Retail chains strengthen their e-commerce offering with efficient logistics solution for Darkstores

More and more retail food chains are choosing to make use of central picking warehouses in order to optimise their e-commerce offering. These large central warehouses known as Darkstores have been designed to enable orders to be picked as efficiently as possible.

“Our system has been developed to streamline e-commerce. It can be used to advantage in both stores and Darkstores. We are the only ones offering a complete solution for the entire e-commerce chain: from planning and management to picking and delivery,” says Kristofer Browall, Key Account Manager at StrongPoint Cub.

E-commerce is constantly on the increase and is a natural part of everyday life for many people. More and more chains are therefore choosing to strengthen their e-commerce offer to enable them to meet their customers’ expectations. One international phenomenon that is becoming increasingly popular on the Swedish market is so-called Darkstores. Darkstores are in practice a central warehouse where orders are picked in order to be delivered either direct to the consumer or to a selected store. StrongPoint Cub’s E-commerce Logistics Suite solution appeals to chains that are wanting to expand their e-commerce offering, both those who pick goods direct in stores and those who choose to invest in Darkstores.

“Our solution can already be found in more than 250 stores, which use our system to serve their customers. The system will now also run in Darkstores, which means that a large number of orders can be handled simultaneously,” says Marcus Enetjärn, Sales Manager at StrongPoint Cub.

Darkstores offer numerous benefits. One factor that appeals to various customers is the potential to markedly increase picking volumes. In a Darkstore the picking process is optimised, since the warehouse is not constructed to suit consumers’ shopping patterns like an ordinary store. A further advantage is that the product is only handled once in the picking flow. In a physical store it is first displayed on store shelves, before being picked and placed in a shopping bag. The picking process in a Darkstore involves fewer stages. Products are instead picked direct from pallet to bags. At a central picking warehouse the primary focus is picking orders as efficiently as possible.

Successful combination
StrongPoint Cub believes that the key to success within the E-commerce Logistics market is the specific combination of Darkstores and ordinary stores.

“The trends we are seeing right now are pointing in two directions at the same time. We are seeing retail chains that currently offer e-commerce from bricks-and-mortar stores setting up centralised Darkstores to increase efficiency in the big cities. At the same time we are seeing chains in the same sector that already have Darkstores rolling out our solutions at store level for improved geographic coverage and the facility to offer Click&Collect,” concludes Kristofer Browall.

FACTS

StrongPoint Cub is the market leader in the Nordic region when it comes to delivering complete mobile solutions for the E-commerce Logistics, with many references from satisfied customers operating in and outside the region. ICA, Coop, Hemköp and Willys are some of the companies using StrongPoint Cub’s solutions within E-commerce.