DELIVER Asia 2026 Conference Recordings

As eCommerce businesses grow, fulfilment operations often become more complex long before revenue growth slows down.

At DELIVER Asia 2026 in Singapore, Sierra Wong, Sales Manager APAC at Kardex, explored how warehouse automation can help brands scale more efficiently by turning fulfilment into a source of operational advantage rather than a growing constraint.

The core challenge, she explained, is that online growth brings more SKUs, more order complexity, higher service expectations, and greater pressure on labour and warehouse space.

Without better control, growth can quickly create operational chaos.

Kardex partners with AutoStore to deliver compact, modular storage automation systems designed to maximise warehouse space and improve picking performance.

The AutoStore model uses robots that move across a grid to retrieve storage bins and bring them directly to operators at workstation ports.

This goods-to-person approach helps businesses increase storage density while reducing walking time, manual handling, and picking errors.

According to Wong, the system is designed around five core components: tracks, robots, bins, ports, and a service mezzanine.

The result is a high-density storage solution that supports more accurate and efficient fulfilment operations.

Wong framed the discussion around a familiar eCommerce problem.

Many warehouse operations begin in a manageable state, but as online sales accelerate, especially during major promotional events, the pressure on storage, labour, and service levels intensifies rapidly.

Returns add further complexity through reverse logistics, while growing SKU counts create new operational friction.

For many businesses, the question is no longer whether they need automation, but how to scale without losing control over cost and service.

That is why, Wong argued, the conversation should not start with automation alone. It should start with total cost of ownership.

To illustrate the point, Wong shared a case study of a strong consumer brand with growing online sales across both brick-and-mortar and digital channels.

The customer needed a way to grow without acquiring a new warehouse, while maintaining control over labour, storage, and fulfilment costs.

Kardex implemented an AutoStore system that delivered several key benefits:

• At least four times more storage density within the same footprint

• Higher pick accuracy

• Improved throughput

• Scalability to support future growth

The original system launched with fewer than 7,000 bins, four ports, and 13 robots. Later, the customer expanded the installation significantly to over 31,000 bins, increasing throughput and preparing for future peak periods.

This expansion allowed the business to support major seasonal campaigns more effectively while maintaining service performance.

A key theme of Wong’s presentation was that automation should be evaluated not only by upfront cost, but by the wider economics of running a growing fulfilment operation.

In a manual model, the total cost of ownership includes:

• Labour cost

• Warehouse rental cost

• Electricity

• Picking errors

• Additional space requirements

• The risk of missing service level agreements

As complexity increases, these costs often rise sharply.

By contrast, automation can stabilise many of these variables. Labour becomes more predictable, warehouse space is used more efficiently, and the system is designed around future order volumes and growth scenarios.

This helps reduce the cost per order over time, particularly as order volume increases.

Wong also addressed a common misconception about automation: that it always leads to reduced headcount.

In the case she presented, the customer retained the same number of operators after implementing AutoStore.

The difference was that staff no longer needed to spend time walking through the warehouse. Instead, the goods were brought directly to them.

This allowed operators to work more productively, particularly during high-volume periods when speed and consistency are critical.

Rather than replacing people, the system enabled them to work more effectively within a faster, better-designed process.

For fast-growing eCommerce businesses, the real value of warehouse automation lies in enabling profitable scale.

AutoStore gives operators the ability to increase storage, improve accuracy, and raise throughput without proportional increases in floor space or labour complexity.

As Wong concluded, fulfilment should not be viewed purely as an operational necessity.

When designed well, it becomes a strategic lever for growth — one that allows businesses to expand revenue while keeping cost and risk under control.