TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Operations & efficiency
WES MAKES THE CONNECTION
Scott Merrick, Managing Director at Inteq, a leading integrator of automation and robotics technology for supply chains, says Warehouse Execution Systems need to be built in from day one, in order to give retailers a competitive advantage
T
he pressure to deliver a fast, accurate and high-quality experience for customers continues to rise. Inteq’s research shows the delivery experience is increasingly
overtaking brand loyalty. With 93% of UK consumers having abandoned a purchase because of a delivery concern (IMRG Consumer Home Delivery Report 2026), the cost of missing the mark has never been higher. And as retail businesses prepare for the Golden Quarter, precise, efficient operations will be the difference between keeping or losing customers. Political pressure is building too. Andy Burnham
has proposed that warehouses pay higher business rates to fund high street tax cuts, adding pressure on warehouse’s to get the most out of every square foot. Businesses that have already invested in automation are better placed to absorb these pressures. Those that haven’t carry a triple risk: operational inefficiency, lost customers, and rising overheads. So how do businesses build an operation that can keep pace? Automation is now a boardroom decision, not a warehouse one
Fulfilment has rightly moved up the boardroom agenda. Senior leaders are driving automation decisions because standing still costs more than investing does. The consequences of getting it wrong – competitive exposure, resilience gaps, customer experience failures – land at board level. Making that decision at board level pays off well beyond risk avoidance. It improves the customer experience and strengthens how a business handles peak periods. But there’s a disconnect. According to Inteq’s
research, six in ten retailers believe their existing systems and facilities have negatively impacted their ability to serve their customers well. Almost nine in ten believe robotics would improve fulfilment. Yet senior leaders and the teams running day- to-day logistics often see the problem differently, and automation strategies are no longer a single- department call. Finance, IT, HR and operations all have a stake in the outcome and aligning them takes more effort than simply picking a technology. It requires a clear, data-driven understanding of how the operation works today and how it needs to perform tomorrow. Only when every team agrees what success looks like, together, can a business capture both daily efficiency gains and long-term advantage. The question now isn’t whether to automate, but
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how well and how quickly. Too many organisations still approach automation like patchwork, a piece of hardware that fixes one problem in isolation doesn’t make the whole operation more efficient; it just moves the problem elsewhere. Warehouse Execution Systems (WES) solve this by sitting above the hardware and orchestrating it, connecting robotics, equipment and people into one layer, giving operations teams real-time visibility instead of a rear-view mirror. Built in from day one, rather than added on afterwards, a high-performing WES turns disconnected systems into genuine control.
Demand volatility has changed what ‘efficient’ means. Static systems built to maximise output under predictable conditions can’t cope with seasonal spikes or rapid shifts in consumer behaviour. Fixed systems create a ceiling: it works well until the operation outgrows it and then replacing it is expensive and disruptive.
But flexibility does come at a higher upfront cost.
Yet autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) show why more businesses are making the call anyway. AMRs have become standard infrastructure: they deploy fast, work safely alongside people and scale without major rebuild.
One major fashion retailer worked with Inteq to deploy 40 AMRs across its UK distribution hub to manage its returns operation. The results were significant: returns put-away rates tripled, 99% of returns were processed within 24 hours, and picking efficiency doubled.
AMRs can only deliver when they’re properly integrated into a WES; deployed without it, even the best fleets will under-deliver against expected ROI - highlighting why automation should be treated as infrastructure, not a one-off purchase.
As competitors automate, delay becomes the riskiest move of all. The market isn’t slowing down, and the businesses waiting to move are finding it harder to catch up. Today’s automation decisions are tomorrow’s competitive advantage, so getting them right is critical.
Inteq
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