Another amazing week of strong announcements in multiple e-commerce scale-ups across the globe as well as Amazon going green with huge orders of Rivian Vans! Exciting times in e-commerce!
Amazon beefs up logistics empire with a new order of 100,000 electric delivery vans from the Tesla rival Rivian
In June 2018, Amazon purchased 20,000 Vans from Mercedes-Benz (Regular ICE)
In Sep 2019, Amazon announced the purchase of 100,000 Rivian electric vans! Yes 100K electric vans! The first vans will be ready for use by 2021. Amazon announced its plan to become carbon neutral by 2040. This is a good initiative towards a well-needed push for sustainability! We can expect this to significantly increase the electrification agenda of all the established car manufacturers!
Read about the purchase HERE.
Amazon wants to double its Locker program over the next year
We often talk about speed to consumer but convenience is also key! In many markets, delivery at the doorsteps is not an option due to either Regulation, Safety, Consumer choice or Theft. Parcel Lockers have been an increasingly popular model for customers to pick up or drop off packages. We can expect this mode to be increasingly relevant as it allows some huge enhancements in last-mile delivery costs and offer some unique convenience to unlock & increase e-commerce purchase in certain markets.
Read about the program HERE.
Walgreens to test drone delivery service with Alphabet’s Wing
Delivery by drones is a concept which is highly covered in the news since 2013, by then we started to expect to see drones delivering packages, however, it has taken way more due to one major factor: Social acceptance! Which obviously drives regulations and speed of adoption for such technology!
Indeed not many people want to see drones flying above their heads as this involves some major concerns on security & privacy. However, we have seen some very successful programs and multiple companies have started to pilot it at real scale! Wing & Amazon are some of the leading players and it will be exciting to see how this develops in the coming months. The Wing – Walgreens pilot program will deliver food and beverages, over-the-counter medications and other items, but not prescriptions. We will see the deployment of these technologies gradually being implemented and most likely starting with deliveries in remote areas and areas which are complex & expensive to reach by road (as well as for delivering life-saving parcels)
Read about the test HERE.
Flipkart adds 340 little robots to its workforce ahead of the big billion-day sale
The race on automation is on and this is another strong move towards an automated warehouse environment! In e-commerce operations, speed and costs are critical to executing the huge throughput in peak days and this is an example of how robotic automation can give a competitive edge to companies in e-commerce as they grow their volumes and needs to serve their clients to the same service levels.
Check out these little robots HERE.
Yahoo Japan acquires a majority share in Zozo for $3.7b
While most of the major internet players have already made some moves into e-commerce, it is not surprising to see Yahoo following the trend with this strategic investment into one of Japans biggest fashion e-commerce Company: Zozo. Yahoo Japan said last Thursday it would acquire up to 152.95 million shares or a 50.1% stake.
Details on the acquisition HERE.
Brazilian online home goods platform MadeiraMadeira raises $110M In SoftBank-Led round
MadeiraMadeira!! Have you ever heard of this company? A successful Brazilian online home goods platform – or we could call it the Wayfair of Brazil. As consumers are now purchasing bigger and heavier items online, platforms such as MadeiraMadeira are riding the wave of the growth of online purchasing in a huge market like Brazil.
Learn more about MadeiraMadeira HERE.
Darkstore raises $21 million Series B round
Service level expectations for online consumers are increasingly high. We can foresee an expectation for same-day service in large categories of products becoming the norm in the next 2 years in any mature e-commerce markets. With its city fulfilment model, Darkstore aims to tackle that increasing service level and enable e-commerce companies to offer same-day delivery. The need for speed has a cost!!
Here are the details.
Shipper, a platform for e-commerce logistics in Indonesia, raises $5 million
An amazon like service level!! That is Shipper’s value proposition. With Indonesia e-commerce sales growing at a fast pace, the logistics challenges are real and their solution includes pick up, sorting at micro-fulfilment centres and delivery to final consumers.
Learn about the Indonesian e-commerce platform HERE.
Photo: Pixabay