A few of us from CruiseTech has visited the Fulfilment Centre (FC) in Rugeley (BHX1). This site mainly stores the smaller & lighter items, from the 3rd party sellers.
It was interesting to learn that each FC has their specific role, for instance, the Manchester facility has more tech/automation focus & that the Dunfermline facility centres around handling the returns.
Moreover:
The "Customer Obsession" aspect of the Amazon Leadership Principles is something which we think any sensible growth-focused brands should consider sharing.
As a small online brand, seeing the sheer size & scale that they're working on, is very humbling.
After the tour, you do perhaps get a sense, that on the one hand, they very much are competing in the here and now, whilst also deeply focused on defining the future of retail (e.g. think delivery drone, etc), stuff we won't see for years.
A useful visit overall. The tour was free to book online.
*notes: photos are from the selfie area where photos were permitted to be taken.
