Wearables are Powering the New Age of Customer Fulfilment
The e-commerce boom isn’t slowing down any time soon, and heightened customer expectations are putting immense pressure on retailers and the supply chain to deliver more parcels faster than ever before.
20.1% of all retail purchases in 2024 are set to take place online, with the global e-commerce market expected to total over $7.9 trillion by 2027[1].
Today’s customers expect to receive or pick up their orders in record time, including same-day and two-hour windows. This expectation is blurring the line between warehouses and retail stores, with orders no longer being fulfilled from warehouses alone, but increasingly from the back of stores and micro-fulfilment centres located closer to customers.
Picking has also become a full-time job. To keep up with demand, workers must fulfil orders faster and faster, meaning the speed and accuracy of workflows have never been more important.
So, how are businesses coping with these ever-increasing demands? The answer is technology.
Warehouse and logistics leaders are always looking for ways to give their workers an instant productivity boost, process more orders, increase order accuracy, and meet the fastest delivery times, and one area seeing a huge investment is wearable technology.
Wearables are designed to keep workers’ hands free, as opposed to traditional handheld devices. Worn on either the wrist, hand or finger, these tiny powerhouses enable workers to pick and pack orders, load trailers, and move boxes faster than their handheld counterparts, moving packages through the supply chain faster and in safer conditions.
This has critical effects for businesses further down the chain. For example, retailers can move incoming shipments from the dock to shelves faster, so more products are available for in-store and online customers to purchase.
What happens when businesses don’t have the right technology to support their workers?
The increasing pressure on workers to process more orders in a shorter amount of time is one reason labour shortages are rife in the logistics sector. In short, people don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t equip them with the right technology to meet increasingly strict deadlines.
These “disconnected” workers are forced to take more steps and need more time to complete a task, eroding operational efficiency and making it harder to compete in today’s on-demand economy. For example, they might not know what their next task is or how to communicate with their colleagues without physically locating them, which creates an unnecessary burden on them.
An impressive 93% of warehouse associates agree that new technologies are essential for attracting and retaining talent, according to Zebra’s 2025 Warehousing Vision Study, signalling a major shift in workforce priorities. Modern devices like wearables have become essential for simplifying tasks, reducing physical strain and ensuring smooth integration with automated systems. This connectivity enables workers to make more informed and faster decisions. As a result, the demand for technology has become a defining factor in the labour market, with today’s workforce viewing it as a valuable ally in creating a safer, more productive and satisfying work environment.
Zebra offers the widest range of wearables in the market, including the newly-launched WS501, the world’s smallest all-in-one Android enterprise-class wearable mobile computer. Offering a range of mounting options (hand, wrist and finger), Zebra wearables meet the needs of practically any warehouse and logistics application, whether it's order picking, inventory put-away, loading and unloading shipments, or task management.
Learn more about Zebra’s range of wearables for warehousing and logistics here.
[1] * Forbes Insider Intelligence, 38 E-Commerce Statistics Of 2024