Daniel Gebler, Picnic: “Like in the Netherlands, we want to launch a reverse logistics service in France and Germany”

As e-commerce retailer Picnic accelerates its logistics robotization with the opening of a third—and largest—automated processing center in Germany, it is also embracing new models. In the Netherlands, delivery drivers now handle e-commerce returns for Asos and Zalando, capitalizing on their routes to improve the profitability of their flows. Founder and CTO Daniel Gebler spoke to mind Retail about his priorities for transformation during Vivatech.

Through Sophie Baqué. Published on 23 June 2025 à 16h56 - Update on 22 August 2025 à 13h19

At Picnic, most employees work in the supply chain (order picking in fulfilment, last-mile drivers from hubs). Which use of AI has currently the biggest impact?

Picnic was founded in 2015 in the Netherlands. In 2018 we opened in Germany and in France in 2021. Alongside our rapid growth, we have hired several thousand people per year in some years. Today, we have 20,000 staff. Regarding our model, Picnic started with manually managed hubs and a milkman-style delivery scheme for the last mile. After automating certain elements of the supply chain, we are now significantly automating all warehouse operations. While AI is not something new at Picnic (machine learning, deep learning), a use has multiplied in the order processing process (order preparation,…

Sophie Baqué

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