Micro-Fulfillment Centers promise to revolutionize grocery e-commerce; that doesn't mean they're right for everyone
Even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to deliver legions of consumers eager to buy groceries online, it is putting a focus on the multiple challenges grocers face in determining the best ways to fulfill those growing orders.
Across the industry, executives are looking at creating dedicated fulfillment facilities, known as micro-fulfillment centers or MFCs, at or near individual supermarkets to improve efficiency and save money in running their e-commerce operations.
The interest in MFCs, which typically include automated equipment to assemble and pack orders, has grown because of the surge in e-commerce orders that has cascaded across the grocery industry this year. But while transferring picking and packing tasks from store aisles to facilities expressly designed to handle them might seem like an obvious move, deciding when and how to deploy this strategy isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, according to e-commerce experts.
