Insight / Blog

The business turning empty space into fulfilment centres


Posted on 1st October 2019

Retailers are piling into next/same-day delivery, led as usual by Amazon, but most retailers simply don’t have the fulfilment capacity or reach to offer a competitive proposition.

Enter Darkstore, a fulfilment solution which takes unused spaces or excess capacity in shopping centres, storage facilities and small convenience stores and allows retailers to utilise these as ‘dark stores’.

Using the Darkstore solution, brands can have local inventory right where they need it to fulfil much faster delivery times, often shipping for delivery the same-day.

Darkstore recently raised $21 million in Series B funding and currently operates in over 600 locations across 39 US cities, with plans to expand rapidly.

The concept is similar to using a retailer’s own stores as fulfilment locations, but instead outsources the storage and delivery to a third party. This will make it easier to set up quickly but retailers may want to have more control via in-house options as their own capabilities develop.

We’ve yet to see a comparable offering in the UK, but with private equity juggernauts like Blackstone recently announcing multi billion dollar bets on warehouse space in urban areas it’s likely a matter of time until similar businesses spring up in Europe.

(Header image credit TechCrunch)


Related articles

Important lessons from Leaders in Logistics 2024

Leaders in Logistics 24 dived into AI & automation, sustainability, changing ecommerce behaviours, emerging consumer expectations & predicted what the next decade had in store.

Postal results, reforms, and returns

Posts around the world are seeking reform, but how can they drive improved results in the short term?

5 Changes We Predict in eCommerce Delivery & Returns in 2024

Our predictions for 2024 in ecommerce delivery and returns, plus a roundup of our 2023 predictions.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of the latest industry trends, challenges and solutions.

Required

Doddle needs the contact information you provide to send you our monthly newsletter. You may unsubscribe at any time. Doddle will not sell your information to any 3rd parties. For more information, please review our Privacy Policy.

Wrong value for the component.
Required
Wrong value for the component.Wrong value for the component.Wrong value for the component.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.