McD Drive-Through Efficiency with Voice Recognition

Have been following the use of drive-through and related efficient consumer interactions in the Pandemic.

IBM, McDonald's to serve up automated drive-thru lanes with strategic partnership

Under the agreement, IBM will acquire McD Tech Labs, which has been working to develop, test and deploy an automated ordering system using artificial intelligence-enabled voice recognition .... in Fox Business  .. '

Amazon is Convenience

Convenience and consistency of results.  And over a relatively short period of time, re-setting expectations of delivery and immediate gratification.

How Amazon Delivers on Its Core Product: Convenience
Wharton's Katja Seim discusses her research on Amazon's fulfillment center network.

Podcast

Amazon sells more goods than any one person could count – but the e-commerce giant’s true “core product” is convenience, and how quickly it can get an order from customers’ virtual shopping carts to their real-life doorsteps.

Part of what makes it so easy for Amazon to offer two-day or even same-day shipping to customers is its vast network of distribution centers, which are located across the U.S. and store and ship products to their final destinations. New research from Wharton business economics and public policy professor Katja Seim takes a closer look at how significantly expanding that distribution center network over the past decade has been key to Amazon’s growth strategy.

Seim recently spoke to Knowledge@Wharton about her paper, “Economies of Density in E-Commerce: A Study of Amazon’s Fulfillment Center Network,” which was co-authored with Cornell’s Jean-Francois Houde and Penn State’s Peter Newberry. .... "

Wal-Mart Adding Pickup Towers

Makes sense,  See also comments in Retailwire.   The in-store location of the towers are criticized.

Walmart Is Adding Hundreds More Pickup Towers to Its Stores   By  Jonathan Vanian in Fortune.

Walmart is adding hundreds of more of its Pickup Towers at more of its brick-and-mortar stores all over the U.S.

After the retail giant sets up 500 more Pickup Towers at its U.S. stores, it will have a total of 700 of its over-sized delivery kiosks ready for use by the end of the year.

Walmart (WMT, +0.61%) first debuted the Pickup Towers last fall and pitched the 16-foot tall orange receptacles as an easier way for people to order toothpaste and other goods online, and then retrieve them from the self-serve machines.

The company said that since its debut, Walmart customers have placed over 500,000 orders. The kiosks large size makes them able to hold items as big as televisions, Walmart said.  .... "