What are dark stores?
Laia Ordoñez
18/03/2021
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You may have heard of this concept, especially after lockdown. We are going to explain what dark stores are on our eCommerce Dictionary.
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The concept of dark stores became popular after the lockdown and restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, although to be more precise, they already existed prior to the emergence of eCommerce.
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What are dark stores?
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Some people may think that these are illegal stores or "black" business, but the meaning is different and has nothing to do with it.A dark store is characterized by being a 100% operational business but with the special feature of being an exclusively support online sales. There are administrative staff, employees and logistics partners, trucks coming in and out... but there are no customers wandering among shelves and merchandise.
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Pros and cons of dark stores
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Actually, it has more advantages than disadvantages since it optimizes a business. Let's see how:
- Less expenses than a public retail: they are more similar to a warehouse than a regular store. Functionality is more important than decoration or promotional stuff. In addition, less staff is needed and with different profiles than in standard stores.
- Possibility of reconversion: stores that are no longer profitable, either because of what we are experiencing or any other reason, can support the digital transformation of the business.
- You lose the ability to sell directly: goodbye to the convenience and proximity sales model. You also lose impulse selling to a large extent.
- Problems with neighbors: many of these dark stores transform their environment from customer service to a use that we could consider more industrial. This implies different opening hours, traffic of goods, noise or, in cases such as dark kitchens, odors and other situations that generate conflict.
Now that you know what dark stores are, continue discovering concepts in our eCommerce Dictionary.