Russian online delivery service SberMarket has announced the development of a 'dark store' micro fulfilment centre alongside wholesale giant Metro.
The dark store is located at Metro's facility on 19 Shosseynaya street, in Moscow, and will stock around 10,000 SKUs, with express delivery available for residents living in the southeast of the Russian capital.
Strategic Partnership
“We are launching the first project in the dark store sector in partnership with Metro, our strategic partner," commented Dmitry Zhulin, co-founder of Instamart, which was rebranded SberMarket after becoming part of O2O Holding in 2019.
"The new model will reverse the approach to delivery from retailers’ offline hypermarkets: it will increase order picking and delivery speed multiple times, unload stores, and maintain high integrity and a wide product range for customers. It will, furthermore, improve online delivery unit economics: procurement experts will be able to pick up more orders over the same period, thus increasing efficiency and turnover per square metre."
Zhulin added that SberMarket is considering expanding the project to other cities and regions, potentially including new partnerships.
Reducing Order And Processing Time
Using the Moscow facility, SberMarket anticipates that it will be able to reduce the time of order picking and delivery threefold, with deliveries fulfilled between 30 and 80 minutes after they are placed.
“The launch of the dark store and express delivery are just the tip of the iceberg of Metro's e-commerce development that is visible to the market," said Martin Schumacher, CEO of Metro Cash&Carry Russia.
"We are constantly improving stores’ internal processes, launching new partnerships and developing technical solutions to ensure that the customers always get whatever and whenever they want – to ensure that Metro stores remain the most convenient locations for our partners, delivery services.”
In July, Metro reported a double-digit increase in sales in its third quarter, citing a rebound in the hospitality sector.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
