Dark store

The term dark store, dark supermarket or dotcom centre refers to a retail outlet or distribution centre that caters exclusively for online shopping. A dark store is generally a large warehouse that can either be used to facilitate a "click-and-collect" service whereby a customer collects an item they have ordered online, or as an order fulfilment platform for online sales. The format was initiated in the United Kingdom, and its popularity has also spread to France followed by rest of European Union.

Not open to the public, the interior of a dark supermarket may appear like a conventional supermarket, set out with aisles of shelves containing groceries and other retail items. However, without having to deal with retail customers, the stores are not located in the High Street nor shopping malls, but mostly in areas that are preferred for good road connections. The buildings themselves are often utilitarian and non-descript from the outside. Inside, the stores dispense with assistants who provide product advice, check-out counters and point of sale displays.

After processing orders received via the internet, the orders are sent to shop floor. These electronically generated orders, processed and routed according to the store layout for optimal picking, are picked by store employees, known as "personal shoppers" (colloquially "pickers"), who work around the clock fulfilling the orders displayed on a tablet computer attached to their shopping trolley. More than one order can often be collected simultaneously. Tesco opened a "fourth generation dotcom store" in Erith in October 2013, with a much larger product range – 30,000 lines – and higher degree of mechanisation that brings items to pickers rather than requiring them to collect individual products manually. Fulfilled orders are then delivered to the customer by a fleet of vans. A certain time of day, usually in the early hours, is set aside for stock replenishment.

While most popular dark stores will serve grocery products, some of them will take a role of a clothing shops helping brands to cut the costs.

The format is also popular in France, where, as of 2014, some 2,000 dark stores operate for the "click-and-collect" model.

The first UK supermarket to trial the concept of a specific store for online goods was Sainsbury's, which operated a distribution centre at Park Royal in London during the early 2000s, but the retailer closed the outlet because of a low order quantity. It would be over a decade afterwards, in October 2013 before they announced plans for another, at Bromley-by-Bow, in East London.

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Wikipedia