Co-CEO Kurt Abellone said Fabric offers a highly flexible system with robots that move horizontally and vertically.
PG: When will this low-cost solution be released?
California: We plan to open and sell our first site in the New York market. We hope to be able to offer tours this summer.
PG: That sounds exciting! Provide actual information about the retailers you currently work with and how your existing relationships with those grocers may change or expand your partnerships with grocers. I don't think you're in a position to talk about future partnerships yet, but can you talk about the companies you're already working with? Do you foresee any changes to these relationships or are there any companies that are already developing? Do you have it?
California: I can't name names, but let me give you an example. We are probably one of the few companies that offer both B2B and B2C. So we're doing her 20 spokes with our partners, who are getting supplies from automated micro-fulfillment centers that they use for her 30-minute deliveries, which are exploding in the market. . I think a lot of what we're doing with our grocery store partners is faster delivery. Part of that is driven by the fact that low-cost, small units can bring them closer to customers and retailers.
The trend I've seen over the past seven years is that 30-minute streams are a game changer. As you probably know in the grocery industry, there are three things he learns on his first day in the grocery industry: [the first is] Convenience is king, right? In this case, the 30-minute broadcast is the main conversation. The second is pricing, and the third is assortment differentiation, often produced or private label. But in the online space, especially in the area of automation, almost everyone has spent too much time focusing on choices. This is his third most important factor, but not the decisive one. The result was a 20-year delay and the initial construction of large-scale automated facilities, with a focus on next-day delivery rather than pushing to a 30-minute timeframe.
Our approach to retail partnerships is to bring them back to their core areas and not force them, especially grocers, to follow the good lessons from general merchandise chasing the long tail, but actually is a trap for grocery stores. Most of our US customers have responded very positively to changes like ALDI (lower assortment, 2,400 SKUs), and now we have entered e-commerce and are growing very rapidly. Because price is still more important than overall assortment. Our goal is to get the assortment strategy right for the big grocery stores, not just his ALDI's and Lidl's around the world, and that automation will expand this 30-minute window, but that customers will always I want them to understand that this is not the case. There are 40,000 SKUs to choose from. We can always offer it to them as a fabric, but we're going to encourage them to focus on convenient strategies with their customers.
PG: Is 30 minutes the ideal amount of time for someone who needs groceries quickly?
California: Yeah, I think so too. Most of the locations we serve see sales increases of 20% or more. With all three temperature zones and automation, 35 minute orders can be picked in 3 minutes. The second part of the equation is that crowdsourcing partners are becoming much larger and more sophisticated, we're seeing a combination of food service and groceries, and we're starting to see a path to free delivery.
Currently, 90% of the U.S. population receives hot food delivered weekly. Due to the impact of the new coronavirus, all crowdsourcing companies have fallen into an explosive situation. It hasn't been much better for grocery stores as restaurants have become more convenient. But now, he thinks there's a place for customers to go where Uber Eats can deliver groceries and hot food around the world in the same 30 minutes. If you put two orders in a DoorDash vehicle, you'll probably pay $6 to $7 per delivery, but if one of those orders is in his DoubleDash food service pickup, you'll pay more. He only costs $3. Orders between $80 and $100 bring us back to the serious conversation about free shipping.
I think that will lead to cross-channel partnerships between grocery stores and hyper-regional franchise foodservice. I still don't know if it's Domino's Pizza or Subway. One reason 30-minute conversations are making a comeback is crowdsourcing.The restaurant industry exists as a partner, but previously these industries were [companies] It was very isolated.
