Universal Robots Maintains Top Spot in ABI Research’s Ranking of Cobot Companies in Industrial Applications; Doosan, Techman Robot and Precise Automation Are Closing In

There are well over 50 manufacturers of collaborative robots (cobots) worldwide, but only a handful of these companies have so far deployed cobots on any meaningful level of scale. Tens of thousands of cobots have been sold as of 2019 and earned US$500 million in annual revenue for world markets. In its new Industrial Collaborative Robots Competitive Assessment, global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research finds Universal Robots (UR) to be the clear forerunner, particularly in implementation.

The Industrial Collaborative Robots Competitive Assessment analyzed and ranked 12 collaborative robot vendors in the industry — ABB, Aubo Robotics, Automata, Doosan Robotics, FANUC, Franka Emika, Kuka AG, Precise Automation, Productive Robotics, Techman Robot, Universal Robots, and Yaskawa Motoman — using ABI Research’s proven, unbiased innovation/implementation criteria framework. For this competitive assessment, innovation criteria included payload, software, Ergonomics and human-machine interaction, experimentation and safety; implementation criteria focused on units and revenue, cost and ROI, partnerships, value-added services, and the number of employees.

“Market leaders in cobots generally have well-developed cobot rosters, in many cases backed up by an ecosystem platform that integrates applications, accessories, and end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT) solutions in with the base hardware,” said Rian Whitton, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. With 37,000 cobots sold so far, UR leads, followed by Taiwanese provider Techman with 10,000, and Korea-based Doosan with over 2,000. Precise Automation, which uses an advanced direct drive solution to develop faster collaborative robots, was cited as the most innovative of the 12 providers, just edging out Universal Robots, who claimed the overall top spot due to their significant lead in implementation.

There are several companies that are too young to be challenging the dominant parties in the cobot market but are developing new and disruptive technologies that will allow them rise to prominence in the years to come. Productive Robotics is a case-in-point. The California-based developer has an arm with inbuilt vision, 7 axes for superior flexibility, long reach, and a very affordable price point, but has yet to deploy at scale. Automata, a British company that develops a ‘desk-top’ cobot costing less than US$7,000, is significantly lowering the barriers to entry for smaller actors and is championing the use of open-source middleware like ROS to program cobots for industrial use-cases. Germany-based Franka Emika and Chinese-American provider Aubo Robotics also represent relatively new entrants to the market who are building on the success of Universal Robots and are beginning to compete with them.

Perhaps surprisingly, while the major industrial robotics providers have developed cobot lines, they have generally been less successful in marketing them or gaining market traction relative to the pure-cobot developers. In part, this is down to focus. While collaborative robots are valuable, they generally suit deployments and use-cases with smaller shipments and a wider variety of small and large end-users. For industrial players like ABB, FANUC, KUKA AG and Yaskawa Motoman, their client-base tends to be large industrial players who buy fixed automation solution through bulk orders. Aside from this, all four of these companies are competing extensively for greater shipment figures in China, where the cobot oppurtunity relative to the market for traditional industrial systems is much less apparent than in Europe or North America. “Though many of the cobots deployed by these companies are impressive, and they have a lot of software services, the high-cost and lack of easy use among their systems largely defeat the current value proposition of cobots, making them the laggards in this competitive assessment.” says Whitton.

Looking forward, the larger industrial players are likely to improve their relative position, as future growth in cobots rests on scaling up and large deployments. “Universal Robots, though likely to remain the market leader for the foreseeable future, will be increasingly competing on an even footing with near-peer cobot developers, who are already developing second-generation cobots with significant hardware improvements. Meanwhile, some more innovative companies will be able to accelerate adoption through price decreases, improved flexibility, and common platforms to retrofit collaborative capability on industrial robots,” Whitton concluded.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Industrial Collaborative Robots Competitive Assessment report. This report is part of the company’s Industrial Solution, which includes research, data, and analyst insights. Competitive Assessment reports offer comprehensive analysis of implementation strategies and innovation, coupled with market share analysis, to offer unparalleled insight into a company’s performance and standing in comparison to its competitors.

