Systems and methods for handling and sorting garment items for store replenishment

A system for replenishing a retail store with garment items, the system comprising:

• two or more garment item inventory storage pods, each garment item inventory storage pod releasably containing one or more types of garment items;
• two or more mobile robots configured to autonomously engage with and transport individual garment item inventory storage pods of the one or more garment item inventory storage pods;
• one or more garment item store-ready transport vessels configured to receive the one or more types of garment items from the one or more garment item inventory storage pods, wherein each of the one or more garment item store-ready transport vessels:
• has wheels by which the one or more garment item store-ready transport vessels can be manually rolled on a floor within a retail store;
• is collapsible to a low-profile configuration when empty of the one or more types of garment items;
• and
• is configured to be stacked on top of another one of the one or more garment item store-ready transport vessels when collapsed in the low-profile configuration;
• and
• a control system configured to:
• control, in response to a first garment item of the one or more types of garment items being on a first order, a first mobile robot of the two or more mobile robots to engage with and transport a first garment item inventory storage pod of the two or more garment item inventory storage pods to an order picking area;
• and
• control, in response to a second garment item of the one or more types of garment items being on the first order, a second mobile robot of the two or more mobile robots to engage with and transport a second garment item inventory storage pod of the two or more garment item inventory storage pods to the order picking area.