Author: Monique MacGillivray

Is Inflation Causing Consumers to Choose Pickup Over Delivery?

Brick Meets Click finds pickup rose 9% in May from last year, while delivery increased 5%
June 13, 2022

Online ordering continues to post strong numbers—e-grocery sales in May reached $7.1 billion, 1.7% higher than a year ago, according to Brick Meets Click and Mercatus—but as inflation persists, consumers who enjoy the convenience of pickup and delivery “are also becoming more cost conscious.”

Pickup, which captured 45% of online grocery sales in May, rose 9% from last year, while delivery, with a dollar share of 36%, increased 5%, according to a Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey fielded May 28-29. (Ship-to-home, orders received via common or contract carriers such as FedEx and UPS, represented 19% of e-grocery sales in May and dropped 16% vs. the prior year.)

Pickup’s increase was driven by a more than 10% growth in its monthly active user (MAU) base, while delivery saw modest gains in MAUs, the companies said in a release. It’s also an indication that inflation is influencing where and how customers shop online.

“Customers appreciate the convenience of ordering online, but they are also becoming more cost conscious,” said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO of Toronto, Canada-based Mercatus. “To defend the base business, Grocers can promote pickup to address both issues. Assuming the pickup experience aligns with customer expectations, showcasing the savings associated with pickup’s lower fees, no fuel surcharges or zero tips can better protect your online customers and sales by highlighting a more affordable alternative to home delivery.”

grocery pickup

Continue to read full article on Winsight Grocery Business.

Expect Another Transformational Step-Change in Food Shopping

May 23, 2022

Over the past 100-plus years, the food shopping experience in the U.S. has evolved primarily through large step-changes driven by innovative new store formats. Another such step-change can be expected in the not-too-distant future.

At the turn of the 20th century, food shopping was complicated and cumbersome. Consumers purchased their meats from the butcher’s shop; produce at “green grocers” or fresh markets; breads and pastries from bakeries; and shelf-stable, packaged food products at “dry grocery” stores such as A&P, the dominant such retailer at the time. In all instances, the stores were operated by clerks to whom the order was given and who would fulfill the order by picking items off shelves and displays behind a counter. Many of these stores allowed their customers to order remotely by note and later by phone, and clerks would prepare the order for pickup or even deliver it to the customer’s home.

A radical change was ignited in 1916 the dry-grocery segment when Clarence Saunders launched Piggly Wiggly, the first successful operator of “self-serving” food stores. In these stores, there were no clerks or counters between the customers and the products on shelves. Prices were displayed on tags, and customers collected their own items in hand-carried baskets and then went through a checkout station to pay for them. Customers very much liked the 20% reduction in prices enabled by the huge improvement in operating efficiency through the elimination of clerical labor costs.

Even more importantly, though, customers actually preferred this way of shopping over clerk service for two primary reasons. First, customers had direct access to product information and prices, enabling them to make purchase decisions at their own pace without feeling the pressure of occupying the clerk’s time. Second, they didn’t have to wait to be served by a clerk during busy periods. As a result, dry-grocery stores began a rapid shift to the self-service model, which transformed not just food retail but eventually all of retail.

Digital changes everything

Even though the emergence of e-commerce has dramatically impacted almost every other segment of retail, it had very little impact on customer experience in food until quite recently. This is due to a variety of unique challenges associated with selling food online, the most fundamental of which are (a) the cost to the retailer of performing order-fulfillment processes that are free in the self-service model and (b) the fact that raising prices to cover these additional costs is not realistically feasible.

Continue to read full article on Mass Market Retailers

Alert Innovation Announces the Addition of John Biasi as New Chief Product Officer

Critical hire sets new pace of product development as company scales
April 21, 2022

Alert Innovation, a leader in grocery automation and micro fulfillment systems, announced the appointment of John Biasi to the newly created role of Chief Product Officer.

In his new role, Biasi will be responsible for overseeing all product development at Alert Innovation including product management, program management, systems engineering, software engineering, and hardware engineering.

