COVID-19 has startled groceries enabling them to revamp with technologies like robotics.
Grocery is considered as an essential business segment fulfilling the needs of communities. In the time of crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery stores are proved resilient, with working overtime to keep shelves stocked and maintain business as usual even in highly uncertain times. As the pandemic has shaken up almost every industry, the grocery industry is not an exception, turning towards modern technology to keep businesses going. Like other businesses, groceries are now harnessing the power of robotics for greater efficiency, flexibility, and productive operations.
Robots are not new in retail environments as retailers are increasingly deployed them for customer assistance. According to the RAC retail robotics research report, the deployment of robots in retail is stimulating owing to their functional utility, advances in artificial intelligence, and the ability to address both labor challenges and customer and employee safety concerns. Additionally, rapidly changing consumer behavior is a major driver of fuelling the robotic revolution in grocery.
Robotic Grocery Fulfilment Strategy
The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has put several businesses across industries at standstill. It has forced them to either shut down or reduce operations with the minimal workforce. To curb this uncertainty, grocery retailers are significantly looking to embrace robotic fulfillment facilities that assist them to pick grocery orders faster and better address the rising volume of food deliveries. The pandemic has also made real-time inventory management more important than ever.
Already, retailers like Amazon and Walmart are capitalizing on mobile robots in their warehouses and retail stores for operations, such as inventory scanning, materials handling, and cleaning. Using autonomous service and delivery robots can be beneficial for retailers as they enable them to better serve customers.
Why Robotics Investments Become So Important Right Now?
Since the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted all walks of life, it has led to a new environment of physical distancing. In this scenario, the enthusiasm for robots and automation technology has increased, as some businesses are experimenting with autonomous robotics solutions.
As the pandemic is relentlessly expanding without any vaccine, physical distance and cleaning yourself are the major preventative measures in place right now. Thus, it has become indispensable now than ever before for grocery retailers to implement heightened cleaning and sanitizing to keep shoppers and employees safe. Leveraging robots can be an effective approach as they are able to clean and sanitize floors, measure people’s temperature and free up staff to work on other valuable tasks.
Robots can also perform complex tasks and ease strains from employees. For instance, operating large manual machines like floor scrubbers and carrying heavy stock carts full of inventory is difficult manually. In fact, the data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that there were 42,790 retail employee injuries in 2018 due to overexertion. Thus, by automating time-intensive tasks such as checking stock, moving inventory, and cleaning works, among others, grocery retailers can navigate any business problems and reduce staff workloads.