About ABI Research | ABI Research provides strategic guidance to visionaries, delivering actionable intelligence on the transformative technologies that are dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces across the world. ABI Research’s global team of analysts publish groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms, empowering our clients to stay ahead of their markets and their competitors. For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.

New GS1 US Barcode Assessment Study Shows 74% of Scanned Barcodes Meet Requirements, Up 54% From 2018

A new Barcode Assessment study conducted by AmerisourceBergen Corporation, McKesson Pharmaceutical and Cardinal Health, in collaboration with GS1 US®, revealed that 74.3% of pharmaceutical barcodes scanned in the wholesalers’ facilities meet the 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) serialization requirements—a 54% year-over-year improvement when compared to the same study conducted in 2018. Details of the Barcode Assessment study are published in a new GS1 US report, “2019 Update: Barcode Readability for DSCSA 2023 Interoperability.”

During summer 2019, nearly 18,000 barcodes produced by 747 manufacturers were scanned at AmerisourceBergen and McKesson distribution facilities for this assessment. Additionally, another 19,000 linear and 2D barcodes applied to approximately 8,000 cases from 177 manufacturers were scanned at Cardinal Health facilities. These barcodes and the data they carry were evaluated to determine if they contained the four data elements required by the DSCSA to support an interoperable, electronic system to identify and trace pharmaceutical products. The four essential data points required by DSCSA include a National Drug Code (represented by a Global Trade Item Number®, GTIN®), serial number, lot number and expiration date. The DSCSA also specifies that packages (“lowest saleable units”) must be marked with a two-dimensional (2D) barcode (e.g., GS1 DataMatrix barcode), and that homogeneous cases must include a 2D barcode or linear barcode (e.g., GS1-128 barcode).

Specifically, the results showed:

• Of the specialty products at AmerisourceBergen, 71.9% of all packages had a readable 2D GS1 DataMatrix barcode with all four DSCSA-required data elements (compared to 20.4 percent in 2018).
• 71% of prescription products at McKesson’s facility met the same requirements (compared to 20.8% in 2018).
• At Cardinal Health, 78.7% of homogeneous cases with 2D (GS1 DataMatrix) barcodes and 73.3% with linear barcodes had all four data elements (compared to 15.1% in 2018).

Angela Fernandez, vice president, community engagement, GS1 US, noted, “The tremendous progress made in the past year underscores how pharmaceutical companies are prioritizing serialization to benefit the entire healthcare system and prepare for DSCSA electronic data exchange requirements by November 27, 2023. The industry has come a long way since 2017, when only 7% of packages carried all the necessary data elements. The number of serialized products found in this year’s assessment is particularly significant considering the supply chain still contains some products that were ‘grandfathered’ and placed into inventory before November 27, 2018.”

A grandfathering allowance from the U.S. FDA ensured supply chains remained stocked with inventory, and patients could obtain proper medications when needed. As the grandfathered inventory continues to be consumed, serialization percentages are expected to rise even higher. The average expiration date of products found in 2019 inventory was 1.6 years, compared to 2.3 years in 2018.

For more information about serializing pharmaceutical products, download the GS1 US Implementation Guideline: Applying GS1 Standards for DSCSA and Traceability. To access the 2019 GS1 US Barcode Assessment report, please visit www.gs1us.org/barcode-readability.

For more information about GS1 US, visit www.gs1us.org.

About GS1 Healthcare US | GS1 Healthcare US® is an industry group that focuses on driving the adoption and implementation of GS1 Standards in the healthcare industry in the United States to improve patient safety and supply chain efficiency. GS1 Healthcare US brings together members from all segments of the healthcare industry to address the supply chain issues that most impact healthcare in the United States. Facilitated by GS1 US®, GS1 Healthcare US is one of more than 30 local GS1 Healthcare user groups around the world that support the adoption and implementation of global standards developed by GS1^®. For more information, visit www.gs1us.org/healthcare.

