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An article this week prompted the suggestion that co-working is out, and co-warehousing is in. Following on the back of a $35M funding round late last year, Saltbox – – a logistics company that provides warehouse and office space to companies that have outgrown their home-based operations – – is proving that co-warehousing is indeed “in”. In fact, we’ve been suggesting this for quite a long time now, as we see a prime opportunity for property owners to leverage their physical space as warehousing space for their tenants. This is a benefit not just for small businesses who’ve outgrown their garage, but even for big retailers alike as warehouse space costs rise and often reach further and further from customers. This is one of our favorite topics to chat about, so please drop us a line if it’s on your mind too.
This week there were plenty more headlines about AI, ML and ChatGPT, news about big-box expanding extra-convenient return-logistics efforts, and a report suggesting that warehouses could power the future. We’re still over on Twitter (believe it or not) and LinkedIn as well – find us there! Plus, it’s hard to believe but it’s that time of year again and we are getting close to ICSC 2023 in Las Vegas later this month. If you are going to be there let us know and we would love to meet!
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Men’s Wearhouse adds Snap AR lenses for virtual try-ons [RetailDive] Integrating more tech into its operations, Men’s Wearhouse has partnered with Snap to create augmented reality mirrors in stores in which shoppers can quickly visualize multiple styles. Snap’s Apparel Try-On tool integrates retailers’ product photography into a personalized AR fitting room and uses computer vision capabilities to tailor the attire to each shopper.
Retailers are using ChatGPT to help people pick what to buy [ModernRetail] Online secondhand marketplace Mercari introduced a shopping assistant tool to help recommend products. A day later, German e-commerce giant Zalando announced that launched a similar ChatGPT-powered tool that would help shoppers find items based on fashion terms or questions they ask.
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Why Hasn’t One-Click Checkout Gained Much Traction Beyond Amazon? [RetailWire] Why hasn’t one-click checkout become more common on retailer websites? Is Amazon positioned better than most to capitalize on one-click technologies or will others eventually catch up?
Hyper-Personalization: How AI & ML Are Building a New Framework for Ecommerce CX [CMSWire] Companies are looking to set themselves apart from the competition and win consumers’ attention and loyalty. Brands that will come out on top are those that effectively cater to the “consumer of one” and provide hyper-personalized shopping experiences that feel attuned to individual needs — using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology can help enhance these personalization efforts.
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Micro & Last Mile Fulfillment
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Walmart expands presence in solution provider space with Infosys [Chain Store Age] Walmart is making some of its proprietary store-level technology available to other retailers. The discount giant’s Walmart Commerce Technologies solution provider subsidiary is partnering with Infosys to offer a new app for store associates called Store Assist. Infosys will help retailers implement and use the app, which is designed to support seamless omnichannel offerings such as pickup, delivery and ship from store.
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How These Harvard Alums Tackle ‘Major Threat’ in Modern Logistics [Yahoo!Life] Gently, the AI-powered logistics company created by a pair of Harvard Business School classmates, made its first delivery from its central distribution hub in Santa Monica to its last mile in West Los Angeles on last week. The company, which touts itself as a faster and more reliable alternative to Amazon for urban consumers, says it will expand to three “nano-fulfillment” centers by the end of May in Santa Monica, Marina del Rey and Palisades.
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“Co-warehousing” could help small businesses compete with Amazon [Axios] Forget co-working. Metro Phoenix is getting a co-warehousing facility, and it could be a game-changer for local businesses. Logistics company Saltbox opened a facility near Elliot and Kyrene roads in Tempe this month that will provide private warehouses and office suites to e-commerce companies that have outgrown their home-based operations.
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Restaurants & Ghost Kitchens
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As Interest in Wellness Stirs Up the Cocktail World, This Executive Gets Her Shot [The New York Times] “Around 70 percent of people drink alcohol-free drinks occasionally and spirited drinks occasionally,” Ms. Dillon said. “It’s broadening the opportunities for retailers, bartenders and distributors because it’s a lot of the same folks they’re already serving. People are drinking less — and there is a whole younger generation that drinks significantly less.”
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Time Limits at Restaurants Are Controversial—and Likely Here to Stay [Bon Appetit] American restaurants and their customers have been bickering about the appropriate time to spend at a restaurant for more than a decade. But this new era of timed reservations started in earnest during the pandemic, when capacity limits and staff shortages made it near impossible for the average restaurant to make ends meet.
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Yelp rolls out AI, video to enhance business searches [Fast Company] Yelp is improving its search and review functionality with a number of features based on two of-the-moment internet technologies: artificial intelligence and short-form video. It’s part of the online review platform’s “most significant update in recent years,” according to the company.
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‘I felt cared for’: The touching story behind a Dallas-based app for last-minute gifts [WFAA] The process is simple. A user can open the app, click on a store or category of gift, select an item, add it to the cart, and check out. From there, the retail partner will wrap the gift and Alto, a local rideshare service, will grab the gift and deliver it to the recipient.
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Target shoppers can now make a return without leaving the car [CNBC] Target is dangling a new perk to get shoppers to swing by its stores: customers can make returns without leaving their car. The curbside-returns service, which began last week at roughly a quarter of Target’s nearly 2,000 stores nationwide, will be available across the chain by the end of summer.
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Solar-powered warehouse rooftops could power nearly 19.4M US homes: report [The Hill] If the rooftops of American warehouses were all bedecked with solar panels, these buildings would generate enough solar energy to power almost 19.4 million U.S. households each year. There are more than 450,000 such warehouses nationwide, with nearly 16.4 billion cumulative square feet of flat, sunny rooftop space, according to the report, released by the Environment California Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group.
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