The rate at which Amazon is expanding its logistics operations is something to behold.
Last year, it accounted for over 20 per cent of the entire UK take-up of logistics warehousing – a record share for a single occupier, according to Lambert Smith Hampton.
The Fulfilment by Amazon service, which distributes products for independent sellers in Amazon Marketplace, delivered more than two billion items last year. And it is expanding its AmazonFresh service across the UK.
Not only that, it is at the cutting edge of technology with robots in its warehouses and experiments with drones – its first ever drone delivery trial took place in Cambridge in December.
So what is next for the giant that is setting the pace in retail logistics in the UK? Well I could speculate, but actually I don’t need to.
Vishal Bansal, Amazon’s UK supply chain director, will be offering some insights when he speaks at the Logistics & Supply Chain conference in London next week.
Vishal leads supply chain execution and strategy, ensuring that Amazon exceeds customer expectations on delivery accuracy for millions of units sold by Amazon.
And he knows retail very well. He joined Amazon from Tesco where he led a number of teams over nine years. He was responsible for transforming Tesco’s Store Operations across 3,000 stores in the UK. He then headed up supply chain development worldwide, subsequently taking on various store operations leadership roles while on a senior leadership development programme.
At the conference, he will be focusing on the evolution of the marketplace and the role of new technology. In particular, he will talk about how Amazon is harnessing robotics (and other technologies) to meet changing customer needs.
I’m certainly going to be there – I hope you will be too.