Throughout his career, Biasi has been successful in a range of operational and product leadership roles across a variety of high-tech industries including LED Lighting, Wireless Mesh Networking and Semiconductor Factory Automation. As an entrepreneur, Biasi was also a co-founder of FASTech Integration, which developed mission-critical manufacturing software for semiconductor and electronics companies.

“Alert Innovation has built a strong organization with an incredible foundation” said John Biasi, CPO of Alert Innovation. “I look forward to collaborating with this dedicated team to propel the company’s objectives for growth.”

Prior to Alert Innovation, Biasi held the role of CEO at Full Spectrum Software a professional services company specializing in the development of medical devices. Biasi was also the General Manager at DEKA Research responsible for the development of advanced consumer solutions including the Coca Cola Freestyle, a touch screen soda fountain introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in 2009. While at DEKA, his team also developed an innovative medical infusion platform and a vapor compression distillation device used to create medical grade water.

“As Alert Innovation continues to grow at a rapid pace, we are putting the right people in place to ensure our success” says Fritz Morgan, CEO of Alert Innovation. “We are thrilled that John is joining us and look forward to applying his decades of expertise and success to our product development organization.”

Alert Innovation continues to hire in all areas of the organization including software, hardware, systems engineering and more. Click here to view all open roles.

About Alert Innovation, Inc

Alert Innovation® is a thought leader in Grocery automation, driving innovation that improves lives by transforming how retailers operate and people shop. Alert Innovation is an industry leader in robotic e-grocery fulfillment. The Alphabot® system, designed by the Alert Innovation team is a unique automated fulfillment solution that utilizes patented omnidirectional robots in a temperature-controlled system for fresh, efficient, and high-quality grocery fulfillment. Alert Innovation also designed the Novastore™, a store concept utilizing the Alphabot system, delivering a dynamic and efficient shopping experience. www.alertinnovation.com

Media Contact:

Cristina Rodrigues
Alert Innovation
cristina.rodrigues@alertinnovation.com
+1 401.529.4980

Two-sided Economics of Automation for Instant Delivery

Is Quick Commerce going to eat Grocery’s lunch or is it the other way around?

As instant grocery delivery players like Instacart, DoorDash and GoPuff make stratospheric leaps in the business of “convenience” shopping, the conversation is turning to automation and what role it can play in their businesses. Join us as we look at two sides of the “convenience” conversation – first from the new “Q” Market perspective and then from the grocer’s perspective. We will examine this growing trend of on-demand grocery shopping and the new operational models that fuel them. Each side has lofty goals for profit, and we will investigate the benefits and challenges of both store-level and regional automation for order fulfillment and replenishment.

Originally presented at FMI Midwinter Conference, March 21, 2022

Two-sided Economics of Automation for Instant Delivery

Competitive Landscape: Retail MFC Providers

Gartner Research Presents – Competitive Landscape: Retail Store-Based Microfulfillment Center (MFC) Providers for Tier 1 Multichannel Retailers

Alert Innovation was named by Gartner as a leading microfulfillment center provider for tier one multichannel retailers.

Gartner highlighted Alert Innovation’s competitive differentiators including:

  • offering three temperature zones for ambient, chilled and frozen
  • patented omnidirectional robot
  • founder’s extensive experience in grocery supply chain experience in automation and engineering

Download the full report to learn more.

*This report was written and published by Gartner.

Dynamic Company Culture

2022 Best Companies to Work For In Boston from Alert Innovation.

Whistle While You Work 

Alert Innovation has a dynamic company culture full of curiosity, creativity, and collaboration!  We are proud of our Core Values and it shows every day in our work ethic and desire to have fun while being productive.

We are proud to be recognized by both BuiltIn Boston and Forbes for our remarkable company environment.

builtin Boston Best Places to Work            Forbes Best Startup Employers 2022

Find your next career move with us!

See our careers page for open positions.