About GS1 US | GS1 US^®, a member of GS1 global, is a not-for-profit information standards organization that facilitates industry collaboration to help improve supply chain visibility and efficiency through the use of GS1 Standards, the most widely-used supply chain standards system in the world. Nearly 300,000 businesses in 25 industries rely on GS1 US for trading partner collaboration that optimizes their supply chains, drives cost performance and revenue growth while also enabling regulatory compliance. They achieve these benefits through solutions based on GS1 global unique numbering and identification systems, barcodes, Electronic Product Code (EPC®)-based RFID, data synchronization, and electronic information exchange. GS1 US also manages the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code^® (UNSPSC^®). www.gs1us.org.

Robotic Industries Association (RIA) stats show more than 7% increase in units ordered compared with the first two quarters of 2018

In the first half of 2019, the North American robotics market is up 7.2%. From January to June, North American companies ordered 16,488 robots, valued at $869 million. These numbers were reported today by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), part of the Association for Advancing Automation.

The largest driver of the year-to-date growth was an 83% increase in units ordered by automotive OEMs. Other industries that saw increases include semiconductor and electronics (12%), life sciences (8%), and food and consumer goods (3%).

In the second quarter alone, North American companies ordered 8,572 robots, valued at $446 million. This represents a growth of 19.2% in number of robots ordered, and a 0.6% boost in dollars compared to the same time period in 2018.

“Robot use continues to grow, which is helping make U.S. companies more competitive and leading to new job growth,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation. “We are currently experiencing the greatest period of robot expansion in history—over 180,000 robots have been shipped to American companies since 2010, and more than 1.2 million new manufacturing jobs have been created during this time.”

About Association for Advancing Automation (A3) | The Association for Advancing Automation is the global advocate for the benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas that transform the way business is done. A3 is the umbrella group for Robotic Industries Association (RIA), AIA – Advancing Vision + Imaging, Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA) and A3 Mexico. RIA, AIA, MCMA and A3 Mexico combined represent over 1,200 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, research groups and consulting firms from throughout the world that drive automation forward. For more information, visit www.a3automate.org.

UC Berkeley researchers, Beth Gutelius and Nik Theodore, recently published “The Future of Warehouse Work: Technological Change in the U. S. Logistics Industry.” The report examines whether technology and its effects on warehouse work will lead to unemployment and displacement in the foreseeable future, given the intense popular focus on robots and automation.

But instead of causing large-scale job loss, the authors found that over the next decade, new technology will likely have transformative and potentially negative effects on the nature and quality of warehouse work, including the following:

• Work intensification due to “increase in the workload and pace of work, with new methods of monitoring workers,” such as Amazon’s MissionRacer video game, which pits workers against each other to assemble customer orders the fastest.
• The potential introduction of “new health and safety hazards, as well as increased employee turnover due to overwork and burnout.” Little is known about the physical and psychological effects of new technologies, but increases in productivity may test the limits of workers’ bodies, who may opt to leave a job to avoid health issues.
• De-skilling jobs, where traditional roles are broken down into subtasks and technologies are applied, which removes the skills previously required of workers and can lead to lower wages and more job insecurity.

• Increased surveillance at work as a result of new technologies for worker oversight, like algorithmic management, wearable devices, and autonomous mobile robots that “allow close tracking of workers’ movements, including walk speed, routes, bottlenecks, and break time” and allow regulation of worker time that’s “granular, scalable, and relentless.”

Since young, male, and Latinx/Black workers are over-represented in warehouse work— workers of color constitute 66% of front-line workers in the warehousing industry but just 37% of the American labor force — the effects of technological change will  be borne disproportionately by people of color.

Technology adoption in the warehousing industry is driven by the rise of e-commerce, which has raised consumer expectations for delivery speed, thereby pushing warehouses to experiment with new technologies and work processes in ways that could “de-skill or potentially displace workers, such as automated picking processes, as well as technologies that speed up, control, or streamline human labor, such as electronic productivity monitoring.”

The researchers also found that because so much of the industry is competing on cost, it’s harder to adopt new technologies, and market pressures from Amazon are forcing others to make choices between risky technology investments and workforce experimentation.

