Sorting in Mexico and the United States: How Retail Automation Is Transforming Logistics in 2026

Sorting—the process of classifying and separating products in distribution centers—has become the most critical layer of modern logistics infrastructure. While for decades a retailer’s competitive advantage was measured in square meters of storage space, today the central question is different: How quickly can a distribution center sort, route, and release products without losing control?

In Mexico and the United States, this transformation is redefining how retailers, e-commerce platforms, and logistics providers operate. The data from 2026 is compelling.

The Amazon Mexico Case: 12 Seconds per Package and 14 Items per Second Amazon’s MEX6 distribution center, located in Tepotzotlán, State of Mexico, handles nearly 60% of the company’s orders in the country. Its operational figures set a new standard for the industry:

It takes a packer 12 seconds to assemble a box, place the product inside, label it, and slide it onto the conveyor belt

Less than 2 hours elapse between the customer’s click to purchase and the package being ready in the shipping area

Pickers reached a rate of 14 items per second during last December’s peak season

The center operates 23.5 hours a day, 7 days a week

The key to this efficiency is the Random Stow system. Instead of organizing products by category, artificial intelligence records the exact dimensions of each item and assigns it to any available space in the facility. When a customer makes a purchase, the system guides the picker based strictly on geographical proximity, not on completing the entire order.

The operation also incorporates highly automated areas such as AutoSlam, where robots scan packages, verify dimensions, print labels, and prepare shipments with nearly 98% accuracy. Subsequently, the Shipping Sorter sorts the packages by destination before they are shipped to more than 60 cities.

Mercado Libre: Cross-Dock Handling 600,000 Packages Daily Mercado Libre inaugurated the largest cross-docking center in Latin America within its operations in Cuautitlán Izcalli, State of Mexico. The facility, known as XEM3, spans 80,000 square meters and has the capacity to process up to 600,000 packages per day.

The center operates under the cross-docking model, a logistics system that allows for the receipt, sorting, and dispatch of goods within short timeframes without the need for extended storage. Unlike traditional distribution centers, where products remain in inventory, this system prioritizes immediate turnover to reduce transit times and optimize operating costs.

The site integrates automated sorting technologies, artificial intelligence, and traceability tools for real-time monitoring of shipments. In its initial phase, the facility can handle approximately 550,000 shipments per day, with plans to increase capacity to nearly one million packages daily through the gradual implementation of automation systems throughout 2026.

The company stated that the facility will enable it to expand its same-day or next-day delivery services to at least 28 cities across the country.

Petco Mexico: Dynamic Planograms and Reduced Stockouts Petco Mexico, with more than 157 stores and approximately 5,000 SKUs supported by two distribution centers, implemented a merchandising unification strategy with RELEX Solutions to connect space management with forecasting and replenishment.

This expansion enables Petco Mexico to create store-specific planograms based on actual inventory and local demand. The goal is clear: to reduce space-related stockouts, improve on-shelf accuracy, and make it easier for customers to find the products they’re looking for.

“As we continue to expand in Mexico, we need planning tools that help us create accurate, store-ready planograms based on the inventory we have at each location,” said Armando López, Commercial Director of Petco Mexico.

Grupo Coppel: Automated System and 38% Shorter Replenishment Time Grupo Coppel inaugurated its largest Regional Distribution Center (CEDIS) in Mexico in Texcoco, with an investment exceeding 1.2 billion pesos. The new facility is 25% more productive than the company’s other distribution centers, with the capacity to supply more than 225,000 products daily to 235 stores in 35 cities.

The Texcoco CEDIS covers an area of 124,000 square meters, has the capacity to store more than 10 million products, and operates a primary fleet of 49 tractor-trailers and 118 trailers.

The facility incorporates an automated warehouse management system (WMS) that enables continuous tracking of products throughout the entire route. This reduces delivery times to stores in the State of Mexico by 38%. The center created more than 1,000 direct jobs in the state.

Burlington Stores: 2 Million Square Feet and 25 Miles of Conveyors In the United States, Burlington Stores opened a distribution center in Ellabell, Georgia, that exemplifies the new economics of sorting. The facility spans 2 million square feet, features more than 25 miles of conveyors and automation, and employs smarter sorting systems designed specifically for the off-price business.

The off-price model presents a particular challenge: purchases are opportunistic, assortments change rapidly, and store allocations can be modified at the last minute. The discipline of sorting becomes the decisive factor.

Greg Shultz, Burlington’s Executive Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer, noted that the new sorting systems “were designed for greater flexibility, intended to enable more productive off-price processing, greater speed, and higher throughput.”

Burlington also plans to open a similar 2-million-square-foot center in Buckeye, Arizona, by 2028, equipped with advanced sorting systems and customized software.

CVS Pharmacy: 420 Robots and 99.9% Picking Accuracy CVS Pharmacy operates hundreds of robots at its distribution centers across the United States. The facility in Hainesport, New Jersey, sorts more than 10,000 products using an automated storage and retrieval system.

The company partnered with AutoStore, Bastian Solutions, and Tompkins Robotics for the operation, making CVS the first retailer to use a dual robotic automation system.

Tompkins Robotics’ tSort system deploys more than 420 robots to sort products autonomously. The robots place items into designated bins for specific CVS locations.

According to CVS, the Lumberton center has seen significant operational changes since implementation:

Over 99.9% picking accuracy

40% lower operating costs compared to other CVS distribution centers

Increase in daily output from 150,000 to over 400,000 products

Jamie Tatum, Director of Supply Chain Strategy at CVS, stated: “The combined implementation of Tompkins Robotics’ tSort system with AutoStore has transformed the CVS Lumberton Distribution Center, delivering unmatched efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.”

Automation as a Strategic Advantage, Not Just a Warehouse Task The pattern is consistent: retailers that are succeeding in Mexico and the United States have integrated automated sorting into their mid-mile strategy, achieving higher throughput, lower error rates, more consistent delivery windows, and greater flexibility in how merchandise flows through the network.

Amazon Mexico’s investment—more than 50,000 millones de pesos since 2015 in a network of 13 fulfillment centers—sets the pace that other retailers are following. Mercado Libre, Petco Mexico, Coppel, and Burlington represent different but converging approaches: linking sorting to actual demand, not to intuition.

The lesson for 2026 is clear: in the e-commerce and omnichannel economy, sorting has evolved from a cost center into the central nervous system of the delivery promise.