Peak Season Robot Picks Surge

Locus Robotics, a market leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for fulfilment warehouses, released its annual Cyber Week recap announcing a record-breaking 331 million units picked globally on behalf of its retail and third-party logistics partners, a 66% increase over last year.

LocusBots picked almost 7 million average daily units, an increase of 107% vs. 2022.

“We are thrilled to have delivered another record-breaking peak shopping season for our customers. The 66% increase in units picked compared to last year shows the growing demand for warehouse automation and the proven scalability of the Locus solution,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. “As online shopping continues to accelerate, our intelligent robots enable customers to keep pace while also optimising productivity.”

According to Adobe Analytics data, shoppers spent more than $38 billion in total online global sales from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday was the largest online shopping day in history with $12.4 billion in sales, a 9.6% increase. Mobile shopping continues its continued upwards trajectory, representing 54% of all online orders in 2023, a 10.4% increase over 2022.

Locus has now picked more than 2.5 billion units worldwide, with the last million picks taking just 26 days compared to its first million which took more than 1,500 days.

2023 Peak Season insights:

• The holiday shopping period began earlier, expanding to several weeks with retailers starting sales events as early as late-September to lure consumers to shop early.
• Online shopping is here to stay as the convenience and ease of use of online ordering is driving growth across not just retail, but all business channels, including B2B and industrial.
• Mobile has become the shopping mode of choice with more than 54% of all orders in 2023 made via mobile apps, up 10.4% vs. 2022.
• The labour shortage is still a concern: Recruiting and retaining workers continues to be a concern for bricks-and-mortar retailers, warehouses, and transportation. Collaborative robotic automation has become a necessity required to meet the constantly increasing volume of orders.
With more consumers choosing to shop online, Locus has proven to be a valued resource for helping retailers and 3PL operators seamlessly scale to meet and exceed the growing volume demands today, and into the future.