A big bright spot — if you can call it that — during the pandemic has been the blazing growth of food retail e-commerce, which is enjoying triple-digit sales growth.
But even as evidence mounts that many grocery shoppers will stick with e-commerce — online ordering, curbside pickup, home deliveries — after the pandemic subsides, food retailers face the stiff challenge of how to keep up with all of that digital growth and activity.
That helps to explain the quickening rise of micro fulfillment centers, which are designed to act as mini distribution centers that enable grocery workers to efficiently and profitably pick online orders without disrupting other store operations.
