Fabric

Fabric (formerly known as CommonSense Robotics) is a provider of on-demand, micro-fulfillment solutions. Its micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs) use autonomous mobile robots that operate around the center floor to collect and deliver items for packaging, allowing retailers to provide a one-hour delivery service to their online customers. Fabric is known for having built the smallest MFC (6,000 sq ft) based entirely on its in-house technology. 

Fabric’s initial primary offering was on-demand fulfillment solutions for online grocers. Fabric used to own and operate on-demand facilities, from which it offered fulfillment to small online retailers on a pay-per-order basis. In July 2022, Fabric announced a change in its business model from on-demand fulfillment to a platform-based offering. Under the new model, the company develops and offers micro-fulfillment hardware and software solutions to be managed by the customer. Fabric has indicated that its original service-based offering would not be halted entirely, due to potential demand from small-scale retailers and the cost-intensive nature of the new platform-based model. With the shift in business model, however, Fabric also laid off around 40% of its staff primarily engaged in the service business, and also in R&D. Fabric holds a patent for its multi-tote size automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). 

Key customers and partnerships

In April 2022, the company opened a 13,000 sq ft on-demand MFC in Dallas; Chill Brands joined as the first customer.

Fabric’s micro-fulfillment customers include retailers such as FreshDirect (2020), Super-Pharm (May 2021), Walmart (January 2021), and Save A Lot (October 2024). Fabric also has a partnership with Instacart to jointly offer automated order fulfillment services to grocery retailers in North America (July 2021). 

In November 2022, Fabric partnered with Logistics Reply to integrate LEA Reply, a supply chain execution platform, with its automation solution to provide customers with actionable insights, accelerated onboarding, and the ability to integrate with external systems.