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DURHAM — Phononic and Vidir Solutions have teamed up to create a game-changing solution for online grocery delivery and curbside pickup.
The Vidir Powered Carousel combines Phononic’s refrigerator and freezer “totes” with Vidir’s vertical lift system, allowing grocers to easily stage and store frozen, chilled, and ambient orders together. This innovative system reduces the employee resources needed to fulfill an order, speeding up the delivery process and ensuring a seamless customer experience. With online grocery sales expected to grow 12% annually for the next 5 years, the functionality is a boon for grocery stores looking to meet increasing demand.
The collaboration combines two very unique companies. Phononic, based out of Durham, is a developer of solid-state cooling technology. The company utilizes a chip and IoT technology to manage and track temperatures for its “Cold Chain” fulfillment totes.
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Vidir Vertical Storage Solutions is focused on vertical storage and lift solutions across a wide variety of industries, including automotive, retail, healthcare, and warehousing.
Together, the companies “BOPOS”, or “Buy Online Pick-up On-Site” fulfillment solution is the first of its kind and has the potential to change the way stores deliver online orders.
“Together, Vidir and Phononic are powering the ultimate online pickup fulfillment experience,” said Mario Fontes, Director of Sales & Marketing at Vidir Solutions in the press release. “The joint solution eliminates the need for manual staging and labor-intensive retrieval of orders by automating the order consolidation process and enhancing time to curb for customers, while also minimizing order errors—a win-win for grocers’ efficiency and customer experience.”
