Transforming retail landscapes in the face of crises
The Covid-19 pandemic has expedited the growth of e-commerce and it’s imperative for retailers and consumer packaged goods vendors to reimagine their operations if they want to stay competitive. We ask Microsoft and its partners how they can achieve this
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Supply chain disruptions, store closures, fluctuating product demand and rapidly changing consumer behaviours have significantly altered the retail landscape since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a larger proportion of sales moving online than ever before. According to McKinsey & Company’s Adapting to the next normal in retail: The customer experience imperative report, e-commerce sales for apparel, beauty products and department stores have increased by almost 10 per cent this year, while e-commerce penetration in the grocery sector rose from three per cent up to 10 per cent during its peak.
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Two crossed lines that form an X . It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification. A look inside Fabric s fulfillment center in Washington, DC. Jacob Shakked
Fabric is a robotics and micro-fulfillment startup helping retailers to fulfill orders in cities.
Fabric s technology can be installed in a much smaller space than a typical fulfillment solution.
Walmart announced that Fabric is one of three startups it is working with on micro-fulfillment.
When people think of fulfillment centers, they likely envision massive warehouses in industrial parts of major cities.
But robotics and micro-fulfillment startup Fabric is focused on creating much smaller spaces for retailers to fulfill their online orders.
Spare a Quarter?
The music has stopped for German co-living brand Quarters, whose U.S. expansion is ending in bankruptcy.
Eight properties and two LLCs tied to the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing between $1 million and $5 million in combined liabilities and less than $500,000 assets.
Quarters is an offshoot of Berlin-based Medici Living Group, which was founded in 2012 and pitched itself as the “WeWork of co-living.” After raising $1.4 billion to add locations in Europe, Quarters raised $300 million to expand to the U.S. in early 2019. The company signs master leases and then operates co-living spaces.
As of 2019, Quarters was aiming to have 9,000 rooms globally but by last year it only had 5,000. It now claims to have 3,000 rooms with 95 percent occupancy.