Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've done a few projects in (traditional, not pure ecommerce) retail, and in my experience it is a very low margin business. This contrasts sharply with being an innovator in the robotics space, which typically is extremely capital intensive with very long ROI trajectories.
We're proving that automation can happen in that space profitably if done right - carefully, surgically and with a small, focused team. There's Autostore in that space and that system has a massively different economics than Ocado's solution, despite the similarities.
This isnot to say it can not be done, as clearly the other side of the coin is that operational efficiency gains are also much more noticeable on the bottom line than in higher margined businesses, but it is higher risk/reward for low margin sectors. This will favor developing/proving the early TRL stages in new entrant or niche players, then buying out the successes when they hit early maturity.