The report was commissioned by the UC Berkeley Labor Center and Working Partnerships USA, and is part of a larger multi-industry project supported by the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations.

Click here to read the full report.

About the UC Berkeley Labor Center | The Center for Labor Research and Education (Labor Center) is a public service and outreach program of the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Founded in 1964, the Labor Center conducts research and education on issues related to labor and employment. The Labor Center’s curricula and leadership trainings serve to educate a diverse new generation of labor leaders. The Labor Center carries out research on topics such as job quality and workforce development issues, and we work with unions, government, and employers to develop innovative policy perspectives and programs. We also provide an important source of research and information on unions and the changing workforce for students, scholars, policymakers and the public.

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been touted as a powerful technology that will revolutionize the industrial manufacturing space. The sentiment has its validity, but the reality is extremely complex. AI in industrial manufacturing is a collection of various use cases at different phases of manufacturing, such as generative design in product development, production forecasting in inventory management, and machine vision, defect inspection, production optimization, and predictive maintenance in the production phase. ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm, forecasts that the total installed base of AI-enabled devices in industrial manufacturing will reach 15.4 million in 2024, with a CAGR of 64.8% from 2019 to 2024.

“AI in industrial manufacturing is a story of edge implementation,” says Lian Jye Su, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “Since manufacturers are not comfortable having their data transferred to a public cloud, nearly all industrial AI training and inference workloads happen at the edge, namely on device, gateways and on-premise servers.” To facilitate this, AI chipset manufacturers and server vendors have designed AI-enabled servers specifically for industrial manufacturing. More and more industrial infrastructure is equipped with AI software or dedicated AI chipsets to perform AI inference.

Despite these solutions and the wealth of data in the manufacturing environment, the implementation of AI in industrial manufacturing has not been as seamless as was expected by the industry. Among all the use cases, predictive maintenance and equipment monitoring are the most commercially implemented so far, due to the maturity of associated AI models. The total installed base for these two use cases alone is expected to reach 9.8 million and 6.7 million, respectively, by 2024. It is important to note that many of these AI-enabled industrial devices support multiple use cases on the same device due to advancements in AI chipsets. Key startups such as Uptake, SparkCognition, FogHorn and Falkonry are introducing cloud- and edge-based solutions that monitor the overall performance of industrial manufacturing assets and process flows.

Another commercial use case currently gaining momentum is defect inspection. The total installed base for this use case is expected to grow from 300,000 in 2019 to over 3.7 million by 2024. This is a use case that is extremely popular in electronic and semiconductor manufacturing, where major manufacturers, such as Samsung, LG and Foxconn, have been partnering with AI chipset vendors and software providers, such as CEVA, Gyrfalcon Technology, Lattice Semiconductor, Instrumental, Landing AI, and Neurala, to develop AI-based machine vision to perform surface, leak and component-level defect detection, microparticle detection, geometric measurement, and classification. Conventional machine vision technology remains popular in the manufacturing factory, due to its proven repeatability, reliability, and stability. However, the emergence of deep learning technologies opens the possibility of expanded capabilities and flexibility. These algorithms can pick up unexpected product abnormalities or defects, go beyond existing issues and uncover valuable new insights for manufacturers.

At the moment, manufacturers are facing enormous competition in building and training in-house data science teams for AI implementation. Most AI talents prefer to work with webscale giants or AI startups, making talent acquisition a challenging task for industrial manufacturers. “As such, they are left with one viable option, which consists of partnering with other players in the AI ecosystem, including cloud service providers, pure-play AI startups, system integrators, chipset and industrial server manufacturers, and connectivity service providers. The diversity in AI use cases necessitates the creation of partnerships,” Su concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Industrial AI Market Tracker market data report. This report is part of the company’s Industrial & Manufacturing research service, which includes research, data, and analyst insights. Market Data spreadsheets are composed of deep data, market share analysis, and highly segmented, service-specific forecasts to provide detailed insight where opportunities lie.

