Discover how smart warehouses, robotics, sustainability efforts, blockchain, and AI-powered inventory management are shaping the landscape.
Introduction
Anar, can you introduce yourself and briefly explain your role as CEO of Senpex Technology and what motivated you to start this company?
My name is Anar Mammadov and I am the CEO of Senpex Technology. My background involves 18 years of experience developing enterprise solutions in the areas of technology and logistics.
I founded Senpex when I realized no one was providing affordable last-mile logistics services. The company was created to fill that gap. Initially, my individual efforts focused on developing the technology that supports our solutions. Now, I am focused on developing the vision for our future growth and managing our teams with a primary focus on our development, operations, and data analytics teams.
Our primary motivation is seeing our B2B customers benefit from our products and services. Seeing our customers happy always makes me happy. Our desire to continue to meet their needs has motivated us to develop the tools we use to optimize the delivery process and it is inspiring us to build a future in which robotics, smart design, and autonomous vehicles will make last-mile logistics more efficient and effective.
Smart warehouses and robotics
How do smart warehouses and robotics improve grocery delivery, and what are the main benefits?
Smart warehouses leverage technology solutions to improve the efficiency of warehouse management. The technology solutions integrate with the business’s enterprise resource planning system to streamline grocery delivery processes, including ordering and organizing inventory and preparing and fulfilling orders. In many cases, smart warehouses automate grocery delivery processes, such as leveraging sensors and scanners to monitor inventory and trigger automated reordering.
Overall, smart warehouses automate processes, drive higher levels of efficiency, improve visibility and transparency, and enhance the customer experience.
Can you share examples of how smart warehouses and robotics have improved grocery delivery efficiency?
We developed a “Click-to-Collect” software solution that illustrates one way in which smart warehousing can improve the grocery delivery process. The software was designed to address problems we were having with orders not being ready when our delivery teams would arrive at grocery warehouses for pickup. The bottleneck was slowing down the entire delivery process and making it very challenging to meet customers’ demands.
The Click-to-Collect solution integrates with warehouse management tools to automate order fulfillment. It designates collectors who gather and sort the order and couriers who deliver the order. It also provides real-time fulfillment tracking for the warehouse, delivery team, and customer, improving delivery transparency.
By integrating with the warehouse management tools, Click-to-Collect also empowers real-time visibility of stock inventory, which prevents businesses from selling out-of-stock items.
In the area of robotics, we have recently begun utilizing wearable suit technologies to improve the safety of our logistics workers. The suits use robot technology to enhance a human’s physical capabilities and work efficiency. It essentially makes them stronger, which allows them to lift heavier objects and do more lifting without risking injuries.
We’ve also seen robots being used to move pallets of groceries within warehouses. Using robots in that way allows for automation which can enhance warehouse management, improve safety, and streamline fulfillment processes.
Sustainability and eco-friendly delivery
How does Senpex Technology promote sustainability in grocery delivery, and how can others follow suit?
One of the primary ways we promote sustainability is with AI-powered route optimization. By ensuring our delivery vehicles are taking the most efficient routes — which often includes scheduling multi-stop routing and batching multiple products — we minimize their fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
Driving greater efficiencies in last-mile logistics also helps to decrease spoilage, which contributes to greater sustainability. Optimizing warehouse management and delivery processes means inventories are optimized and food moves more quickly from suppliers to consumers, which results in less spoilage.
Others can follow suit by integrating optimization tools into their fulfillment systems. Our Senpex API is a fully automated dispatch system that integrates easily with e-commerce platforms and enterprise resource planning systems to drive higher sustainability through route optimization and other efficiency solutions.
Blockchain and food traceability
How is Senpex Technology using blockchain to enhance food traceability, and what benefits does it offer?
The key benefit blockchain brings to food traceability has to do with the potential it offers for decentralization. By doing away with the need for a centralized database for food tracking, blockchain allows for more efficient, transparent, and reliable systems.
Currently, we are building our platforms to facilitate the shift to a decentralized approach that blockchain can empower. As food traceability shifts in that direction, we will have last-mile logistics systems that are ready to support it.
AI-powered inventory management
How does Senpex Technology use AI in inventory management to optimise grocery delivery, and what results have you observed?
One of the top ways AI can be used in inventory management to optimize delivery is by empowering real-time visibility of warehouse stock. By using AI to automate warehouse management systems, businesses can dynamically update inventory lists.
This empowers automated reordering, which ensures grocery businesses have the stock they need when they need it. It also prevents customers from placing orders for things that are not in stock, which creates inefficiency in the delivery process and decreases customer satisfaction.
Overview
Can you summarise the key technological advancements shaping the future of grocery delivery beyond autonomous vehicles and SaaS?
The technology that empowers smart warehouses — including AI-driven automations, robotics, and management systems that provide greater accessibility, efficiency, and transparency — is a key advancement in grocery delivery. As more businesses embrace blockchain solutions, they will reshape the ways in which supply chains are monitored and transparency is established across the delivery spectrum. Robotics is also empowering a more efficient future by enhancing human efforts and allowing for groceries to be physically managed through automated processes.
Personal Advice
As a leader in technology-driven grocery delivery, what advice do you have for businesses in this competitive field?
Last-mile logistics is very pricey. In the grocery industry, many businesses are struggling to overcome the challenges posed by the high price of delivery, especially if they are relying on DoorDash or other on-demand solutions. My suggestion for overcoming that challenge is not overpromising when it comes to delivery times.
Build systems that provide a three-hour or four-hour delivery window and make those work. There is a lot more involved with meeting delivery windows than just last-mile delivery. Systems and teams need to be developed to gather products at the warehouse, sort them, package them, label them, and more.
Once you master those systems, then you can think about promising one-hour delivery windows. But be warned that it is a very pricey service to provide.
Vision
What is your vision for Senpex Technology’s future in grocery delivery, and what impact do you aim to achieve?
One of the innovations we are envisioning now is a system that improves efficiency by optimizing the labeling provided on the boxes our drivers pick up. This would fall under the category of warehouse management and aim to ensure shipments are properly delivered to the right customer at the right location.
Empowering greater use of autonomous vehicles is another initiative we are pursuing. By using our API to connect companies to autonomous vehicle delivery options, we believe we can add significant efficiencies to last-mile logistics, especially in dense urban areas.
Final thoughts
Any advice for our readers interested in the future of grocery delivery and technology’s role in it?
One of the biggest opportunities I see for businesses in grocery delivery is developing solutions for addressing out-of-stock items. Grocery and retail businesses need to develop a strategy for addressing this issue, which introduces challenges to delivery efficiency and detracts from the customer experience.
One solution could be to partner with stores that can supplement their supply. If the grocery warehouse doesn’t have the product in their warehouse but a local third-party vendor has it, they could use that vendor as a source, purchase and pick up the product, and still be able to provide the needed product to their customer. That type of system could be driven by integrating the third-party vendor’s online marketplace with the business’s fulfillment system, essentially expanding their inventory.
I believe grocery suppliers who do not find a way to address this are going to have more and more customers seeking alternative stores that can supply their needs.
Anar Mammadov
owner and CEO of Senpex Technology
Anar Mammadov is the CEO of Senpex Technology. He is a software development professional with more than 18 years of experience in enterprise solutions and mobile app development. He has applied his practical and results-oriented approach to business to create Senpex Technology, a personalized logistics and delivery service that utilizes groundbreaking artificial intelligence to optimize routes and to provide the fastest, most efficient, last-mile delivery resource for businesses. Senpex can be utilized 24/7, with no interruptions to your delivery needs.
