Ocado Group and AEON have opened their first Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Japan.
The CFC, which is said to be the first of its kind in Asia, was unveiled by AEON and Ocado executives at a ceremony in Chiba-city this week. It will be aiming to deal with increased local local demand for products as the Japanese grocery e-commerce market continues to develop. In April, AEON NEXT revealed its online grocery delivery brand, Green Beans. The service will offer a 50,000 SKU product range at scale as well as Smart Cart function and one-hour delivery slots to customers.
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group, said: “Today marks the launch of something totally new in the Japanese grocery market, bringing a world-leading quality of service online to AEON NEXT customers in Tokyo for the first time. We’re proud to bring the benefits of Ocado’s technology to Japan, and to celebrate the first ‘go-live’ of an Ocado CFC in Asia.
‘Grocery spend in Asia is set to outstrip every other region of the globe over the next decade, and online remains the fastest growing channel in grocery across APAC. As the market develops, the ecommerce networks Ocado is building with partners in Asia will generate a step-change in the quality of service that customers can expect online.”
The new facility has already started taking orders from customers across the Kanto region. AEON NEXT’s second CFC will be based in Hachioji in Tokyo with further CFCs expected to follow, the firms said. The capacity will be served using a configuration of different sized facilities from the Ocado ecosystem.
Akio Yoshida, President of AEON, added: “We are excited to be the first in Asia to deploy the innovative Ocado platform under the “Green Beans by AEON” brand to service customers in the Tokyo Metropolitan area from today. We aim to marry the technology platform together with AEON’s knowledge of customers and products to help transform the way consumers shop and change their daily living by providing a service that offers ease, reliability and a wide choice of products and solutions.
Image from Ocado Retail