About ABI Research | ABI Research provides strategic guidance to visionaries, delivering actionable intelligence on the transformative technologies that are dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces across the world. ABI Research’s global team of analysts publish groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms, empowering our clients to stay ahead of their markets and their competitors. For more information about ABI Research visit www.abiresearch.com.

International Data Corporation (IDC) has unveiled a new report, IDC TechScape: Worldwide Digital Twins, 2019, which focuses on the transformational, incremental, and opportunistic technologies necessary for successful digital twin implementation and operation. While there are multiple existing enterprise technologies available within organizations today that are necessary to support digital twins, this study focuses on the new, digital technologies and platforms that make digital twins essential entities for enterprisewide processes, including design, development, supply chain, manufacturing, service, and customer experience.

According to IDC’s 2018 IDC PlanScape: Digital Twins for Products, Assets, and Ecosystems, digital twins are the extended application of simulation and visualization throughout a digitally transformed organization for better communication and collaboration. The starting points and use cases for digital twins of product and assets will differ by company size, industry, and need, but the value derived by all manufacturers will be similar — clarity of communication; rapid collaboration; holistic visibility; accurate, efficient response to demand; monetization of IoT data; predictive, proactive service; and closer collaboration with customers. Digital twins can be applied throughout the modern, digitally transformed business, within R&D and engineering workgroups, extended to business and technical domains from business line management to product management, sales and marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, and service.

“The value of digital twins lies in flexible data visualization. That is, the complex data model that is a digital twin should be synchronous and secure, enabling different domains across the organization to view the level of information and knowledge they want to see, whether that is a lightweight model or a detailed, complex view. Digital twins have been in use within manufacturing engineering and R&D workgroups for years — the difference today is, due to 3rd Platform technology, these flexible models can be deployed across the value chain of the digitally transformed organization as a decision support enabler,” said Jeff Hojlo, program director, Product Innovation Strategies.

There is a set of fundamental 2nd Platform technologies (enterprise applications) that provide foundational data and business process support to digital twins, which are already in place in most organizations today. As companies digitally transform and deploy 3rd Platform technologies, digital twins can be deployed throughout the organization, inside and outside, as an accelerator of planning, design, development, collaboration, communication, and operation. This new IDC TechScape defines the technology that manufactures can use to build digital twins of varying complexity, including product, asset, supply chain process, and production process twins, and outlines three technology adoption curves: transformational, incremental, and opportunistic, which shows rate and time to adoption of each digital twin technology.

The IDC TechScape is an evaluation model based on a comprehensive framework and a set of parameters that assess a technology’s adoption progress relative to one another and to those factors expected to be most conducive to success in a given market over both the short term and long term. In breaking technologies into three major adoption categories — transformational, incremental, and opportunistic — the IDC TechScape aspires to provide IT buyers with an industry snapshot as to where specific technologies lie today relative to current industry best practices. In addition, the IDC TechScape identifies technologies likely to become best practices in the future and their current state of adoption maturity relative to each other. Within the discussion of individual technologies, IDC also identifies an analysts’ best opinions regarding key momentum factors — highlighted as IDC TechScape Markers of Momentum, where technologies are rated based on adoption speed, risk, and market interest.

About IDC TechScapes | IDC TechScapes mitigate technology risk by helping organizations align their tolerance for risk with the anticipated maturation of a technology.

About IDC Manufacturing Insights | IDC Manufacturing Insights assists manufacturing businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing asset intensive, brand oriented, technology oriented, and engineering oriented manufacturing industries. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market.

Eighty-seven percent of businesses plan to expand warehouse footprint over next five years

Zebra Technologies Corporation has announced the results of its 2024 Warehousing Vision Study, analyzing IT and operations decision makers’ current and planned strategies for modernizing their warehouses, distribution centers and fulfillment centers.

