eMAG.ro, the largest online retailer in Romania, recently opened a new, fully automated distribution warehouse in Bucharest. With eMAG in Romania and other customers such as MALL.CZ, HP Tronic and Alza.cz in the Czech Republic, Knapp has positioned itself strongly as a technology partner for e-commerce logistics in the Central and South Eastern European region.

The success story began back in 2015 when talks with the Czech online pioneer MALL.CZ took place at CeMAT in Hanover. Within six months, the Knapp team developed a solution that impressed MALL.CZ with its high level of flexibility and scalability. The solution was designed in such a way that it could grow with increasing performance requirements over the years. Good foresight, as the MALL Group currently supplies 18 Eastern European countries with a total of 130 million people and is planning further growth.

E-commerce challenge dog food & electronics items

"In order to process the wide range of goods efficiently, we had to ensure that heavy items such as large bags of dog food could be transported and sorted just as automatically as small electronic items," says Lenka Neuhold, Director Mobile Subsidiary at Knapp, explaining the challenges. It was important to her to achieve maximum cost efficiency with maximum flexibility and performance for MALL.CZ and also to solve the bottleneck in consolidation and packaging. "Knapp recognized that there are strong peaks in the e-commerce business where high performance is required - and the solution reflects this. Other providers have offered us solutions with linear throughput, but this does not correspond to reality. This showed us that Knapp understands our business and our requirements - the ROI and cost savings were also better than with other solutions," says Oldřich Petránek, inLogistics, Consultant, about the collaboration. Only 10 months after signing the contract, the first expansion stage went live near Prague. The solution consisting of the OSR shuttle system and bag sorter technology proved to be an outstanding success, as it was the first use of the EcoPocket bag sorter outside of fashion logistics. The warehouse was continuously expanded over the following years: In the fall of 2018, the final expansion stage went into operation with a delivery capacity of 150,000 items per day.

eMAG.ro opens fully automated e-commerce warehouse in Bucharest

Knapp has also established itself as a technology partner in Romania. A logical development, because according to the European E-Commerce Report 2017, Romania has one of the largest e-commerce sectors in south-eastern Europe. The flagship is the online retailer eMAG.ro. The company officially opened its new, fully automated distribution center in Bucharest at the beginning of November 2022. Technology partner Knapp supplied 18 OSR Shuttle Evo aisles, which supply 29 Pick-it-Easy stations and the Pick-it-Easy Robot picking robot with goods. A high-performance sorter is used to sort the shipping cartons. This ensures that 15,000 cartons can be delivered per hour. To ensure that warehouse operations always run smoothly, a team of Knapp service technicians is deployed directly on site. These resident engineers also ensure that the system is continuously optimized. eMAG also already has expansion plans and space for a further 18 shuttle aisles.

From the initial concept to long-term collaboration

Technology partnerships for e-commerce and retail logistics have existed in south-eastern Europe for many years. Knapp supplied a conveyor technology solution for a central warehouse in Prague for Alza.cz. Knapp has been working with electronics retailer HP Tronic since 2016. A classic omnichannel solution with OSR Shuttle and goods-to-person workstations is in use here. Deliveries are made both to the company's own stores and directly to online customers.

Automation for e-commerce doesn't have to be complex

The timing and entry into the automation of e-commerce logistics should be planned with foresight and step-by-step and are dependent on individual turnover figures and growth forecasts. Lenka Neuhold, Director Mobile Subsidiary, Knapp AG, has been supporting companies with the introduction and further development of their e-commerce logistics for years: "We work out scenarios and expansion steps with our customers. The solution must be as cost-effective as possible at all times. Frequent criteria for automation are growing order volumes and the number of items, but also quality and delivery speed. Orders have to be put together faster and faster and in very good quality, because no online customer should be disappointed by an error or a long wait," she explains. Next-day delivery is a service that many e-commerce customers offer or strive for. Knapp technologies help to achieve this goal. "For example, our OSR Shuttle Evo storage system, from which all goods can be retrieved at any time, one-touch picking or the pre-sorting of shipping tours, for example with the pocket sorter. A key component here is also a comprehensive, intelligent software solution, such as the one we offer with our KiSoft software," concludes Lenka Neuhold.