The question of honing e-commerce capabilities has proven to be a bit of a conundrum in the retail world.
Several technology startups have sprung up to help solve the issue of fast shipping for smaller, local, and digitally native brands in recent year. Lewis said that many help provide shipping speeds on the level of Amazon or Walmart by employing predictive artificial intelligence in order to determine where to store certain inventory, and ship it in the cheapest and quickest manner possible.
As investors anticipate consumers demanding speedier shipping, these micro warehousing startups raised millions in venture capital in recent years. And now, thanks to the disruption COVID-19 has wreaked upon e-commerce, they're seeing demand really soar.Ben Jones founded Ohi in 2019 with the intention of leveling the playing field in e-commerce fulfillment.
"Our sweet spot are those brands that have a certain volume of orders within a geographic region, 5,000 to 10,000 orders a month across their e-commerce site," he said. "If you fast forward five years time, can you imagine a world in which consumers are going to expect everything within a matter of hours?" Jones said. "Well, yes. And a lot of VCs realize that."FastAF is a consumer-facing mobile app offering from e-commerce tech company Darkstore. Darkstore unveiled the app in September 2020.
CEO Lee Hnetinka describe FastAF's direct-to-consumer partners as being both "the hottest brands" and "specialized up-and-coming local brands who do not have a robust presence or a physical storefront to compete in e-commerce." He said that shoppers have demanded increased delivery speed during the pandemic.