The study reports on the forward-thinking fulfillment strategies companies are focusing on to keep up with the growth of the on-demand economy. Both automation and worker augmentation solutions will be a key focus for decision makers’ plans during the next five years. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents agree that augmenting workers with technology is the best way to introduce automation in the warehouse, but only 35 percent have a clear understanding of where to start automating. Eighty-seven percent of decision makers are currently in the process of or planning to expand the size of their warehouses by 2024, with 82 percent anticipating an increase in the number of warehouses during this timeframe.

KEY SURVEY FINDINGS

By 2024, automation will enhance worker performance rather than replace workers.

• Sixty-one percent of decision makers plan to enable partial automation or labor augmentation with technology in the warehouse.
• Three-quarters of respondents believe human interaction is part of their optimal operational balance, with 39 percent citing partial automation (some human involvement) and 34 percent citing augmentation (equipping workers with devices) as their preference.
• Decision makers anticipate using robotics/bots for inbound inventory management (24 percent), outbound packing (22 percent) and goods in/receiving (20 percent) by 2024.

Rethinking fulfillment strategies and operations to meet emerging challenges across the warehouse remains a top priority.

• Fifty-nine percent of respondents cited capacity utilization as a significant expected challenge and plan to address it by expanding the size of their warehouses.
• Sixty percent of organizations cited labor recruitment and/or labor efficiency and productivity among their top challenges, with 63 percent of respondents noting an immediate focus on individual or team productivity outcomes.
• IT/technology utilization was identified both as the most anticipated operational challenge (61 percent) of the next five years and a desired long-term outcome for increased asset visibility, real-time guidance and data-driven performance.
• As warehouses expand, so will the volume of stock keeping units (SKUs) and the speed items need to be shipped. Decision makers will seek increased visibility and productivity by implementing more robust returns management operations (81 percent), task interleaving (80 percent), value-added services (80 percent) and third-party logistics (83 percent).

 The investment and implementation of new technologies is critical for remaining competitive in the on-demand economy.

• Almost half (46 percent) of surveyed respondents cited faster delivery to end-customers as the primary factor driving their warehouse growth plans.
• More than three-quarters (77 percent) of decision makers agree that they need to modernize operations across the warehouse to remain competitive in the on-demand economy but are slow to implement new mobile devices and technology.
• Seventy-three percent of companies are currently modernizing their warehouses by implementing or refreshing mobile computers, tablets and barcode scanners.
  • By 2024, modernization will be driven by Android-based mobile computing solutions (83 percent), real-time location systems (RTLS) (55 percent) and full-featured warehouse management systems (WMS) (54 percent).
• Sixty percent of respondents cited mobile barcode label or thermal printers as a key area of investment as part of their plans to add, expand or upgrade devices in the next three years.

KEY REGIONAL SURVEY FINDINGS

Asia-Pacific

• By 2024, 87 percent of respondents plan to implement a mobile execution system to better manage workers on the warehouse floor.
• Seventy-three percent of decision makers plan to invest in smart watches, smart glasses and hip-mounted wearables in the next three years.

Europe

• The square footage of the average warehouse is projected to increase by 26 percent—more than in any other region—in the next five years.
• By 2024, RFID and locationing technology usage is anticipated to increase for outbound operations with more than one in five planning to use them for packing (25 percent), inventory management (20 percent) and picking (19 percent).

Latin America

• Latin American decision makers identified labor efficiency or productivity (71 percent) as the top operational challenge of the next five years.
• Ninety-five percent of organizations plan to implement Android-based mobile computers in the warehouse by 2024 to help improve worker productivity and efficiency.

North America

• Almost half (49 percent) of North American decision makers identified outbound packing, staging and loading as a challenge.
• Ninety-four percent of respondents will have implemented or plan to implement trailer load optimization and/or load compliance solutions by 2024.

SURVEY BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

The 2024 Warehousing Vision Study included 1,403 IT and operational decision makers in the manufacturing, transportation & logistics, retail, post and parcel delivery and wholesale distribution markets in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe who were interviewed by Qualtrics.

