Best Goods-to-Person Systems for Warehouses 2026

Goods-to-person automation is the clearest example of a simple idea beating a hard one. Instead of sending a worker to walk miles of aisle to find inventory, the inventory comes to the worker. The associate stands at an ergonomic station, and robots or shuttles deliver exactly the totes needed, in sequence. Travel time, which is the single largest drain in traditional picking, largely disappears.

The payoff is big. Operations that adopt goods-to-person automation commonly report picking throughput rising by up to around 200 percent while cutting labor costs by as much as 70 percent. In a market where labor is scarce and e-commerce order volume keeps climbing, that is why goods-to-person has moved from a warehouse-of-the-future concept to a mainstream investment.

How goods-to-person works

Every goods-to-person system pairs three things: dense storage, a mechanism to retrieve items from that storage, and a workstation where a human (or increasingly a robotic arm) does the pick. What separates the systems below is the retrieval mechanism and how much fixed structure it needs.

Cube storage stacks bins directly on top of one another and drives robots across the top grid. Highest density, no aisles.
Shuttle ASRS runs captive shuttles up and down aisles of racking to store and sequence totes.
Three-dimensional mobile robots drive on the floor and climb racks to fetch totes, scaling by adding robots.
Autonomous case-handling robots retrieve totes and cases from tall shelving, often inside a facility's existing racking.

The 7 best goods-to-person systems for 2026

Our picks below span all four architectures, because the "best" system depends entirely on your building, your order profile, and how much you want to grow. Density leaders like AutoStore, scalable robot fleets like Exotec, and engineered shuttle systems from Dematic, KNAPP, and Swisslog each win in different operations.

How to choose

The trap in goods-to-person is buying an architecture before understanding your own data. A high-density cube system is the wrong answer for a low-SKU, high-cube operation, and a huge shuttle ASRS is overkill for a business that will outgrow its layout in two years. Start from order profile, SKU velocity, peak throughput, ceiling height, and growth plans, then match the architecture to those numbers.

Because goods-to-person is a genuinely multi-vendor field, an independent implementation partner that is not tied to a single platform can model the options against your operation and integrate the winner into your WMS. Actel Robotics works as that kind of multi-vendor implementation partner for warehouse automation, which is the role that matters most once you have narrowed the shortlist. The system you buy is only as good as the design study and integration behind it.

The bottom line

Goods-to-person is the highest-leverage move most high-volume fulfillment operations can make on picking productivity, and 2026 gives you more mature, more scalable options than ever, from cube storage to climbing robots to shuttle ASRS. Pick the architecture from your data, not the brochure, and put an implementation partner on the design before you sign anything.

Frequently asked questions

What is a goods-to-person system?

A goods-to-person (G2P) system uses robots, shuttles, or conveyors to retrieve inventory from storage and bring it directly to a stationary operator at a workstation, instead of sending the worker out to walk the aisles. The worker stays put and picks from totes or bins that arrive at the station, which removes the travel time that dominates traditional picking.

How much can goods-to-person automation improve throughput?

Operations that move to goods-to-person automation commonly report large gains, with picking throughput increasing by up to roughly 200 percent and labor costs falling by as much as 70 percent, because associates no longer spend most of their time walking. Actual results depend on your SKU profile, order structure, and how well the system is designed and integrated.

What are the main types of goods-to-person systems?

The common types are cube storage systems like AutoStore, shuttle ASRS such as KNAPP, Dematic, and Swisslog, three-dimensional mobile robots like Exotec Skypod, and autonomous case-handling robots such as Hai Robotics. They differ in storage density, throughput, ceiling height used, and how much fixed structure they require.

Is goods-to-person better than AMR picking?

They solve different problems. Autonomous mobile robots that bring shelves or carts to pickers are flexible and fast to deploy in an existing building. Goods-to-person ASRS systems deliver far higher storage density and throughput per square foot but involve more fixed infrastructure and a larger project. High-density, high-volume operations tend toward G2P; flexible or fast-changing operations often start with AMRs.

How much does a goods-to-person system cost?

G2P systems are system-level investments rather than per-unit purchases, and pricing depends on storage size, throughput, and integration scope. Many vendors now offer subscription or robotics-as-a-service models that spread the cost and lower the upfront capital barrier. The right way to budget is a design study against your real order and SKU data.

How do I choose the right goods-to-person system?

Start from your data: order profile, SKU count and velocity, peak throughput, available ceiling height, and growth plans. Cube storage wins on density, three-dimensional robots and shuttle systems win on scalable throughput, and case-handling robots retrofit into existing racking. Because the field is multi-vendor, an independent implementation partner who is not tied to one platform can model the options against your operation.

How goods-to-person works

The 7 best goods-to-person systems for 2026

How to choose

The bottom line

Sources

Frequently asked questions