Inside look at Cyber Monday at Hebron’s Amazon center

HEBRON - It’s 9 a.m. at Amazon’s global fulfillment center, and workers are busy busing full carts of sweaters, sweatshirts and shoes. And anything else you could imagine.

Employees push those carts to the conveyor belt, which weaves miles through the building that is more than 500,000 square feet, or the size of 14 football fields. Items whiz by: Steve Madden shoes, a sweatshirt, a T-shirt.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

It’s the beginning of Cyber Monday, which was the peak shopping day last year for the online retail giant. Customers ordered 43 million items worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is roughly 500 items per second.

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This year, Amazon braced for a similarly busy Cyber Monday. The company predicts this online shopping season will be the best ever. In a recent earnings report, the company said it anticipated 14 percent to 25 percent growth in the fourth quarter compared with the same period last year.

“Cyber Monday sets the pace for the rest of the shopping season,” said Greg Hardewig, general manager at the Hebron center. “It kicks off the holiday season.”

Amazon gave The Enquirer a behind-the-scenes look at Cyber Monday from one of the company’s busy fulfillment centers, which opened in Hebron in June 2005. The center plays an important role in the global phenomenon that is Cyber Monday.

Each of the company’s 50-plus fulfillment centers throughout the United States specializes in different items. For example, the one in Hebron mainly handles small items, such as clothes, suits and shoes. Some of the larger centers specialize in bigger items, such as lawnmowers and kayaks.

After a customer orders an item online, employees will begin looking for the item with a scanner. The company uses constantly-evolving technology to track where the item is stored.

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Contrary to what may seem like common sense, different types of items aren’t stored in the same place. In fact, all different types of items are jumbled together in the same bin. Scanner technology helps track where each item is located, directing employees called “pickers” on the most direct route to get all the items they need. The technology is specific, telling pickers in what column, row and bin the item is located.

Amazon is one of the few retailers that categorizes its products this way, Hardewig said. The method saves the retailer space. Instead of only storing similar products in a select area, which may run out of space, the company can store the products wherever there is room.

How fast an item is picked depends on the choices the customer makes. If a customer selects next-day shipping, pickers will select that item before others. Some of the items whizzing by on the conveyor belt Monday morning could have just been ordered online.

After the items are selected, the pickers take the bins to the conveyor belts, which lead to the packaging department. Technology there helps place items together if a customer ordered more than one item.

“We are extremely innovative from a technology standpoint,” Hardewig said. “Technology and internal processes are almost constantly changing.”

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Amazon actually has a word they use to refer to the constant changes – kaizen. The Japanese word is defined as the practice of continual improvement.

All this has a tremendous impact on the local economy, Hardewig said. The company hires thousands of seasonal employees in Northern Kentucky during the holidays. Many become regular, full-time employees after the holidays, Amazon said.

The company also plays an important role in helping local businesses. Jimmy Shepherd owns Shep’s Stuff, a Hebron-based business that sells products through Amazon.com. He says selling through a partnership with Amazon helps take away a lot of the stress of packaging, distributing and sending items.

“It frees up so much time for me,” he said. “You’re not just giving your money to a big business when you buy through Amazon. You’re selling to mom and pop stores that can’t survive without it.”

Shepherd purchases different products like shirts and toys from manufacturers. Then, he places the product on his account online and sends the item to an Amazon fulfillment center. Once a customer purchases the product, Amazon packages and distributes it for Shepherd.

Shepherd said selling through Amazon is great for his business. He estimates he sells 150 items a day worldwide. During the holiday season, Shepherd hopes to sell triple that.

Additionally, it takes away a lot of the stress of running a business. Shepherd is able to acquire more items and focus on accounting – while still making roughly the same amount of money if he packaged and shipped the items himself.

Recently, Shepherd and his wife were able to take a three-week vacation. He still made money every day from the items he sold online.

He and his wife are back now, ready to take on the demand from Cyber Monday. But he isn’t too worried.

“The holidays are busy, but it isn’t as busy as it could be because Amazon does a lot of the work,” Shepherd said.