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November 19, 2019 Linda Rosencrance As the annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping extravaganza approaches, retailers are optimistic over increased online spending. However, the increase in order volume, along with customer expectations around speedy shipping and delivery, can turn a boon into a massive bust in the twinkling of an eye. Online spending on Black Friday is expected to surpass $12 billion this year, according to the BlackFriday.com website . Cyber Monday, the day in which consumers do their online shopping via higher-speed work connections, is expected to hit $9.4 billion this year, up nearly 19% over 2018, according to Adobe Analytics. The completion of many of these orders as a way to ensure speedy delivery will include autonomous mobile robots, which have been deployed to warehouses and supply-chain distribution centers around the world. Robotics Business Review spoke with officials from several robotics companies in this space, asking about their expectations for 2019 Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Enter the robots “On Black Friday and Cyber Monday [our customers] see spikes of three to four times the regular volume,” said Lior Elazary, co-founder and CEO of inVia Robotics. “What they need from our automation system is simple – the ability to increase resources to fulfill those additional orders on time and accurately. They just can’t find enough people to hire as additional temporary workers during this busy period, and the people they do have are stretched to their limits.” Robots help by adding the needed resources for picking, Elazary said. During peak times, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, inVia redirects robots that may be doing other tasks in customer warehouses, such as cycle counting, to concentrate all of their time on picking. The robots-as-a-service model can help companies scale up quickly for peak demands. Image: inVia […]