The Pio P100 is intended to bring affordable cube storage to smaller e-commerce businesses. Source: AutoStore
AutoStore Holdings Ltd. today said that Pio, which stands for “Products In/Out,” is now available to small and midsize e-commerce businesses in the U.S. Pio is a “plug-and-play” automated warehouse system using AutoStore’s cube storage technology.
“SMB e-commerce brands face two major challenges in the U.S. — high labor costs and extremely high customer expectations regarding order fulfillment and delivery,” stated Magne Hatteland, vice president and head of the Pio unit at AutoStore. “Overcoming these two challenges isn’t possible without automation.”
“With Pio, any brand, no matter its size, has access to the same best-in-class warehouse automation system as big-box retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods or Best Buy, enabling them to compete at the same level or even outperform,” he added. “As Shopify streamlines online store operations with digital features to help manage inventory and shipping, Pio’s cube storage technology and robots automate the next step in your logistics by eliminating any backlog and authorizing same-day order processing.”
“This means your team can stop digging through and sorting boxes, and instead, spend their time growing the business to new heights,” Hatteland said.
Pio uses ASRS technology. Source: AutoStore
Pio offers to ‘level the playing field’ for SMBs
AutoStore claimed that the Pio or P100 enables same-day order processing and eliminating backlog. This can help independent brands get items out the door faster and more cost-effectively, leading to a better customer experience, it said.
“Pio enables up to 10x more effective space utilization and up to 5x faster picking and packing operations,” said AutoStore. “This empowers businesses to spend less time managing inventory and more time focusing on ensuring continued success.”
Pio provides a way for small and midsize businesses to benefit from automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) with a relatively low investment, the company said. As a result, SMBs can keep their operations in-house instead of requiring a third-party logistics provider (3PL) or significant real estate and labor investments to scale up.
In addition, Pio said its pay-per-pick model reduces initial capital expense, so SMBs can adopt automation earlier in their life cycle.
Starting at $85,999 plus a monthly subscription, Pio can pick and pack up to 360 orders per hour, said the company. This can reduce labor costs by up to 80% and save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for small e-commerce businesses, it asserted. To date, Pio customers have reported a full return-on-investment (ROI) in less than a year.
“The compact storage holds all of our inventory, the robots work day and night preparing orders for same-day delivery, and the app syncs with our e-commerce platform so that we can easily manage inventory in real-time,” said Greg Taube, co-founder and CEO of Famme. “Today, Pio is saving us nearly $400,000 in unnecessary costs, and our customers are getting their orders faster than Amazon.”
The P100 is intended to enable SMBs to spend less time managing inventory. Source: AutoStore
AutoStore celebrates P100 U.S. availability
To celebrate its expansion into the U.S., Pio is raffling off a free P100 to a U.S. SMB. This offering is worth up to $121,999 plus one free month’s subscription to Pio’s robots as a service (RaaS).
In addition, Pio will be in Los Angeles today to celebrate the first system installation at Sunday Swagger. E-commerce businesses interested in a demonstration of the P100 can contact the company.
Pio is a wholly owned subsidiary of AutoStore. Founded in 1996, AutoStore said it has more 1,500 installations worldwide for enterprises such as Macy’s, Ikea, and Puma. The Nedre Vats, Norway-based company said its proprietary technology offers the densest product and inventory storage solution on the market.
AutoStore created Pio as part of its mission to make automated cube storage more accessible. Now, Pio’s P100 automated warehouse system has launched in the U.S., with five new customers including Privada Cigar Club, Sunday Swagger, Souko, Barnes 4WD, and AI Stone.
AutoStore’s sales are designed, installed, and serviced by a network of qualified systems integrators. It has offices in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore.