Instacart adding automated fulfillment to its e-commerce arsenal

Instacart has signed a multiyear deal with robotics company Fabric, expanding its e-commerce offerings to include automated order picking in micro fulfillment centers.

The companies plan to begin pilots with retailers in the coming year, according to a news release. The micro fulfillment centers can be in dedicated warehouses or in existing retailer locations.

“Our next-gen fulfillment initiative combines our robust technology suite and dedicated community of shoppers with robotics solutions to give retailers even more innovative ways to compete and serve their customers online,” Mark Schaaf, chief technology officer for Instacart, said in the release.

“Our next-gen fulfillment work will also help reduce some of the things that make in-store shopping cumbersome for Instacart shoppers, like crowded store aisles, out-of-stock items and long checkout lines,” Schaaf said. “Over the long term, we believe partnering with retailers to bring next-gen fulfillment technologies together with the personal touch and care of Instacart’s shopper community will create an even more seamless online grocery experience that’s faster and more affordable for customers and delivers even more value and growth to retailers.”

Instacart’s online shopping platform includes more than 600 national, regional and local retailers, and its employees deliver from nearly 55,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America, according to the release. Instacart also serves as the behind-the-scenes operator of websites and applications of numerous major retailers.

Fabric runs micro fulfillment operations for retailers in New York City, Washington D.C. and Tel Aviv, and the company expects to expand to five U.S. metro areas later this year, according to the release.