Alert Innovation Named America’s Best Startup by Forbes for Third Year in a Row

Automation leader recognized as #5 in US Robotics/Engineering & #1 in the East Coast
March 22, 2022

BOSTON – For the third year in a row, Alert Innovation, a leader in grocery automation and micro fulfillment systems, has been named to the prestigious Forbes list of America’s Best Startup Employers. Alert Innovation scored high, ranking as #5 in the nation for the Robotics/Engineering category and #1 in the East Coast.
Forbes Best Startup Employers 2022
Overall, Alert Innovation took the #299 spot of all American startups in 2022. The approach, led by Statista Inc., evaluates over 8 million data points to recognize the top 500 startups in the United States that exceed in employee satisfaction, employer reputation and company growth. To determine the list, Forbes and Statista identified 2,500 American businesses founded between 2012 and 2019 and employ at least 50 people and then evaluated them using vast social listening campaigns and extensive desk research.

“We are thrilled and honored to be recognized again by Forbes for the exceptional culture we have created at Alert Innovation” says Fritz Morgan, CEO of Alert Innovation. “We are proud of our company’s core values and recognize that everyone on the team is an important contributor to this remarkable culture of collaboration, learning and growth.”

Alert Innovation was also recognized as 2022 Best Midsize Companies to Work for in Boston by Built In, a major online community for startups and tech companies.

For a quick look at the company’s extraordinary company culture, check out this fun video – 2022 Best Companies to Work For. And for more about Alert Innovation career opportunities visit careers.

About Alert Innovation, Inc

Alert Innovation® is a thought leader in Grocery automation, driving innovation that improves lives by transforming how retailers operate and people shop. Alert Innovation is an industry leader in robotic e-grocery fulfillment. The Alphabot® system, designed by the Alert Innovation team is a unique automated fulfillment solution that utilizes patented omnidirectional robots in a temperature-controlled system for fresh, efficient, and high-quality grocery fulfillment. Alert Innovation also designed the Novastore™, a store concept utilizing the Alphabot system, delivering a dynamic and efficient shopping experience.
www.alertinnovation.com

Media Contact:
Ron Margulis
RAM Communications
ron@rampr.com
+1 908.337.0020

Alphabot System

 

Introducing the Alphabot® System by Alert Innovation
The Alphabot System by Alert Innovation delivers the throughput and reliability needed to efficiently fulfill e-grocery orders from online ordering to customer pickup. But we’re just on the beginning of our innovation journey.

With over 50 patents applied for, the Alphabot System is future-proof by design. That translates into an ongoing competitive advantage, continuous improvement, and revenue growth for your retail operation.

Let’s take a deeper look at the Alphabot System.

The passive Alphabot storage structure is scalable for different real-estate and product assortment requirements. There are no moving parts in the Alphabot storage structure for maximum reliability and lowest maintenance costs.

At the heart of our system are the Alphabot robots, omni-directional, battery-free robots that charge on the fly for maximum system uptime and safety. Because the robot is the only moving part with various travel paths, there is no single point of failure. To increase order throughput, you simply add more robots.

This unique architecture stores individual items for picking and finished orders in integrated ambient, frozen and refrigerated temperature zones.

The Alphabot System ensures product quality, safety and cold chain compliance. It makes it easy to automatically consolidate and dispense orders for near immediate delivery with 95% of orders going from order to pickup in 12 minutes or less. The labor savings delivered from storing completed orders in the system and auto-dispensing them, delivers 40% more return on investment than traditional picking systems that rely on expensive secondary storage and manual order consolidation.

Within the storage structure, totes and subtotes allow maximum assortment high storage density and precise inventory control while saving labor.

The input output workstations, where products enter and exit the Alphabot System, use a simple interface and multiple sensors to minimize training needs and maximize rate of decant and order dispense. Alphabot Robots present inventory to store associates at the picking workstation to fulfill customer orders these stations operate at eight to ten times the manual pick rate with multiple sensors and software features to ensure picking accuracy.

The warehouse control system is the software backbone that controls the Alphabot System. We developed this proprietary software that provides easy integration to third-party applications and your enterprise systems.

Our unique self-service auto dispense portals allow shoppers to pick up their orders curbside without associate involvement this additional level of Alphabot System automation further reduces your e-grocery operational costs and simplifies order pickups for shoppers eliminating last mile delivery.