point A to point B.
What Can Automated Fulfilment Systems Integrate With?
eCommerce providers will only discover the benefits of automated fulfilment solutions if they can seamlessly integrate with their existing setup and associated technologies.
At a starting point, automated fulfilment systems should align with:
- Warehouse management systems (WMS) – A quality WMS is responsible for managing inventory, processing orders, and allocating resources, which ties in neatly with the metrics a fulfilment solution would need. These systems, intertwined, can enable faster decision-making and real-time updates. WMS systems must be regularly patched, updated, assessed, and reviewed to ensure that they are working as securely and efficiently as can be, as any vulnerabilities can be easily exploited and grind operations to a halt.
- Order management systems (OMS) – These platforms link front-end eCommerce platforms with back-end fulfilment, ensuring that product information and requests flow seamlessly from the customer-facing site or application to the fulfilment centre. As such, eCommerce product information and data must be accurate, up-to-date and not misleading, which means that dimensions and sizes must be cross-referenced and confirmed, and product imagery must be of a high standard (containing qualities highlighted in this MPB Product Photography Guide) to avoid customer dissatisfaction.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – These solutions are designed to enable synergy throughout an organisation, from packaging to sustainability initiatives. Performance data is collected across business functions and verticals, which is then harnessed automatically and strategically to inform current metrics and performance targets.
Benefits of Automation in Fulfilment
Automated eCommerce fulfilment offers several advantages, particularly as it pertains to packaging.
- Automated systems achieve picking accuracy rates of over 99.9%, which reduces the likelihood of returns due to incorrect orders, poor product quality, and similar pain points. This minimises the environmental impact of reverse logistics while preserving material integrity.
- Automated fulfilment systems can scale easily and readily to handle large volume increases during seasonal spikes and times when demand is lower. This is handy for packaging suppliers who go through supply chain fluctuations to be able to adjust processes easily.
- The quality and quantity of rich data that can be generated is extraordinary when automated fulfilment solutions are embedded successfully. The intelligence, when gathered and aggregated, enables the continuous refinement of packaging and product designs.
- With many markets facing labour shortages and stifling worker demand for warehousing and logistics, automation unlocks new opportunities for professionals to apply their skills and expertise. While many view automation technologies as market disruptors, successful integration allows for more human input and supervision as operations scale upward.
Next Steps When Implementing Robotics and Automation
Packaging industry stakeholders must carefully consider how best to position themselves in a widely evolving and, now that automated fulfilment is growing in popularity, unpredictable market.
Current packaging and product designs must be reviewed to ensure they meet new automation requirements, and eCommerce businesses must consider slight redesigns to facilitate robotic handling without compromising brand identity and quality assurance.
Investments must be made in developing materials that possess the minimum structural integrity that’s necessary for automated handling, while ensuring they are not opening businesses up to regulatory scrutiny for their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. Consumers also weigh up the environmental consciousness of the brands they buy from, so this must be considered from both angles.
The automation revolution in eCommerce fulfilment represents a logistical and operational gamble, and also a prime opportunity for innovation. Those who proactively adapt their approach to embrace automation, rather than resist it, will find themselves in a promising position to withstand future eCommerce supply chain difficulties.
If anything, automation is only going to become more sophisticated and multifaceted, meaning that the industry players who can demonstrate a forward-thinking approach to automation integration, while being mindful of eCommerce trends, will find themselves a step ahead of the competition. Customer experiences, by extension, are more likely to be positive, and the recognition and value your eCommerce brand will receive as a result will make the initial overhaul and investment worth every penny.
About the author: Annie Button is a freelance writer based in the UK. She specialises in business development, sustainability, digital trends, marketing, and HR.
