Dark Store Warehouse

This is a new trend in retail, where physical stores are used solely as fulfillment centers. Consumers order and pay for goods online but they pick up their merchandise at the store.

This strategy is being adopted by retailers who find themselves in a difficult situation of not having enough online sales to be profitable. These stores have found success by doing the opposite- using their physical stores to drive online sales.

A dark store warehouse is a brick-and-mortar store that has been repurposed to fulfill online orders in either the short term or long term.

The store will have all of the products available for sale and also a checkout counter, but none of the lighting, so customers can’t see any of their product choices.

The purpose of dark stores is to take advantage of lower rents and higher availability rates for retail space, as well as to cut down on shipping costs.