ABOUT ZEBRA  | Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) empowers the front line of business in retail/e-commerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other industries to achieve a performance edge. With more than 10,000 partners across 100 countries, we deliver industry-tailored, end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and data to help our customers make business-critical decisions. Our market-leading solutions elevate the shopping experience, track and manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and patient care. Ranked on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for the last four years, Zebra helps our customers capture their edge. For more information, visit  www.zebra.com 

The 2019 Online Apparel Report details the current state of online apparel, including data on the fastest growers, largest players, Amazon’s share of sales, investment funding rounds, store closures, the rental clothing market, how to combat returns and the surge in the lingerie category.

E-commerce now represents more than a third of all apparel sales—at 34.4% penetration in 2018, up from 30.6% in 2017, according to Internet Retailer’s 2019 Online Apparel Report.

Apparel is the largest and one of the most competitive retail categories in e-commerce, with more than 250 apparel retailers and 20 subcategories in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000. Overall, including apparel-focused retailers and mass merchants that sell clothing, U.S. online apparel sales grew 18.5% in 2018 over 2017, far faster than total apparel retail sales growth at 5.3%.

But growth only skims the surface of what is going on in apparel.

For example, of the 15 fastest-growing apparel merchants in the Top 1000 based on 2018 sales, only two are retail chains, five are web-only retailers, eight are consumer brand manufacturers and zero are catalog/call center merchants. The report digs into why there is such a disparity between these merchant types that are selling similar products.

The 75-page 2019 Online Apparel Report dives into what is happening now with online apparel merchants including the current state of opening stores, closing stores, investment funding rounds, the current trend of rental apparel, why there is a surge in undergarment retailers and what retailers are doing to combat the heavy volume of returns that plague online apparel sellers.

The report has 15+ charts quantifying the state of the online apparel industry, including data on the 15 fastest-growing and 15 largest online apparel retailers, including web sales, growth rates and how they rank among the Top 1000 based on 2018 online sales. Also included in this are estimates on Amazon’s share of the online apparel market and its growth in this area over the years. In addition, the report includes interviews with executives at leading and fastest-growing online apparel retailers and exclusive consumer survey results on how shoppers browse and buy apparel online.

The 2019 Online Apparel Report is available here.

About Internet Retailer/Digital Commerce 360 Research | Digital Commerce 360 Research provides data and information about e-commerce that helps retail companies, investors and technology providers prosper. The team tracks hundreds of metrics on roughly 6,000 online retail companies around the world, including such sought-after data points as web sales and traffic, conversion rates, average order value and key technology partners used to power their e-commerce businesses. We sell this data in its raw format in our multiple online databases, and we dig deeply into these numbers in our custom research division, and to help inform our 30+ exclusive analysis reports we publish each year on key e-commerce topics, including online marketplaces, cross-border e-commerce and omni-channel retailing. For more information, click here.

Report also reveals the majority of job seekers are willing to work two or more jobs and want more hours

Bluecrew and Toluna today announced the results of the Bluecrew 2019 Holiday Hiring Report, which revealed that job seekers looking for holiday hourly jobs would prefer to have flexible schedules and as many hours as possible over the highest pay rate. The survey of more than 800 holiday job seekers was conducted jointly by Bluecrew, the on-demand staffing platform exclusively for flexible W-2 work, and Toluna, a leading consumer intelligence platform that delivers insights on demand.

The key findings showed that hourly workers this season are prioritizing flexibility over jobs with the highest pay – in fact, highest pay ranks among the least popular criteria for holiday job seekers this year. Following access to a flexible schedule they control, seasonal workers cited “as many hours as possible” and “a good company and/or great atmosphere” as other top criteria. These three priorities accounted for the majority of responses over other considerations including: perks and/or discounts, opportunities to stay on as permanent employees, benefits and worker protections like overtime, and good locations.

The report also showed that the majority of job seekers (63%) began looking for holiday employment before October. Some workers started as early as July (15%) and August (25%), while an additional 34% started searches in September. Nearly a quarter of respondents (21%) will begin to look in October.

“As the competition for quality workers continues to increase, employers that want to attract the best and brightest need to understand how the employment landscape is changing and what workers are really looking for,” said Adam Roston, Bluecrew CEO. “The Bluecrew 2019 Holiday Hiring Report reveals that above all else, holiday workers want the flexibility to work when they want and as much as they can.”

