Fabric, a provider of micro-fulfillment solutions, recently completed the deployment of “the world’s smallest automated fulfillment center” for Israel’s largest health & beauty retailer Super-pharm. The project was so successful that they will be expanding their partnership.
Over the last two years, Super-Pharm has watched its e-commerce and same-day delivery services demand increase. The impact of social distancing, combined with strict enforcement of quarantine rules within Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely also had an impact on the growing popularity of home delivery services such as those from Super-Pharm.
Fabric triples demand fulfillment for Super-Pharm
As a result of the growing demand, Fabric was asked to triple the amount of orders it fulfills for Super-Pharm through its micro-fulfillment services. In order to support this increase in volume, Fabric will build and operate a second micro-fulfillment center that will fulfill thousands of orders a day to provide Super-Pharm with on-demand, same-day, and next-day delivery nationwide. The new site, located in central Israel, will work in tandem with Super-Pharm’s existing Fabric-operated micro-fulfillment center in the Tel Aviv metro area.
“In order to provide the best possible customer experience, Super-Pharm needs to have a complex 360 degree logistics solution for picking and delivery” said Yossi Cohen, VP Organization & Information Systems at Super-Pharm. “The partnership with Fabric puts us at the forefront of innovation and enables us to pick orders quickly and efficiently. After a successful operation of the first site and due to the increase in activity we are expanding the partnership. We are expecting that the new site will contribute even more to improve the service and efficiency of our online activity, and it’s a partnership with the potential to continue growing and expanding over time.
A testament to the ability of automation to scale and respond to unexpected spikes in retailer demand, Fabric was able to increase the number of orders being fulfilled out of the Tel Aviv micro-fulfillment center by up to 250% throughout the Coronavirus pandemic. This was achieved thanks to Fabric’s uniquely modular solution design, which enabled the company to add an extra picking station in a matter of hours, without the need for further construction or site closure time. Fabric’s ability to more than double its fulfillment capacity with little notice allowed Super-Pharm to continue serving their customers at scale during the height of the pandemic, despite the unplanned spike in demand.
“Expanding our partnership with Super-Pharm is a significant milestone for Fabric,” said Elram Goren, CEO and Co-Founder of Fabric. “As a returning customer, our expanding partnership is based on real and measured success, and we are thankful to Super-Pharm for their continued trust in Fabric. The past year has been challenging for many retailers who have been required to support such rapid growth in online activity. We are proud to be part of the infrastructure that supported this growth and look forward to continuing to enable the best online experience for Super-Pharm’s customers.”
In 2020 Super-Pharm Online was the most popular e-commerce website in Israel, with 24% of Israeli’s ordering from Super-Pharm online last year, according to a survey conducted by the Israel Postal Company. In a move that puts it on the global stage as an innovation-leader and signals its commitment to micro-fulfillment, the addition of this new site will see most of Super-Pharm’s online orders for home delivery being fulfilled using micro-fulfillment. With a strong focus on providing the best possible online experience that emulates the in-store experience, the expansion of the partnership will enable the health and beauty retailer to ensure very high order quality and to increase the speed of deliveries – all while ensuring profitable unit economics as the business continues to scale its online presence.
Fabric’s solution has enabled Super-Pharm to fulfill a much larger number of orders per day. Fabric’s micro-fulfillment solution has resulted in a reduction in fulfillment time, and an overall increase in the efficiency of the fulfillment processes. Due to the dramatic improvements in fulfillment efficiency in combination with the proximity to customers that the site architecture enables, Super-Pharm can commit to very fast delivery promises from the moment a customer places an order to the moment the order is delivered, including same-day.
