Omnichannel Automation

Running an e-commerce brand today can feel like hosting a dinner party where guests arrive at different times, shout their orders from the driveway, and expect a plated meal within minutes, because Shopify wants attention, Amazon fires alerts, Target demands two pallets tonight, and a celebrity post can turn a manageable day into a stampede. On paper, the warehouse looks calm; in practice, it behaves erratically as overlapping demands pile up faster than systems can reconcile them.

This disconnect emerges because omnichannel complexity does not announce itself loudly at first. Each channel appears manageable on its own, yet together they create overlapping demands that strain systems built for simpler flows, which is why operations often feel reactive even when plans appear sound.

How Channels Quietly Sabotage Each Other

Selling across multiple channels reshapes demand planning in ways that are easy to underestimate, because forecasting no longer revolves around a single curve but fragments into competing signals that arrive on different timelines and with different penalties attached. Amazon demand can surge due to algorithmic placement, retail orders arrive in rigid blocks that ignore internal pacing, and direct-to-consumer promotions rewrite demand overnight.

None of these channels behave politely, and they all pull from the same inventory pool, which means acceleration in one place quietly starves another without warning. By the time teams recognize the conflict, consequences are already visible through partial fills, missed SLAs, and emergency transfers that solve one problem while creating two more.

Where Manual Processes Collapse Under Omnichannel Pressure

Many brands encounter omnichannel strain through symptoms rather than diagnoses, because orders slow, inventory numbers drift from reality, and teams spend more time reconciling than executing. These patterns emerge when brands sell across multiple channels without automation capable of keeping data, inventory, and workflows synchronized in real time.

Manual processes buckle under this weight. Spreadsheets circulate, status updates lag behind reality, and information grows stale faster than teams can correct it, so the moment a large promotion or unexpected retail order hits, the entire operation begins to shake.

What Brands Experience Before They Find G10

Many brands arrive at G10 after experiencing these breakdowns firsthand. As Maureen Milligan explained, “Most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and basically just meeting the committed requirements,” which means when fundamentals like visibility and accuracy slip, trust erodes quickly and growth starts to feel punishing instead of exciting.

These failures are rarely about effort. Teams work harder, stay later, and patch systems together, yet the underlying structure remains fragile, because without automation, reliability depends on heroics rather than design.

Why Omnichannel Automation Changes the Equation

Omnichannel automation is not about flashy technology or replacing people; it is about building an invisible engine that keeps operations steady when pressure rises. When automation is implemented correctly, workflows become predictable, data stays clean, and order surges feel manageable rather than catastrophic.

Automation allows brands to move from panic mode into growth mode, because instead of reacting to every spike, teams operate from systems designed to absorb variability without losing control.

Why Complexity Accelerates Faster Than Brands Expect

If a brand sells only through Shopify, operations remain manageable, but the moment Amazon is added, followed by Walmart, Target, and a subscription program, everything becomes harder very quickly. Inventory must remain synchronized across platforms, label requirements multiply, and retailers enforce deadlines with zero flexibility.

Without automation, cracks appear immediately. Connor Perkins sees this pattern during onboarding, noting, “One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLs is inventory accuracy. Maybe their previous 3PL wasn't great at picking the orders accurately, so they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities,” and a wrong pick is never isolated because it triggers refunds, negative reviews, lost rankings, and retailer penalties.

Why Trust Breaks When Infrastructure Cannot Keep Up

Matt Bradbury hears similar stories from fast-growing brands that attempted to scale without the infrastructure to support it. “A lot of these brands have been around for 10 years or less, and a lot of them have had really bad experiences with 3PLs, so there's a big mistrust in the space,” and that mistrust grows when systems fail precisely when reliability matters most.

Brands do not lose confidence because growth is hard; they lose confidence because systems that worked yesterday collapse under tomorrow’s demand.

How Automation Stabilizes the Warehouse Floor

Automation inside the warehouse has moved beyond hype and into measurable impact. G10 uses robots as part of a program that increases picking speed while reducing wasted motion and physical strain.

Holly Woods described them plainly: “The robot is round, it looks like an industrial Roomba,” and by using automated pick paths they achieved “3X the amount of efficiency” in lines picked per hour, which comes from reducing unnecessary walking, optimizing routes, and letting machines handle navigation while humans focus on accuracy.

How Automation Absorbs Sudden Growth

Automation matters most when growth arrives unexpectedly. Holly recalled how quickly volume can escalate: “Sometimes these smaller customers come and work with G10, and they might be shipping 100, 200 orders a day. Then something goes viral on social media, and all of a sudden the doors are being blown off on orders,” a surge that would overwhelm a warehouse without automation but becomes a demanding yet controlled day when systems can flex.

Why the WMS Is the Real Backbone of Omnichannel Automation

Behind every automated workflow sits a warehouse management system that acts as translator, traffic cop, and historian. When the WMS is strong, complexity becomes manageable; when it is weak, unpredictability spreads everywhere.

Bryan Wright was direct about this: “A bad WMS system will not track inventory 100 percent as it should,” while a strong WMS records every movement from inbound to outbound, knows where each unit sits, who touched it, and which order needs it next, providing the precision that keeps omnichannel operations from unraveling.

Why B2B and Retail Requirements Cannot Be Bolted On Later

Bryan also emphasized that G10’s system was designed with B2B from the start. “If they have a Walmart account that they're trying to bring on, we can turn on the integration. We can create the Walmart-specific shipping label, send them Walmart-specific EDI transaction, pick it in a specific way for Walmart, and all of that stuff is inherent in the software,” which matters because many 3PLs begin as D2C specialists and attempt to add B2B later through fragile workarounds.

How Automation Frees Customer Experience Teams

When automation works, customer service stops firefighting avoidable errors, because accurate inventory reduces missing items, clean data prevents confusion, and fast fulfillment improves satisfaction. Instead of chasing mistakes, teams focus on real customer needs.

Joel Malmquist captured this benefit clearly: “You only have to worry about reaching out to one person, and from there, that individual is going to work with the teams internally to make sure we execute for you the right way,” a level of support made possible when automation carries the operational load.

When Growth Tests the System

Omnichannel automation shows its value when brands grow faster than planned. Growth without automation feels like constant emergencies; growth with automation feels like a rising tide the system was built to handle.

Joel shared an example where a merchant asked if G10 could turn around ten Target purchase orders in forty-eight hours, and he answered, “Yes we can,” because distributed automation and flexible staffing made it achievable through preparation and infrastructure designed to flex rather than break.

Building Automation for Brands That Expect to Scale

Automation serves founders and operators who expect complexity to increase rather than smooth out over time. These teams do not want spectacle; they want systems that hold steady under pressure, absorb demand shocks, and support faster learning as volume grows.

That mindset shapes automation as a growth tool rather than a gimmick, because when systems are designed for omnichannel from the beginning, expansion into Amazon, Target, Walmart, or specialty retail becomes natural instead of painful.

Turning Omnichannel Chaos Into Predictable Growth

If omnichannel life currently feels like juggling flaming torches, automation provides the stable foundation brands need, with calm reliability, accurate inventory, clean data, and confidence during growth.

G10 was built for brands scaling under pressure. If you want operations that stay sharp, deliver on time, and give you room to grow, reach out, and we can show you how omnichannel automation becomes a competitive advantage rather than a constant headache.