Russian food retailer X5 Retail Group has announced the opening of its 13,500th store, in Moscow. The outlet is a Perekrestok dark store and, therefore, will not be open to shoppers.
It will process orders placed online via perekrestok.ru for shoppers from Moscow and the surrounding region.
Dark stores are a new concept for the retail giant. Access to the 4,400-square-metre store will be limited to employees only, and it will be equipped to handle up to 20,000 SKUs.
At full capacity, the outlet will employ around 600 people and operate a fleet of 70 vehicles.
Expanding Online Business
The new dark store is set to boost Perekrestok's online capacity by 3.5 times.
Perekrestok's online presence was launched in April 2017. The event coincided with the opening of the supermarket chain's first hybrid store in Moscow, which operated as both a regular supermarket and a warehouse for picking online orders.
Currently, it serves around 1,000 online customers per day, with the average ticket exceeding RUB 3,000 (€39).
In the second quarter of this financial year, X5 reported an 18.4% year-on-year increase in net retail sales from new space, resulting from a 23.3% rise in selling space.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