Key Findings on the Changing Worker Landscape

• Flexibility matters most – Respondents prioritized a flexible schedule and the ability to work more hours over getting the highest pay rate when looking for a holiday job.
• Demand for seasonal work is strong – 38% of the total surveyed population and 66% of 18 to 34-year-olds are looking for a seasonal or holiday job.
• Multiple jobs are common – 55% of respondents plan to work two or more jobs during the holiday season compared to 40% that will only work one job as their only source of income.
• Workers want hours – 55% of respondents would like to work 26 hours or more per week, but a majority (63%) expect to be given 25 hours or less per week by their employers.

“Brands benefit immeasurably from direct contact with the people who matter most to them. Whether they be millennials, doctors or seasonal workers, Toluna can tap a panel community 30 million members strong for candid feedback that results in high-quality insights into what these audiences think, feel and do,” said Jay Rampuria, EVP of Global Business & Corporate Development at Toluna. “The results of the Bluecrew 2019 Holiday Hiring Report indicate that employers and economists promoting short-term gigs might not understand the needs and expectations of seasonal employees.”

Additional Findings on Worker Plans and Expectations 

• 32% of respondents expect their hourly rate to be $13.26 or higher, nearly double the federal minimum wage.
• 58% of holiday workers are taking on a holiday job to earn extra money while 40% plan to use the money to cover their monthly expenses.
• Retail stores were the top pick for job seekers according to 25% of respondents, followed by restaurants (16%), customer support (15%), and warehouse/logistics (14%).
• 63% of respondents feel it will be easy to land a holiday season job compared to 28% who feel it will be difficult.
• The primary sources for respondents to look for a seasonal job are online job marketplaces or job boards (30%), social media (23%), and mobile apps (16%).
• More than half of those surveyed prefer traditional W-2 employment versus working as a gig contractor.
• The survey was conducted by Toluna QuickSurveys between August 27 – September 3, 2019 of over 800 respondents looking for seasonal holiday jobs across the U.S.
• Check out the infographic for a visual guide to the survey findings.

Survey Methodology: All figures are from consumer insights provider Toluna. Total sample size was 839 American workers, aged 18 years or older, from the Toluna US panel community so no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Fieldwork was undertaken from August 27–28, 2019. The research was carried out online as an independent survey. Figures for age, gender, education, race/ethnicity and region were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the online population. In addition, the percentage of holiday job seekers was weighted to their proportion in the online population.

About Bluecrew | Founded in 2015, Bluecrew is an on-demand staffing technology platform exclusively for flexible W-2 work. Job seekers turn to Bluecrew for sustainable and reliable employment that fits their schedules across a broad range of industries including warehousing, logistics, e-commerce, events, delivery, and hospitality. Bluecrew is disrupting the traditional staffing model (an industry worth $130 billion which is almost exclusively offline) with a mobile-first platform that offers workers control, flexibility, and protection, while instantly connecting them to high quality, short and long-term employment opportunities. Unlike gig economy platforms, all Crew Members are W-2 employees of Bluecrew, receiving benefits and protections like minimum wage, overtime, sick pay, and workers’ compensation. Bluecrew is headquartered in Chicago with a presence in markets nationwide and is owned and operated by IAC (NASDAQ: IAC). Learn more at www.Bluecrewjobs.com.

About Toluna | Toluna, an ITWP Company, provides consumer insights designed to empower success in today’s on-demand, global economy. Powered by the perfect fusion of technology, expertise, and the largest global community of influencers at the ready, Toluna delivers rich, reliable, real-time insights to individuals, and companies of all sizes. Our automated consumer insights platform, TolunaInsights™ underpins everything we do. Clients can access the platform directly, leverage Toluna’s managed services, or create fully-customized digital consumer insights programs via our engineered services. TolunaInsights was built to complement QuickSurveys, Toluna’s on-demand platform designed for quick-turn, automated research. For more information, visit www.toluna-group.com.