SHARED DARK STORES: MEETING THE CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS IN FMCG

The article highlights the growing importance of shared dark stores and how they are revolutionising delivery services, inventory control and customer experiences.

- Suresh Mamunuru

Today’s shoppers expect prompt order fulfilment and on-demand customer satisfaction. Smart inventory management, diligent last-mile logistics planning, and secure execution are crucial to delivering on this seemingly impossible demand.

The e-commerce industry has been largely successful in addressing this. But to grab the market share from the street corner stores, the time between order and delivery had to be decreased significantly. The advent of Quick Commerce (or Q-Commerce) was targeted toward this need.

However, to ensure the demand is fulfilled and the end customer is delighted, Q-Commerce had to cater as a one-stop shop for everyone’s needs. Customers want the convenience of quickly having products in hand, the same as shopping at the corner store, but delivered to their doorsteps. A reliable source in fulfilling this demand will make a business successful. Are dark stores able to provide this function? And is it appropriate for Q-Commerce to be backed by them? Let’s find out!

Before Q-Commerce, the most significant barrier to reducing order-to-delivery timespan was the physical distance between warehouses with product availability and delivery locations, causing more cost and time to be expended on the last mile.