jd.com He has spent most of his career facing his great competition, amazon. It is now when it can be said that the Chinese giant, JD.com, is here to stay, showing its claws to Amazon. For this, the company has decided to open two fully robotic stores in the Netherlands, underpinned by a new brand known as “Oshama”.
This new model merges online order and pick-up stores where the robots are in charge of preparing the parcel and the home delivery service. At the moment, these technological establishments are available in the cities of Leiden and Rotterdam. If it is successful, they will not hesitate to launch them in more countries, as in Diemen and Utrecht, two of places that are already in mind. It is the first time that the Chinese giant has decided to open stores in these places, which means the European market entry.
How do these robotic stores work?
The omnichannel model allows customers make your purchases online through the Ochama app. On this platform you will find many products belonging to any section: fresh and packaged food, appliances, beauty products, fashion, home furnishings, among others.
Once the purchase has been made, consumers they will be able to go to the futuristic store to pick up their order. In it you can find a fleet of robots that include AGVs (monitored ground vehicles) that are dedicated to organizing and transporting the merchandise. Although you can also choose the home delivery option.
In order to pick up the order, the customer will only need their mobile and the box. To do this, you will scan the QR code that appears on the box with the Ochama application. Once this step is done, the box itself will tell you where your purchase is.
“With the rich experience in retail and cutting-edge logistics technologies that the company has accumulated over the years, we aspire to create an unprecedented shopping format for customers in Europe with better prices and services,” it states Pass Lei, general manager of ochama.
Why the Netherlands and not somewhere else?
Well, the answer is very simple. According to data from world Bank, The Netherlands is one of the most urbanized countries in Europe. In the year 2020, in the midst of a global health pandemic, more than 80% of the population lives in cities with a polycentric urban structure, which is why JD.com has considered it relevant to open its futuristic stores here.
“The Dutch are passionate about innovation and the green environment, and Ochama’s shopping format is designed to contribute to both,” it states Mark den Butter, Ochama’s director of operations.
Amazon, the great competition
The American giant already carried out something similar, exactly in 2017. It incorporated robots in its logistics centers to help employees store and move products. These can move thanks to QR codes that are on the ground.
“Amazon Robotics” That’s what they called this project. Unlike the futuristic stores created by JD.com, these robots do not prepare the orders, since that work corresponds to the employees, its function is to transport the orders.
This innovation was carried out with the aim of reducing the time to transfer orders. The establishment is located in the logistics centers in Castellbisbal and El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona).
Other robotic stores
ocado, a British retailer, named by a group of analysts as the “Microsoft of the Retail of the future”. It is a company that operates only online, however, it has several automated stores with robots.
Each warehouse has more than 1000 autonomous robots connected via 4G and being able to move at four meters per second. May collect up to 50 products in less than five minutes, which means a reduction in time when preparing and transporting orders.
The most surprising thing is that they have some robotic arms with which they can smell food and know if they are in good condition or not.
Digitization together with advances in robotics have been introduced into our way of life with the aim of make our tasks easier. Transforming our way of working and also of living. However, not everything was going to be rosy, the rapid growth of this, has contributed a decline in jobs, since a large part of the workers have been replaced by machines. This happens in almost all sectors, but, It is in the logistics centers where there is a greater incidence. If you want to get an order, you have to go directly to pick it up, as mentioned at the beginning of the post with the new innovation from JD.com.